Make an Alien

[TheSealBrigade]

Hello KSP community, welcome to my thread. So, I'm interested in aliens. A lot of people are. In fact, astrobiology is my favorite study topic. When I was little, I'd turn some Earth animal into a horrific freak of nature in my mind. What a past-time that was. I present a thread that is completely dedicated to making alien creatures. There is no limit to complexity or detail. In fact, you could go off-the-walls hypothetical if you desire. And feel free to discuss the plausibility of these ideas if you are compelled to do so. Here we go!

AHEM

OK. Let's start with a cold planet, because I like snow (and why not?). My planet (Imlyanovor-Kai) is 1.5 AU away from a star very similar to our own; with a global temperature at around a nice -67 degrees Fahrenheit. A 100km band around the equator is the only habitable area on the planet, because the other parts are too cold to host complex life. About 12% of the surface is salty water, with bacteria that make it even harder to freeze.  The average temperature in the 'habitable zone' of the planet is 11 degrees Fahrenheit. With the basics aside, we can get to the fun part. Galgoria is an animal 6 ft tall from toes to the top of it's 'crest' (ill get to that), 15 ft long and weighs about 3 tons. The classification between reptile and mammal do not exist, as Galgoria lay eggs and have a body temperature independent from the environment. Galgoria are herbivores that graze in herds, like buffalo. This herd is 'led' more or less in a matriarchy, with a dominant female running the show. There is completion for matriarch, usually ending in death. Galgoria's tails are ended with a sharp bone structure that resembles a spear head. This weapon is used in the aforementioned competition and defense against predators. Galgoria are also quite plump, their fur covered bodies and stores of fat help keep them warm. The 'crest' I mentioned is a large curved plate of bone that curves in a quarter circle-ish manner from base of the neck to behind the shoulders of the front legs. These usually have swirling purple/red patterns for show and attracting mates. No two patterns are the same for each individual. I won't get into the reproductive cycle, because posting that on forums is not a good idea. 

a 

I hope you guys enjoy! Feel free to share your ideas. 

PS: I spelled it wrong in the picture  

PPS: I think @Spaceception would like this...

[Spaceception]

What's the gravity of the planet/star type/and atmospheric density?

 

Just wondering, but how did you know I'd like this?

 

I really like your planet btw.

 

And I'll make a planet submission in a couple hours.

Edited May 10, 2016 by Spaceception

[TheSealBrigade]

4 minutes ago, Spaceception said:

 

What's the gravity of the planet/star type/and atmospheric density?

 

The star is basically just like our sun, the atmosphere is Nitrogen,Carbon Dioxide, And Oxygen (66% O2). The gravity is 1.2g on the surface.

PS - Im a friend of Saurodye, although he isn't on a lot.

•  

Edited May 10, 2016 by TheSealBrigade

[PB666]

11 minutes ago, Spaceception said:

What's the gravity of the planet/star type/and atmospheric density?

 

Just wondering, but how did you know I'd like this?

 

27 minutes ago, TheSealBrigade said:

Hello KSP community, welcome to my thread. So, I'm interested in aliens. A lot of people are. In fact, astrobiology is my favorite study topic. When I was little, I'd turn some Earth animal into a horrific freak of nature in my mind. What a past-time that was. I present a thread that is completely dedicated to making alien creatures. There is no limit to complexity or detail. In fact, you could go off-the-walls hypothetical if you desire. And feel free to discuss the plausibility of these ideas if you are compelled to do so. Here we go!

AHEM

OK. Let's start with a cold planet, because I like snow (and why not?). My planet (Imlyanovor-Kai) is 1.5 AU away from a star very similar to our own; with a global temperature at around a nice -67 degrees Fahrenheit. A 100km band around the equator is the only habitable area on the planet, because the other parts are too cold to host complex life. About 12% of the surface is salty water, with bacteria that make it even harder to freeze.  The average temperature in the 'habitable zone' of the planet is 11 degrees Fahrenheit. With the basics aside, we can get to the fun part. Galgoria is an animal 6 ft tall from toes to the top of it's 'crest' (ill get to that), 15 ft long and weighs about 3 tons. The classification between reptile and mammal do not exist, as Galgoria lay eggs and have a body temperature independent from the environment. Galgoria are herbivores that graze in herds, like buffalo. This herd is 'led' more or less in a matriarchy, with a dominant female running the show. There is completion for matriarch, usually ending in death. Galgoria's tails are ended with a sharp bone structure that resembles a spear head. This weapon is used in the aforementioned competition and defense against predators. Galgoria are also quite plump, their fur covered bodies and stores of fat help keep them warm. The 'crest' I mentioned is a large curved plate of bone that curves in a quarter circle-ish manner from base of the neck to behind the shoulders of the front legs. These usually have swirling purple/red patterns for show and attracting mates. No two patterns are the same for each individual. I won't get into the reproductive cycle, because posting that on forums is not a good idea. 

a 

I hope you guys enjoy! Feel free to share your ideas. 

PS: I spelled it wrong in the picture  

PPS: I think @Spaceception would like this...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cotylorhynchus

[TheSealBrigade]

@PB666, Good comparison, but I really just used my imagination. I'm surprised at how similar the two are!

Edited May 11, 2016 by TheSealBrigade

[ProtoJeb21]

2 hours ago, TheSealBrigade said:

with a global temperature at around a nice -67 degrees Fahrenheit. A 100km band around the equator is the only habitable area on the planet, because the other parts are too cold to host complex life. About 12% of the surface is salty water, with bacteria that make it even harder to freeze.  The average temperature in the 'habitable zone' of the planet is 11 degrees Fahrenheit.

So you basically made a copy of Wolf-1061 d and plopped around a G-Type star? Good for me, then! I've created at least 10 possible organisms for that planet (which I nicknamed Normandy), so I can finally share some of my ideas for astrobiology.

[PB666]

25 minutes ago, TheSealBrigade said:

@PB666, Good comparison, but I really just used my imagination. I'm surprised at how similar the two are!

Herbivorous you say,mtry this one, about 90% of the land reptiles that survived the permain triassic CO2 spike were lystrosaurids, in about 10 million years they were completly extinct. There are models that have protrosions coming out of the back of the skull. 

 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lystrosaurus

 

[Bill Phil]

A small animal that, after human colonization, has a mutually beneficial symbiotic relationship with many bird species. The particular planet in question is much like Earth, but many lightyears away.

[Spaceception]

Here's my planet:

Lalande 21185d (I'm not very creative with names)

It's a tidally locked warm desert slightly smaller than Venus orbiting a M class star, it resides in the inner edge of the HZ, and has an atmosphere thinner than Earth's, despite this, the planets temperature is between -48 to 60 Celsius, depending on where you're at on the planet, life on this planet flourishes around the terminator, where there are small pools of liquid water, there isn't much water on the planet, it's in the thin atmosphere, a few small lakes, and an ice cap the size of the Indian ocean on the furthest back of the planet, it has a weaker magnetic field than Earth, and receives much more radiation than Earth, making the native life "extremophiles", the life on the planet came from another one slightly further out near the outer edge of the HZ, AKA, Panspermia.

Now onto the life.

The main life on this planet are small plants around the water pools, and small insects, The plants are bright red or bright pink, and extend less than a meter from the ground at there highest point, 'forests' of these planets don't get bigger than the footprint of a one story house, and insects, 'big and 'small' The insect couldn't fly very well, but were between the sizes of a fruit fly, and horse fly, all of them were herbivores, and ate the sap that came out of the 'trees'. The population was low, about 600 per water pool.

There was also life under the ice cap, small eels that ate bacteria, they couldn't get sunlight, so they lived near volcanic vents to keep warm.

 

So that's my Alien planet

[TheSealBrigade]

These are some nice Alien Planets! Keep it up!

[PB666]

How about this for an alien planet species. . . . . 

Alot more fun. 

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=sabre+tooth+cats&iax=1&ia=images

 

[TheSealBrigade]

I've got another planet for you all!

Tech De Ra

This is a sandy red planet, similar the Mars. It's orbiting a F class star; a bright bluish star. Tech De Ra orbits roughly 4.9 AU away from it's star, being on the inner edge of the habitable zone of a F class star. The plernert does have an axial tilt of 1.92 degrees, but it has no effect on climate. The surface is 24% water, the largest "ocean" is just 50km wide at most. Tech De Ra only has one biome: desert. Just sandy, red desert. But there is one thing that makes it interesting; the soil has a "high" concentration of URANIUM. And iron to make to soil red. Yeah. Anyway, the magnetic field is considerably strong, almost 3 times that of earth. The atmosphere is 87% nitrogen, 11% oxygen, and the rest is Carbon Dioxide and whatnot. Let's get to the fun part!

So, the life. The plants are pretty exotic, because despite being a sunny planet, photosynthesis is very few and very far between. In fact, the plants (which are purplish in color) use the heat from the decaying uranium in the soil! Their roots are specifically designed to covert heat into chemical energy via heat sensitive proteins in the cells. And, because uranium decays slowly, the plants grow slowly as well. And they give off bio-luminescence, just for fun. On to the animal life! The animal in mind is a small, turtle like creature that lives by the ponds. It's pretty boring, actually, but photosynthetic material on its shell help gather energy in times of angst or when it's starving. It's about the size of an average snapping turtle. It only spends it's time in water to mate, otherwise its hunting small vertebrae. 

That's it for now! Sadly, I don't have a picture at the moment  

Edited May 11, 2016 by TheSealBrigade
Added F class

[Spaceception]

16 minutes ago, TheSealBrigade said:

I've got another planet for you all!

Tech De Ra

This is a sandy red planet, similar the Mars. It's orbiting a B-2 class star; a bright bluish star. Tech De Ra orbits roughly 4.9 AU away from it's star, being on the inner edge of the habitable zone of a B-2 class star. The plernert does have an axial tilt of 1.92 degrees, but it has no effect on climate. The surface is 24% water, the largest "ocean" is just 50km wide at most. Tech De Ra only has one biome: desert. Just sandy, red desert. But there is one thing that makes it interesting; the soil has a "high" concentration of URANIUM. And iron to make to soil red. Yeah. Anyway, the magnetic field is considerably strong, almost 3 times that of earth. The atmosphere is 87% nitrogen, 11% oxygen, and the rest is Carbon Dioxide and whatnot. Let's get to the fun part!

So, the life. The plants are pretty exotic, because despite being a sunny planet, photosynthesis is very few and very far between. In fact, the plants (which are purplish in color) use the heat from the decaying uranium in the soil! Their roots are specifically designed to covert heat into chemical energy via heat sensitive proteins in the cells. And, because uranium decays slowly, the plants grow slowly as well. And they give off bio-luminescence, just for fun. On to the animal life! The animal in mind is a small, turtle like creature that lives by the ponds. It's pretty boring, actually, but photosynthetic material on its shell help gather energy in times of angst or when it's starving. It's about the size of an average snapping turtle. It only spends it's time in water to mate, otherwise its hunting small vertebrae. 

That's it for now! Sadly, I don't have a picture at the moment  

 

Great! But maybe you should at least put it around a bright F type star or dim A type star? I see what you're going for, but B class stars don't live nearly long enough for planets to properly develop, much less get life. And much much less, get complex plant and animal life.

Also, B2 class star? that's one of the shorter lived ones! It took 4.5 billion years for the Earth to form and life on Earth to develop,  and B class stars live for 10 to 100 million years.

 

Aside from that, great planet 

Edited May 11, 2016 by Spaceception

[TheSealBrigade]

1 hour ago, Spaceception said:

Also, B2 class star? that's one of the shorter lived ones! It took 4.5 billion years for the Earth to form and life on Earth to develop,  and B class stars live for 10 to 100 million years.

Oh! My mistake! I was going for a bright star, so I think a F class would be more fitting. Thank you!

[Spaceception]

Just now, TheSealBrigade said:

Oh! My mistake! I was going for a bright star, so I think a F class would be more fitting. Thank you!

No prob

[TheSealBrigade]

Jeez, Im full of ideas today!

Notogertasi (No-toe-jer-ta-see)

Mother-star - F class

Distance from star - 5.2 AU

Have you ever been in a warm bath tub? Not too hot, but just warm? Welcome to Notogertasi, a planet that's surface is 83% nice warm water. But it's not the tropical paradise it was cut out to be. Notogertasi's surface is veiled by clouds and hurricanes 98% of the time, with the temperature being 127 degrees Fahrenheit on a normal day. (the rain is around 90 degrees F). So it is not recommended you pack swim trunks, but instead a very sturdy raincoat (you also have to avoid dying of heat stroke). The storms blanketing the surface are usually very mild; a slight trickle at best. But, sometimes, the big bully comes around and casually uproots trees.

Im a little short on time, so I will post part 2 later.

[TheSealBrigade]

Notogertasi Part 2  IGNORE THIS IT'S IMPLAUSIBLE AND STUPID

Now that I can get around to it, lets get started. As I established, there is a lot of water.  The creature in my mind is as big as a Labrador retriever, and has a very flat tail for swimming. It's skin is very smooth, streamlined, and is actually a part of the respiratory system. Capillaries do the oxygen exchange under the skin. It spend it's time in water and land, usually in mated pairs. That all I have for now!

Edited May 12, 2016 by TheSealBrigade
It's stupid

[PB666]

1 hour ago, TheSealBrigade said:

Notogertasi Part 2

Now that I can get around to it, lets get started. As I established, there is a lot of water.  The creature in my mind is as big as a Labrador retriever, and has a very flat tail for swimming. It's skin is very smooth, streamlined, and is actually a part of the respiratory system. Capillaries do the oxygen exchange under the skin. It spend it's time in water and land, usually in mated pairs. That all I have for now!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Platypus, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beaver

I can make them bark if you want and slobber when they get excited, like a lab. The breathing through skin wont work for a labrador sized creature, it would have extreme difficult fleeing predators. Even open circulatory system is problematic. Note there is a land based size limit on arthropodan. The largest are generally noctural burrowing animals.

You need to use more imagination, you are recapitulating phylogeny.

How about a 3 legged diaphanous swamp walker that can blast is victims with Fresnel lens effect created by starlight passing through triagular shaped cells in the wings.

Edited May 12, 2016 by PB666

[TheSealBrigade]

18 minutes ago, PB666 said:

You need to use more imagination, you are recapitulating phylogeny.

Yeah, your right. The concept of Notogertasi is great in my opinion, but I guess that that creature was pretty boring and implausible. I would agree that I'm sticking too close to earthly life. And on a planet like Notogertasi, I guess that's pretty wrong of me to think that way. Hats off to you, @PB666!

 

24 minutes ago, PB666 said:

created by starlight passing through triagular shaped cells in the wings.

Well, I don't think that would work on a planet constantly covered with clouds...

[TheSealBrigade]

This is a rework, Lots of mistakes where made!

Notogertasi (No-toe-jer-ta-see)

Mother-star - F class

Distance from star - 5.2 AU

Have you ever been in a warm bath tub? Not too hot, but just warm? Welcome to Notogertasi, a planet that's surface is 83% nice warm water. But it's not the tropical paradise it was cut out to be. Notogertasi's surface is veiled by clouds and hurricanes 98% of the time, with the temperature being 127 degrees Fahrenheit on a normal day. (the rain is around 90 degrees F). So it is not recommended you pack swim trunks, but instead a very sturdy raincoat (you also have to avoid dying of heat stroke). The storms blanketing the surface are usually very mild; a slight trickle at best. But, sometimes, the big bully comes around and casually uproots trees.

The plants on Notogertasi are unusual along with everything else that has to do with the planet (including me). Since there is very little sunlight leaking through the storms, photosynthesis does not exist. Instead, the cells are designed to use nutrients in the soil and the ever present water to produce energy. Since soil can run low or completely out of nutrients, this plant is basically a large bladder with stored "food" for it. Animals usually feed on the nutrient rich insides of these plants. Most plants have these bladders, even the trees. The animal life is also strange. A 8ft tall, 3 legged creature with a large sack on it's back is a common sight. They use sonar to communicate and "see" their environment. This sack is actually it's stomach, directly attached to a long proboscis on it's 'head' (Or the sonar bulb and brain).  The proboscis is used to penetrate the plant bulbs and suck the nutrient rich material inside. The stomach is mounted on it's back, but for a reason. The bulb material is not that substantial, so a large stomach is needed to eat more and get the proper sustenance. That's the reason why the stomach is on it's back; its pretty damn large. There is also no defined gender. And the reproductive cycle is once again off limits.

That's it for now! Special thanks to @PB666

 

Edited May 12, 2016 by TheSealBrigade

[ProtoJeb21]

On 5/11/2016 at 4:32 AM, Spaceception said:

Lalande 21185d (I'm not very creative with names)

Well, looks like someone else has an interest in finding planets around Lalande 21185! I've picked out 20-30 target systems for the IRVEES imaging campaign, and 21185 is one of the 10 nearby stars that I want to investigate for planets. So your Lalande 21185 d may become a reality!

[ProtoJeb21]

Okay, so, PLANET TIME!

Name: BEROE (Moon of Asteroeidis, aka Kepler-16b)

Parameters:

• Radius of 3,800 miles.
• Mass 26% that of Earth
• Gravity of 0.4 gees.
• Decently thick atmosphere of oxygen, nitrogen, sodium, carbon, argon, and hydrogen.

Beroe, which is basically an Earthier version of Titan, takes 9.5 days to orbit Kepler-16b. It is tidally locked, so one day is 9.5 Earth days. Weird organisms would have to evolve to deal with such longs days a nights. One is the Mordor Mass Midget. It is a type of black, photosynthetic bacterium that dwells in Beroe's polar lakes. However, these little guys form huge groups known as Mordor Masses. They act as one organism to take in as much sunlight as they can while having pretty much the same amount of daylight all the time. Think of giant, flat, black versions of Man o' Wars that can cover entire lakes. 

The very long days on Beroe create giant wind storms around the moon's deserty equator. Another organism that can survive here is the Windcatcher. It is a plant-like being that using 8 strong "cables" of its body to cling onto the undersides of rocky outcrops. The Windcatcher's top contains something similar to a giant, flat leaf. But this "leaf" is nearly a foot long and has many pores about 10 millimeters in diameter. It picks up organic compounds and creature remains in the wind.

More coming soon!

[Spaceception]

37 minutes ago, ProtoJeb21 said:

Well, looks like someone else has an interest in finding planets around Lalande 21185! I've picked out 20-30 target systems for the IRVEES imaging campaign, and 21185 is one of the 10 nearby stars that I want to investigate for planets. So your Lalande 21185 d may become a reality!

FIND THEM!!! I WANT TO KNOW PLANETS ARE THERE!!

Also, for anyone who hasn't guessed yet, that's what the planet will be like in my Novel

[PB666]

12 hours ago, Spaceception said:

FIND THEM!!! I WANT TO KNOW PLANETS ARE THERE!!

Also, for anyone who hasn't guessed yet, that's what the planet will be like in my Novel

Oh boy.

[ProtoJeb21]

On 5/13/2016 at 9:17 PM, Spaceception said:

FIND THEM!!! I WANT TO KNOW PLANETS ARE THERE!!

Also, for anyone who hasn't guessed yet, that's what the planet will be like in my Novel

 

On 5/13/2016 at 9:42 AM, PB666 said:

Oh boy.

IRVEES: Project Lalande