BNBG - 6 Billion (The Planets & The Asteroid Belt)

6 Billion™ - The Game Of The New Millennium

The Planets & The Asteroid Belt - Design Notes For 6 Billion™

Read the Design & Production of 6 Billion™ for an design overview of 6 Billion™. The article that follows has a different focus, concentrating on why and how I decided upon the upper population limits and free doubling limits for each of the 10 population tracks.

First, some facts, sourced mainly from the 1997 edition of Philip's Atlas Of The Universe by Patrick Moore :

Planet / Asteroid Belt	Mean distance from Sun (millions km)	Diameter (km)	Surface Gravity (Earth =1)	Surface Temperature (ºC)	Other Notes
Mercury	57.9	4878	0.38	+427	No atmosphere. Densest planet. Heavily cratered Ice at Northern pole
Venus	108.2	12,104	0.90	+480	90 x Earth's atmosphere, rich in Sulphuric Acid No surface water Highly volcanic
Earth	149.6	12,756	1.00	+22	Lovely The Moon, diameter 3,476km Population = 6 billion
Mars	227.9	6794	0.38	-23	Polar caps Olympus Mons, highest (extinct) volcano. 2 tiny moons
Asteroid Belt	Various	Largest 3: (55% total mass) Ceres=940 Pallas=580 Vesta=576	Micro	?	Orbital paths of 5,000 are known. There may be as many as 500,000 NEA bodies over 100 meters!!! So, how many in the main Belt? Carbonaceous, siliceous & metal-rich. 825 quintillion tons of iron alone!
Jupiter	778	143,884	2.64	-150	Gas giant. Atmosphere 95% Hydrogen / Helium, 1000km deep. Produces strong radio waves. Great Red Spot Central core 30,000 C Small ring system 16 moons with Io, Europa, Ganymede & Callisto all over 3,000km in diameter.
Saturn	1427	120,536	1.16	-180	Gas giant. Atmosphere of 90% Hydrogen / Helium. Magnetic field 1,000 x Earth's. Central core 15,000 C Large ring system 18 moons with Titan by far the biggest. Tethys, Dione, Rhea & Iapetus all over 1,000km in diameter.
Uranus	2870	51,118	1.17	-214	Ice giant. Liquid water / water-ice ocean. Atmosphere of Ammonia & Methane, with Hydrogen / Helium above that. No internal heat. Small ring system Axial tilt at 90% 15 moons with Ariel, Umbriel, Titania & Oberon all over 1,000km in diameter.
Neptune	4497	50,538	1.20	-220	Ice giant. Planetary ices, such as water-ice. Atmosphere of Hydrogen / Helium / Methane. White clouds, very windy. Strong internal heat. Tiny ring system 8 moons, with Triton (2,705km diameter) much the largest. Kuiper Belt Objects identified between Neptune & Pluto.
Pluto	5900	2324	0.06	-230	Ice dwarf. Eccentric orbit, inclined 17 degrees. 1 large moon, Charon, with diameter of 1,270km, only 20,000km from Pluto.

Bear in mind that 6 Billion™ uses the exponential series 1, 2, 4, 8 etc to reflect population doubling, and I'd decided that no planet was going to be excluded from having a population. Hence, all population tracks use numbers in this series. And here are the figures from 6 Billion™ :

Planet / Asteroid Belt	Population Upper Limit (billions)	Population Free Doubling Limit (billions)	Notes - why live there? 6 Billion™ assumes space habitats and surface dome habitats become a reality, with all the required technologies to make that happen.
Mercury	8	1	Orbiting space habitats unlikely - too close to Sun. Just ask Icarus... Surface domes unlikely - too close to Sun. A tan in 5 seconds... Underground mining colony only? Penal colony? Tax Haven? Base for Solar Energy collection. Most likely site for anti-matter production thanks to abundant sunlight and vacuum. A tough place to live, even in space... hence the X2 qualifier in the holding box and the low free doubling limit.
Venus	128	16	Popular for orbiting habitats, good Solar energy. Long-term terraforming might allow surface colony and restoration of oceans... Close to the Earth, always an advantage...
Earth	1024	128	Most likely location for orbiting space habitats, good Solar energy. The Moon is large, and suitable for surface domes and mining activity. If we could live in space, many would choose a view of Earth...
Mars	256	32	After Earth (including the Moon), the next most likely surface colony. Polar caps provide water. Very popular choice for terraforming ideas. A good candidate for a Space Elevator. Orbiting space habitats and Phobos & Deimos. Close to the Earth, always an advantage..
Asteroid Belt	1024	No limit	Staggering abundance of resources (hence no free doubling limit), including ice, rock and metals. Micro gravity an advantage to mining / trade activities. Still close enough to Sun for useable Solar energy. Countless hollowed-out asteroids as space habitats, hence the high upper limit.
Jupiter	128	16	Surface colonies on several satellites and Trojan asteroids. Space habitats. Highly varied moons, large beautiful planet. Downside - a long way from Earth...
Saturn	128	16	Surface colonies on several satellites; Titan even has a thick atmosphere. Stunning ring system. Space habitats. Downside - a long way from Earth...
Uranus	64	8	Surface colonies on several satellites. Space habitats for Helium-3 atmosphere mining. Downside - even further away from Earth...
Neptune	64	8	Surface colonies on several satellites. Space habitats for Helium-3 atmosphere mining. Kuiper Belt Objects (KBOs) "factored in" and other Trans-Neptunian Objects (TNOs) factored into Neptune. The moon Triton is believed to be a captured KBO. Downside - even further away from Earth...
Pluto	32	4	Surface colony, plus surface colony on Charon. Plenty of useful ice. Staging post before leaving Solar System. Outpost for Oort Cloud mining operations. Tax-haven? Penal Colony? Otherwise, who'd want to live there? Hence the X2 qualifier in the holding box. That, and the harsh conditions so far from the Sun and Earth. Often regarded as a Kuiper Belt Object, Pluto is - for the moment- officially regarded as a planet. Refer Wikipedia - Definition of a planet

Kuiper Belt Objects

The Kuiper Belt Objects include such large objects as:

Name	Distance	Diameter
2003 UB313 ("Xena")	16 billion km	2,900 km
2003 EL61	Unknown	1,500 km
2004 DW	6.9 billion km	1,600 km
2005 FY9 ("Easterbunny")	6.85 billion km	1162-1743 km
Quaoar	5.95 billion km	1,250 km
Sedna	12.9 billion km	1,600 km

A Kuiper Belt variant for 6 Billion™ is available.

Further reading:

The Planets (based on the BBC series) - David McNab and James Younger
The Snows Of Mons Olympus - Arthur C. Clarke
Visions Of Space - David A. Hardy
The Case For Mars - Robert Zubrin
Islands In The Sky (Bold New Ideas for Colonising Space) - Edited by Stanley Schmidt and Robert Zubrin
The Millennial Project (Colonising The Galaxy In Eight Easy Steps) - Marshall T. Savage
Mining The Sky (Untold Riches from the Asteroids, Comets and Planets) - John S. Lewis
Pale Blue Dot (A Vision Of The Human Future In Space) - Carl Sagan
The Giant Leap (Mankind Heads For The Stars) - Adrian Berry
The High Frontier (Human Colonies In Space) - Gerard K. O'Neill
Our Cosmic Future (Humanity's fate in the Universe) - Nikos Prantzos
The Road To The Stars - Iain Nicolson
Journey To The Stars (Space Exploration - Tomorrow And Beyond) - Robert Jastrow
The Universe In Space And Time - Prof. Van Den Bergh
In The Centre Of Immensities - Bernard Lovell

Meet The Planets - Time Magazine 31st October, 2005 - article by Michael D. Lemonick

The Singularity by Vernor Vinge

Konstanin Tsiolkovsky, who said "Humanity will not remain on the Earth forever, but in the pursuit of light and space will at first timidly penetrate beyond the limits of the atmosphere, and then will conquer all the space around the Sun." (August 12,1911)

The World, the Flesh & the Devil (An Enquiry into the Future of the Three Enemies of the Rational Soul) by J D Bernal (written in 1929)

Wikipedia - article on Kuiper Belt

Wikipedia - Definition of a planet

For an idea of travel times within the Solar System, read this Crude Guide To Travel Times in The Solar System. For a list of articles by me, see the Articles page.

Last modified: August 07, 1999