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Europa (Sol V-ii)
Galactography > Other Major Polities, Empires, and Meta-Empires > Solar Organisation
Galactography > Systems and Worlds > Systems & Worlds E - F
Galactography > Systems and Worlds > Systems & Worlds E - F
Europa | |
| Type | EuEuropan |
|---|---|
| Primary, Position | Jupiter, vi (all)/ii (Galilean only) |
| Primary, Distance from | 670,900 km |
| Satellites | None |
| Gravity | 3,138 km / 0.135 G |
| year | 3.551 days / 3.551 days (tidally locked) |
| Atmosphere | Minimal |
| Surface composition | Water Ice |
| Discovery | Jan 7, 1610 by Galileo Galilei |
| Terragen Landing | unmanned: 2012; manned : 2068 c.e. |
| Colonization Status | Closed (Europan Nation sovereign planet) |
| Population | Orbital: Europan 4 million Other sophonts 17 million |
| Administration | Solar Organisation member world |
| Government | Europan Nation (autonomous polity affiliated with the Solar Organisation) |
Industries: Biocrafts, traditional biotech, finance, tourism, extreme sports, simmimersion, waldoing, totalrecall
Sapients: About 6 million Europans (Europanthropus aquaticus) under the surface. On the surface about 500,000 sentients, mostly vecs, ais, and expert agents, along with a few heavily modified Europans (Europanthropus semiterrestralis) and a small number of superiors. In the orbitals about 20 million vecs, ais, expert agents, three species of Europans (Europanthropus aquaticus, E. semiterrestralis, and E. spatialis) several species of provolves (including a small number of Loligo sapiens who seem have an affection for their place of origin, they are accompanied by their Bitenic AI companions), and various clades of superiors and cyborgs.
Planetology: Holotype for EuEuropan Type of world. Europa, the third largest of the four Galilean moons, is slightly smaller than Luna. Its surface is a very smooth ice-sheet, as thick as 100km in places, marked by long, crisscrossing, bright or dark linea and low, scalloped ridges, and frozen sulphuric acid. Under this is the famous Europan ocean. On the nearside Jupiter dominates the sky.
History and Comments: Long believed to be a habitable home for life, Europa excited great interest during the Information and early Interplanetary Age. The predicted inner ocean was found to exist under the massive ice sheets, but turned out to be quite lifeless. A famous hoax perpetrated in 352 by White Fraction geneticists actually caused a media sensation until the real cause of the Europan organisms was uncovered. In the late 5th century Jovian Genetics & Adaptation began the process of tweaking organisms, including humanoids, to live in the Europan seas. Shortly after, the nanoswarms destroyed the terran habitats on the surface, but the geneered life survived and flourished in isolation, until being discovered some centuries later by the new Federation. The history of Europa then became the history of the relationship between the Europans (or Europeans) and the Federation "BeyondWorlders" as they were called by the Europan tweaks.
Eventually a multicultural interface developed on the surface, chiefly sociologists, biologists, and traders. Europa was accepted into the Federation as a member world with full planetary ownership. Nowdate the Europan oceans (which were never able to support a high population) are populated by only a small number of Europans; most of the population is on the surface, with a number of clades given freehold. However, the intense radiation of Jupiter requires massive shielding, and even the surface has never been populous.
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Development Notes
Text by M. Alan Kazlev
Initially published on 24 October 2001.
Initially published on 24 October 2001.
