From: bbbl67@spammenot.yahoo.com   
      
   On 29/01/2011 7:07 PM, Brad Templeton wrote:   
   > In article<4d3e7a12@news.bnb-lp.com>, Yousuf Khan  wrote:   
   >> If they'd only incorporated a little bit more of the science into the   
   >> fiction, Caprica might not have tanked. Too little too late, but still   
   >> interesting stuff.   
   >>   
   >> They came up with a quadruple star system configuration which hosts an   
   >> average of 3 planets each. Caprica&  Gemenon are twin planets, acting as   
   >> each other's moon. There are several gas giants in the system, with two   
   >> in the Jupiter size range, and the others in the Saturn and Neptune ranges.   
   >>   
   >> 	Yousuf Khan   
   >>   
   >   
   >   
   > I'm afraid I have become a bit more disappointed with Grazier.   Or perhaps   
   > with Moore.   
   >   
   > In the pilot of BSG, during the attack, there are reports coming in from   
   > various colonies.  There is a transponder looking for members of the cabinet   
   and   
   > asking them to call in, and nobody above Roslin answers.   Yet all fleet FTL   
   is   
   > offline due to the Cylon virus and they have no FTL radio.   
      
   I'm not sure how you got the idea that there was no FTL radio. The   
   reason that no cabinet members logged in to the transponder other than   
   Roslin was because everybody else was obviously dead.   
      
   > Now, other than brief glimpes seen in "Caprica" and a few other glimpses seen   
   > in "The Plan" and a few other flashbacks, that's about all we knew about   
   > Colonial structure and communications.    Other than showing us that one   
   planet   
   > is a moon or co-planet with Caprica, the Caprica series told us almost   
   nothing   
   > of the colonial layout.   
      
   Yes, that's true, but the entire Caprica experience seemed to be totally   
   minimize any hints that this was a science-fiction show at all. I   
   believe that's the entire reason behind its demise. And even whilst   
   minimizing the sci-fi aspect of fiction, it didn't really do a good job   
   of emphasizing the drama either.   
      
   > So that gives some leeway to the person drawing the map.   But in spite of   
   this   
   > we get a map where colonies are many light-months apart, and planets within   
   the   
   > 4 systems are going to be many light minutes and in a few cases possibly   
   light hours   
   > apart.    It's at odds with the very few things we get from the actual show.   
      
   As I said, I don't think we ever saw any confirmation about FTL radio or   
   not. I do think that with FTL radio, you would need boosters stations   
   along the way, therefore when the rag-tag fleet went searching for   
   Earth, they were completely outside of their communications grid which   
   would've allowed FTL radio communications outside of the colonies. But   
   for the most part, the rag-tag fleet was within visual distance of each   
   other, so they should be able to communicate in real-time with   
   light-speed communications.   
      
   > The only layouts I could think which fit with the geometry of the actual show   
   > would be perhaps 2 gas giants with several large atmosphere-bearing   
   satellites each,   
   > probably the result of a long ago terraforming when the lords of Kobol sent   
   the   
   > tribes there.   
      
   It's possible, it was certainly my own first thoughts. However, any moon   
   the size of Earth would be creating a colossal gravity well around the   
   gas giant and flinging all other smaller moons out of orbit there. And   
   having 12 of those Earth mass moons would be impossible. At best the 12   
   colonies would have to be located on Titan-sized moons in that case.   
      
   Even if you split the Earth-sized moons between two gas giants, it's   
   still too much. Plus having two gas giants in close enough proximity to   
   be both in the temperate zone of the star would mean that they would be   
   tugging at each other and pushing each other away from the temperate zones.   
      
   > To make it a bit better, I would have several colonies per planet, such as   
   one   
   > per continent.   One way to do that would be to have the inner gas giant and   
   planets   
   > be close to their star, so that only the poles of the planets were habitable,   
   > while the equatorial regions were too hot for people.  This would allow you   
   to   
   > have two "colonies" on the same planet and think of it in your mind as two   
   worlds.   
   > (To thus, one inner gas giant with 4 moons with 8 colonies on them, and one   
   outer   
   > gas giant with 4 moons with 4 equatorial colonies -- this is something you   
   could   
   > pull off.)   
      
   Yeah, but they were specifically talking about separate planets per   
   colony. Even if you have continental colonies rather than planetary   
   colonies, with their level of technology, they could easily fly from one   
   continent to another inside the atmosphere, don't need spaceships for that.   
      
   > While the colonies around the same gas giant would be light seconds apart,   
   each of   
   > the two would  be many light minutes apart, possibly a light hour depending   
   on   
   > the brightness of the star.     That's still OK to fit with the story if you   
   > imagine the attack took place when the 2 systems were close to one another, a   
   > few light minutes apart.   
   >   
   >   
   > But this map?  It just does not match even the little we know.   
      
   I think if we assume FTL communications is possible with their   
   technology, then it all makes sense.   
      
   	Yousuf Khan   
      
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