Refocusing on Ishee, which is more Black Rock-like than ever! (Traveller Tuesday #15)

We're gonna focus back on Ishee as we get into some of the more technical aspects of planetology, starting with determining the density of the planet. Well, before we do that, we have to determine what kind of planet it is. The planet's size and atmosphere pull in opposite directions in this determination, resulting in a roll of 2d6-1. That results in a 7, which means that it's a molten-core planet. We go on to roll 3d6 to determine it's actual density, which comes out to 98% of Earth's density. Ishee's really coming out as a rather nice place to live!

This allows us to then calculate the mass of the planet, using the formula M=K*(R/8)³. That's the quotient of Ishee's Size digit (2) divided by eight, cubed, multiplied by its density. That comes out to a mass of . . . 1.53125% of Earth's. Well, it is much smaller, even if its composition is similar. Ishee's gravity is then determined by another formula: G=M*(64/R²) (the quotient of 64 divided by the square of the Size digit multiplied by the mass). We figure out that Ishee's gravity is 0.245 g, about ¼ of Earth's.

α Bishop Sheumack being a K7 V star, it has a stellar mass 40.8% of Sol's, so rather a bit smaller. This is likely balanced out, however, by Ishee's extreme closeness to its sun; it's only 0.2 AU away. Putting this together like so, P = √(D³/M) (the square root of the quotient of the distance cubed divided by the star's mass, we determine its orbital period (a.k.a., its year) to be 51 Earth-days, 3 hours, 29 minutes, and about 7.888 seconds. We return to the dice to determine if and how many satellites orbit Ishee ~ 1d6-3 comes out with 3 moons! Their size is a 2-1d6 roll, which comes out less than 0 in all cases, leaving them all Size 0 (if the roll had come out 0 exactly, the satellite would have been a ring). We roll 2d6 twice for each to determine their orbits. Two 9s place one satellite 50 radii from the planet (76,000 km), while another moon is placed at 65 radii (98,800 km) by a 9 and a 12 and the last rolls a 5 and a 10, putting it 11 radii (16,720 km) from Ishee.

Now we can roll the dWikipedia to help us name them. In order, we'll call them Amon Assemon (Ishee-A), Fantome (Ishee-B), and New Malta (Ishee-C).

We also determine Ishee itself's rotational period (a.k.a., day) by using the formula P = (A*4) + 5 + M/D, the sum of 2d6-2 quadrupled, 5, and the quotient of the sun's mass divided by the planet's distance from it. A roll of 3 means that Ishee's day is 19 Earth-days, 57 minutes, and 36 seconds, which is approximately three-eighths of the year. An Isheean year is, very roughly, 2½ Isheean days. We roll a 6 to see what kind of axial tilt (and therefore, seasons) Ishee experiences. A follow-up 2d6-2 roll gives us a final tilt of 21º (2½ degrees more vertical then Earth's. Not shabby. And it brings up an image of α Bishop Sheumack not only loop-de-looping across the sky, but actually running a literal circle around its companion star every so often (after all, they'd move differently across the Isheean sky).

We roll 7 on 2d6 to find out that there is no eccentricity to Ishee's orbit, which will also have an effect on things like seasons and whatnot. This brings us to determining the planet's seismic stress factor, measuring how much tension and force is involved in the movements of its tectonic plates and such. The formula is F=X+P+M+S (which looks simple, but is a bit difficult to turn into a verbal description, as the latter two factors involve some math as well). We roll 1d6-3 twice, resulting in 2 and 3. We also need to determine the exact diameters of Ishee's three moons, using the method described for the planets in an earlier post. Amon Assemon comes out as 1280 km in diameter, Fantome as 480 km, and New Malta 1440 km. The final result is a seismic stress factor of about 9.354.

Ishee's Atmosphere of 6 means that its atmosphere is a standard nitrogen-oxygen mix, with only very minor differences from Earth's, and a 4 on 2d6 tells us that its pressure at the surface is 85% of Earth's ~ thin enough to be felt, I'd imagine! We also determine that α Bishop Sheumack is just less than half as bright as Sol (49.8%). This is then modified by β Bishop Sheumack on the other side of Ishee's orbit, which adds about 0.008 to α Bishop Sheumack's for an effective luminosity of 0.506. Ishee's orbit factor (a variable used in temperature calculations based on the planet's distance from its sun) is 836.345. A roll of 2d6-5 lets us approximate Ishee's surface water: a 1 means that between 6% and 15% of the world's surface is covered in water. This is the first crack in Ishee's seemingly perfect environment ~ it's a very, very dry world. It does strengthen Ishee's resonances with Black Rock City, though! This gives Ishee an energy absorption of 0.9, and its atmosphere alone gives it a greenhouse effect of 1.1. We can now determine the base temperature on Ishee, a starting point for (and thus, a vague idea of) the temperature on the planet. Many more factors effect it, such as latitude and time of day and season, obviously. To work it out, we just multiply the effective luminosity, orbit factor, energy absorption, and greenhouse effect all together. The result comes out to 418.959º K. That works out to 145.959º C, or 294.7262º F. I'm not gonna try to work out the details of Ishee's temperature right now, but I doubt there will be many long strolls in a T-shirt and skirt here on Ishee, sadly. It's just too hot.

Ishee's bUWP is now α-3D-0704-α0 (α Greve-Eau Pleine-α Bishop Scheumack-Ishee)/E261774-?/X/LG-Ri/Em