Alterra

[dreamrider]

How they get into deep space operations you and I may never know.

https://www.alterramtnco.com/

[bongerman85]

corporate merging and portfolio diversification, companies that get large enough working with certain elements that are fringe that they are not even aware of. its the downfall of the jurassic world park. The owner of the company that operated the park was in weapons development and had no idea.

[dreamrider]

At least now we can expect a decent ski area in Sector Zero.

[Dermot]

being a money hungry corporation gets you everywhere

[Smith & Wesson Sales Rep.]

Publicado originalmente por hello:

being a money hungry corporation gets you everywhere

They can’t have too much money, they crashed a huge ship with many high-tech robots and other devices, along with taking the lives of many.

[dreamrider]

...and apparently scarcely missed it.

[Voodoojedizin]

Publicado originalmente por Phish:

Publicado originalmente por hello:

being a money hungry corporation gets you everywhere

They can’t have too much money, they crashed a huge ship with many high-tech robots and other devices, along with taking the lives of many.

They did not crash it, it was shot down, it is not a military spaceship is a civilian research and mining ship.

[dreamrider]

@Voodoojedizin,
Actually, it is a general purpose corporate space activities ship, AFWK a sort of exploration & survey frontier freighter. Maybe even a rather generic, if upscale, freighter. Possibly with a construction specialization. It was on a mission, NOT to do any mining or known goal-oriented research, but rather to set up a "phasegate" in a new section of space, whatever that means.

We have implications (not direct facts) from the closing sequences that a phasegate is something that is constructed in space. But that is not guaranteed. Nor do we know if a human "phasegate" can, sometimes, be ON a planet. We do know that constructing one is a major effort, that required the dedication of something the size of the Aurora, stuffed with all the necessary people and resources.

We don't know if a phasegate requires nearby planetary support. We can guess that it does, from the scope and nature of the equipment aboard Aurora.

We also know that the capabilities of the Aurora were broad or generic enough that Alterra had no hesitation to give her a secondary mission of survey en passant, search & rescue as needed, without modifying her loadout or configuration or personnel.

@Phish,
As for the impact of the loss of the Aurora, the general scope of evidence that we have about Alterra is that they are a hybrid corporate/national entity of many systems size, larger than a number of other star nations. While the Aurora was probably a reasonably important ship to them, the evidence would seem to be that she was just a drop in the bucket of Alterra's total corporate/national resources and spacefaring capabilities.

Also - We have no evidence of ANY robots aboard the Aurora. Its a little surprising, really.

[Xautos]

It wouldn't have been shot down if Alterra had paid any mind to the alien cannon the first time with a few probes of the planet. In effect they crashed a huge ship without doing any initial scans first.

[stevasaur]

Publicado originalmente por Xautos:

It wouldn't have been shot down if Alterra had paid any mind to the alien cannon the first time with a few probes of the planet. In effect they crashed a huge ship without doing any initial scans first.

Except...they were scanning the planet. You can find a recording from their sensor room in one of the wrecks in the Mushroom Forest. The Sunbeam also explicitly scans the planet in between their first and second call, and they didn't pick up the QEP until they were landing basically right on top of it. Same with the Degassi: they were able to detect the large mineral deposits in 4546B, but their crew apparently never found the QEP even after crashing.

If you're going to claim the Aurora crashed out of negligence, you'd need to assume that out of four known ships to encounter 4546B (Aurora, Sunbeam, Degassi and Mercury from Below Zero), none of them decided to scan the planet before entering orbit despite logs to the contrary. Much more likely that the QEP doesn't show up on standard scanners until it's powering up to fire.

[Xautos]

Publicado originalmente por stevasaur:

Publicado originalmente por Xautos:

It wouldn't have been shot down if Alterra had paid any mind to the alien cannon the first time with a few probes of the planet. In effect they crashed a huge ship without doing any initial scans first.

Except...they were scanning the planet. You can find a recording from their sensor room in one of the wrecks in the Mushroom Forest. The Sunbeam also explicitly scans the planet in between their first and second call, and they didn't pick up the QEP until they were landing basically right on top of it. Same with the Degassi: they were able to detect the large mineral deposits in 4546B, but their crew apparently never found the QEP even after crashing.

If you're going to claim the Aurora crashed out of negligence, you'd need to assume that out of four known ships to encounter 4546B (Aurora, Sunbeam, Degassi and Mercury from Below Zero), none of them decided to scan the planet before entering orbit. Much more likely that the QEP doesn't show up on standard scanners until it's powering up to fire.

then they weren't scanning hard enough or didn't have the right type of scanners and i mentioned probes that could be put in orbit.

With the more sensitive scanners found on science ships, probes and scout ships, they would of been able to pick up on things like the QEP even when powered down. an anomalous object on the planet and the moonpool bay underneath. it wouldn't take much to come up with an idea of what it was.

Alterra had all these resources and couldn't spare something dedicated to put around the planet first to do an intensive scan.

Also did the Aurora scan before they entered into the atmosphere, did their scanners have the ability to scan the entire planet or just small sections, were the scanners senstitive enough to pick up on things like this? Any captain worth his salt wouldn't take his ship into the planets atmosphere and risk everyones lives without at least being sure first.

The sunbeam was a small trading ship, it almost certainly wouldn't have the capability to scan in great detail.

[stevasaur]

Publicado originalmente por Xautos:

With the more sensitive scanners found on science ships, probes and scout ships, they would of been able to pick up on things like the QEP even when powered down. an anomalous object on the planet and the moonpool bay underneath. it wouldn't take much to come up with an idea of what it was.

[citation needed]. We know literally nothing about the Aurora's relative scanning capabilities compared to any other vehicle in the Subnautica universe. The only thing we know is that the PDA's entry for the Aurora includes "Advanced scanner suite," so interpret that how you will.

Also, planets are big. Finding a single building (which may or may not be hiding its presence) on a planet's surface is like noticing that one grain of sand on a beach is colored differently.

Now, if you know what you're looking for, (like, say, a ship with a known composition), then that's a different story. Because then you don't need to analyze every bounceback to figure out exactly what it is, you just need to look for pings that match the expected interaction between whatever radiation the Aurora's scanners are using and the target in question (such as the Degassi).

Publicado originalmente por Xautos:

Also did the Aurora scan before they entered into the atmosphere, did their scanners have the ability to scan the entire planet or just small sections, were the scanners senstitive enough to pick up on things like this? Any captain worth his salt wouldn't take his ship into the planets atmosphere and risk everyones lives without at least being sure first.

Without being sure of what? Do you insist on sweeping the sidewalk for mines every time you leave your house, just in case someone left a buried explosive there? "An alien race left behind an automated defense cannon made out of materials that we can't identify" isn't a reasonable thing to be looking out for.

[stevasaur]

Publicado originalmente por dreamrider:

@Voodoojedizin,

@Phish,
Also - We have no evidence of ANY robots aboard the Aurora. Its a little surprising, really.

Actually, there's at least one semi autonomous drone on board. His name's Albert, and he's possibly responsible for spacing all the frozen desserts from the cargo bay. :-)

[Smith & Wesson Sales Rep.]

Publicado originalmente por dreamrider:

Also - We have no evidence of ANY robots aboard the Aurora. Its a little surprising, really.

I’m talking about stuff like the PRAWN and Seamoth. I probably should have said vehicles, though.
I assume those are valuable, as they
1. Can only be made by Alterra and their devices
2. Seem very powerful (it takes a class not to feel all-powerful in a prawn suit) and
3. May not cost much to us but that’s because we have Alterra devices and our PDA has altered our recipes to those that can be found on 4546B. Now you may say that it probably was not altered because it’s the same materials as those on earth, but how do we know they are not made of more powerful materials that can be found on Earth, like steel?

[dreamrider]

...more powerful materials that can be found on Earth, like steel?

The following is a vast simplification of the metallurgy of titanium, but it clearly makes the pertinent point.
It is from the web site of Metinvest Holding, a large metals broker.

"Extra-hard alloys:
Its strength-weight ratio is almost double that of steel alloys. Its tensile strength to density ratio is the highest among all metals, beating tungsten, which, however, scores higher than titanium on the Mohs scale. That said, titanium alloys are durable and light. Aug 12, 2020"

We also have the evidence that, whatever the precise properties of the titanium alloys available to Alterra are 900 years from now, they did choose to make entire Freakin' Giant Interstellar Spaceships out of the stuff.

[Smith & Wesson Sales Rep.]

Publicado originalmente por dreamrider:

...more powerful materials that can be found on Earth, like steel?

The following is a vast simplification of the metallurgy of titanium, but it clearly makes the pertinent point.
It is from the web site of Metinvest Holding, a large metals broker.

"Extra-hard alloys:
Its strength-weight ratio is almost double that of steel alloys. Its tensile strength to density ratio is the highest among all metals, beating tungsten, which, however, scores higher than titanium on the Mohs scale. That said, titanium alloys are durable and light. Aug 12, 2020"

We also have the evidence that, whatever the precise properties of the titanium alloys available to Alterra are 900 years from now, they did choose to make entire Freakin' Giant Interstellar Spaceships out of the stuff.

Huh, that interesting. I mean to use steel as an example, though. I forget what exactly the vechicles are made of, but I’m sure some items could be changed around.