ALIEN: The Weyland-Yutani Report (S.D. Perry, 160 pages)

[Local Trouble]

How do you know Thedus isn't a fully terraformed, fully self-sustaining colony world in its own right?  If it's such a treasure trove of mineral ore, it seems to me that Weyland-Yutani would have started there long before turning its attention to LV-426.

[Engineer]

How do you know Thedus isn't a fully terraformed, fully self-sustaining colony world in its own right?  If it's such a treasure trove of mineral ore, it seems to me that Weyland-Yutani would have started there long before turning their attention to LV-426.

Truth is, I don't know that... But to give a possible reason why it might not be: perhaps it's toxic or something. Do we know anything about the thedus system? What if it's a planet nearby or orbiting a pulsar (that scenario exists), which floods radiation over the system. If that were the case no terraforming of thedus could ever possibly happen and that radiation bombardment could also be what creates an abundance of an otherwise rare isotope being mined there...

Again this is all just made up speculation on my part.

And would require some pretty heavy duty radiation shields to even mine in the first place! Lol

[Local Trouble]

You may be right.  For all we know, Thedus could be like Fiorina.  Bottom line is we don't know much of anything about it besides its approximate distance from Earth.

[SM]

Honestly, I was Primarily thinking that restocking would be better for thedus. It'd be more desirable to travel half way back to earth to get supplies rather than all the way...

Fair enough.

[Engineer]

You may be right.  For all we know, Thedus could be like Fiorina.  Bottom line is we don't know much of anything about it besides its approximate distance from Earth.

Do you have any rationales for why we'd ever mine that far away? Or decide to setup a colony on a rock like lv-426? Just curious if you have your own theories or ideas about it...

... Personally, I had never really thought about it until now! :-)

[Local Trouble]

Do you have any rationales for why we'd ever mine that far away?

Nothing specific.  As I've stated over and over, it must have something exotic worth mining or else the company wouldn't bother co-financing a colony there.

Or decide to setup a colony on a rock like lv-426? Just curious if you have your own theories or ideas about it...

Real estate will always be valuable and extraterrestrial colonization is considered by many to be crucial to the survival of our species.  That's presumably why the ECA exists in the Alienverse.

As for why they'd bother with a rock like LV-426, I suppose it's because it met certain criteria that made it suitable for terraforming.  We need more than a breathable atmosphere in order to live somewhere.  Gravity, temperature and the availability of water are also important considerations. 

[Engineer]

Or... Maybe they're mining for trimonite ;-)

(Totally looked that up on xenopedia; I was curious about lv-178 and if it's location is specified... Still haven't actually read those books :-/ just listened to the one audio drama).

Do you have any rationales for why we'd ever mine that far away?

Nothing specific.  As I've stated over and over, it must have something exotic worth mining or else the company wouldn't bother co-financing a colony there.

Or decide to setup a colony on a rock like lv-426? Just curious if you have your own theories or ideas about it...

Real estate will always be valuable and extraterrestrial colonization is considered by many to be crucial to the survival of our species.  That's presumably why the ECA exists in the Alienverse.

As for why they'd bother with a rock like LV-426, I suppose it's because it met certain criteria that made it suitable for terraforming.  We need more than a breathable atmosphere in order to live somewhere.  Gravity, temperature and the availability of water are also important considerations.

Gotchya

[Nostromo]

You may be right.  For all we know, Thedus could be like Fiorina.  Bottom line is we don't know much of anything about it besides its approximate distance from Earth.

Do you have any rationales for why we'd ever mine that far away? Or decide to setup a colony on a rock like lv-426? Just curious if you have your own theories or ideas about it...

... Personally, I had never really thought about it until now! :-)

What if Weyland Yutani got so filthy rich with its Android monopoly and other industries, that it stopped caring about money as much...and instead went on an exploration and expansion run... just throwing ideas don't shoot me lol.

Or maybe they found some type of Alien tech that led them to the planets they are at and setting mining posts as fronts or to make money to fund their exploration. It is kind of crazy to go so deep in space for palladium and other minerals...

Maybe Weyland wrote in his will this was the direction he wanted the companyto take and left someone close to him and his ideas as CEO.. 

[Xenomrph]

You wouldn't be able to mine this mystery substance due to its density, not to mention the only way for it to exist is for it to be artificially created. Beyond that, its discovery would be the scientific find of the century - to find an entire dwarf planet made up (or even partially made up) of a seemingly stable form of an element heretofore undiscovered would be monumental. You'd have science teams swarming all over it, Solaris-style, not ignored for decades and then eventually colonized by a bunch of miners.

Sure.

If it was the first of its kind to be discovered.  Maybe it wasn't.  Maybe the company found planet(oid)s just like it all over the galaxy and it's not a new discovery.  Maybe Thedus is one of them.

Maybe it's old hat, just like the "monumental" scientific discovery that the capability to travel faster than the speed of light must have been.

You'd think any of the movies (or anything else) would indicate that, then. Even a throwaway line like "oh, another world made of Unobtanium". But instead we don't just get nothing, we get information that directly contradicts it: a hundred colonists sent to mine something conventional, and a planet described as having "a metal core".

Still waiting for a list of all the things the CMTM got right.  I admit that it's an entertaining read, but an accurate source of information from the films it's not.

And I'm still waiting for an answer on that PM I sent you. I guess we'll both keep waiting.

Earth could have reached a point where resources can no longer be produced. In order to get the immense amount of resources that humanity requires they may have to look to distant planets rich in the resources needed.

Agreed, on the condition that said resources can't be found in our own solar system.  See the link I posted above.

Who says things being mined on other planets are all being shipped to Earth? Sure the Nostromo was tugging stuff from Thedus to Earth, but that doesn't mean *all* mining eventually goes to Earth. Perhaps it goes to support other colonies elsewhere? Logistics is rarely a one-way street.

Neither do I, but it's apparent to me that the CMTM is still considered authoritative by a segment of the fanbase (albeit a small one).

Quite a bit more than "a small one", the CMTM gets regularly referenced by other materials that come out (including the WYR, as mentioned). Hell, the recent Aliens pinball table references it, as do the NECA "Cinemachines" packaging. I think you're drastically underselling the impact the CMTM has had on "the lore", simply because you're biased against it.

Do you have any rationales for why we'd ever mine that far away?

Nothing specific.  As I've stated over and over, it must have something exotic worth mining or else the company wouldn't bother co-financing a colony there.

Or decide to setup a colony on a rock like lv-426? Just curious if you have your own theories or ideas about it...

Real estate will always be valuable and extraterrestrial colonization is considered by many to be crucial to the survival of our species.  That's presumably why the ECA exists in the Alienverse.

As for why they'd bother with a rock like LV-426, I suppose it's because it met certain criteria that made it suitable for terraforming.  We need more than a breathable atmosphere in order to live somewhere.  Gravity, temperature and the availability of water are also important considerations. 

The mining could merely be a side project, with the colony's overarching long-term purpose being as a stepping-stone to even more colonization - "real estate" like you mentioned. Mining could merely be a means to offset the costs, as well as giving the colonists something to do in the long term as they reproduce.

Which leads to a bit of another problem with LV-426 and LV-223 being in the same system: based on what we see of each in the movies, one of them is much, much more appealing for colonization than the other, and it ain't LV-426.

[Engineer]

Forgive me for missing the beginning of this debate, but why is there a discussion about whether lv-223 and lv-426 are in the same system? Does it say they are in one of the books or something? I'd imagine if its stated anywhere it would have been "fire and stone" or the weyland-yutani report...

[Local Trouble]

Gotchya

How so? 

[426Buddy]

Gotchya

How so?

I think he means that he understands what you're saying. Not that he "got you" somehow.

[Engineer]

Gotchya

How so?

I think he means that he understands what you're saying. Not that he "got you" somehow.

Yea, sorry, that's what I meant... I understand. Didn't mean to cause any confusion. Haha

[SM]

Forgive me for missing the beginning of this debate, but why is there a discussion about whether lv-223 and lv-426 are in the same system? Does it say they are in one of the books or something? I'd imagine if its stated anywhere it would have been "fire and stone" or the weyland-yutani report...

WYR, Fire & Stone and the Prometheus Blu-ray content all say they're in the same system, orbiting the same planet.

[Local Trouble]

You'd think any of the movies (or anything else) would indicate that, then. Even a throwaway line like "oh, another world made of Unobtanium". But instead we don't just get nothing, we get information that directly contradicts it: a hundred colonists sent to mine something conventional, and a planet described as having "a metal core".

When was it ever stated that the colonists were there to mine something conventional?  Why do you assume that a planetoid full of unobtanium would be any more noteworthy among a crew of 22nd century space truckers than the miracle of FTL space travel is?  What you and I consider amazing today could be relatively mundane to our descendants a hundred years from now.

Neither do I, but it's apparent to me that the CMTM is still considered authoritative by a segment of the fanbase (albeit a small one).

Quite a bit more than "a small one", the CMTM gets regularly referenced by other materials that come out (including the WYR, as mentioned). Hell, the recent Aliens pinball table references it, as do the NECA "Cinemachines" packaging. I think you're drastically underselling the impact the CMTM has had on "the lore", simply because you're biased against it.

Fair enough.

However, I don't consider myself biased against it so much as I don't take it as an authoritative reference due to the mistakes it contains.  I no more rely on the CMTM than I would a dictionary full of misspelled words.