Terrasculpting

Description

Template:Infobox TechnologyTerrasculpting is the act of willingly morphing a planet's landscape, whether it be for vanity purposes, strategic purposes, or population purposes.

Ever since the Thulcandran Federation formed, they have been especially keen on the aspect of terrasculpting. Many of their planets, designed to look fashionable, have been terrasculpted for the purpose of vanity, much like other planets which undergo terrasculpting. These make the Thulcandran Federation fairly unique, since not many other nations use it for so much vanity.

This technology does not really belong to a set object or device, but it is more or less a process. The process usually includes massive mining devices on the surface, orbital lasers, and fleets of construction and excavation drones. The first editions of terrasculpting were crude, but they eventually got better with routines and safer procedures.

This technology has been used since to create planets with customized islands and coastlines, sometimes with various messages being carved or placed on the surface. as well as recreating worlds that had been destroyed. The terrasculpting technology is useful for "sculpting" worlds, and is normally done on lifeless worlds. However, as previously mentioned, there are still possible areas to perform terrasculpting on lively worlds.

Terraforming comes in many forms, including creating land, changing the shorelines, and lowering mountains. Any further processes, like changing sea level, is considered to be a kind of terraforming, which is fairly different to terrasculpting. Terrasculpting technically extends into a planet's orbit, if the planet contains any kind of ring system. Rings are also changed to act fashionable, and it is a delicate process which could take many decades to fully complete.

Terrasculpting Gas Giants

Gas giant terrasculpting is much different, and usually consists of changing the deep network of shifting clouds. This requires a lot of work, and it is usually reserved for adding vanity-like objects to a gas giant's clouds. Different colored ases are intentionally released into low pressure areas, making storms pop out and make the planet appear more attractive. This is especially done on featureless ice giants, which turn into vibrant and rather fast-paces planets via terrasculpting. Technically, Jupiter is classified as a terrasculpted gas giant, since its famous red spot has been revived and maintained for touristic and vanity purposes.

Usual Process

In order to carve a world, there is a rigorous selection process that must take place beforehand. The main objective is to find a world that fits the specs of that is being created within an acceptable margin. Planets outside of terrasculpting specifications usually include low density, weak planets which often overreact to the terrasculpting process. High density and high gravity planets are a bit more favorable, since they can take the energy of heavy-duty lasers a bit better. However, they are still uncomfortable for many lower gravity species to live.

Next, large and powerful lasers are brought into orbit. Depending on the size of the planet, the lasers will either carve out some of the planet's mass or massive stockpiles of stone and soil will be imported to add mass. When the desired mass is achieved, then the lasers are programmed and begin to sculpt the world below. With the help of powerful tractor beams, any excess mass is either moved off the planet or moved to a place where it is needed. Once the rough cuts are done, the lasers are fine tuned and focus on any more detailed cuts.