Terraforming for dummies 3/4

Previous/Next

Terraforming For Dummies: Chapter 10 - Water

Poke yourself. Go on, poke yourself. Feel that squishy part? That's water!

You may not realize it, but your body is mostly just a big fleshy sack of water. That's right: regular old water. And to survive the harsh climates of your new home, you're gonna need a lot of it!

Fortunately for you, our proprietary Terranova Impossa-containment® Compression System allows you to store large quantities of water in small spaces. Now you can bring along enough water for yourself, your family, and your crops. You'll be practically drowning it in!

Water can be used for all kinds of things, both big and small: You may think you're already familiar with water, but let us assure you: dealing with water inside the cozy confines of your interstellar spaceship is quite different from dealing with it in a terraforming environment. Follow these protips to get maximum use out of your water supply: Remember, the fine folks at Terranova spent a lot of time and money getting that water into all those Impossa-containment® Compression canisters, so don't waste it!
 * Drinking
 * Eating (frozen form only)
 * Washing dishes
 * Staying alive
 * Floating
 * Building complex hydraulic systems
 * Splashing things
 * Finding the level of a surface (Note: does not apply on non-standard gravitational bodies)
 * Drowning sandworms to create awareness-spectrum narcotics (extreme desert planets only)
 * Literally making it rain
 * Don't drop your water on the ground or other non-contained surface. It will disappear and be very difficult to collect again.
 * Don't drink too much water. Or too little. Except if you eat a lot of salt, in which case drink more than normal. But not too much, or you'll get hyponatremia. Basically, always drink the exact correct amount of water or you may die.
 * Don't drink your own urine. Urine may look and feel like water, but trust us: it's water's smellier, less-refreshing cousin.
 * Don't be afraid of water falling on your from great heights. This is called rain, and it's perfectly normal. It won't crush you. (Note: disregard if living on extreme gravitational bodies, in which case it will crush you)
 * Do put water on your plants. It will make them grow bigger. They're practically addicted to the stuff!
 * Don't put water on any electronics. It will not make them grow. We realize this is confusing, but just trust us here.
 * Do put large amounts of water into elongated trenches. These are called &quot;rivers&quot;. They can be very useful for transporting goods, or for personal travel, or for dumping toxic waste into.
 * Don't panic if your water suddenly becomes hard instead of all squishy. Apply heat and it will return to it's regular form. But not too much heat, or it will disappear. Really, you should keep it strictly between 0 and 100 degrees Celsius at all times. Water can be a pain in the neck like that.