Creating weather on a macross colony ship.

[kanorgreymane]

Kinda wondering how they create the weather on the colony ships, I know of the phenomenon where if a building is large enough oinsdie it can dvelop its own weather, but what if you wanted to create actual Spring, Summer, Fall and (egads) Winter? Is their weather control technology that good?

[MacrossMike]

May 5, 2014 15:01:45 GMT kanorgreymane said:

Kinda wondering how they create the weather on the colony ships, I know of the phenomenon where if a building is large enough oinsdie it can dvelop its own weather, but what if you wanted to create actual Spring, Summer, Fall and (egads) Winter? Is their weather control technology that good?

Short answer... kind of?

We don't know if this holds true for the much smaller Megaroad-class emigrant ships, but the New Macross-class and Island Cluster-class emigrant ships used by the 3rd-5th waves of emigrant fleets DO have the capacity to simulate weather and a seasonal cycle.  Those New Macross-class domeships are too small to have actual natural weather systems form in any sustainable way, but they simulate all kinds of weather by temperature control and precipitation management systems in the underside of the dome itself.  Other habitat ships that have appeared alongside New Macross-class colony ships have been shown with this capability too, most notably the Heaven-class cemeteries (prominently featured in Macross 7 Trash).  Precipitation like rain or snow is actually created by glorified sprinklers in the underside of the dome's surface, while the "sky", the sun, and cloud cover are mostly holographic projections on the inside surface of the dome.  Night is achieved simply by turning the hologram off after reducing its opacity... so the starfield outside the dome becomes the night sky.

Colossal bio-plant ships on the same model as the Island Cluster-class dome ships seen in Macross Frontier are so massive that they've actually got honest-to-goodness weather under the dome, which can be artificially controlled by managing air currents, humidity, and a plethora of other parameters.  With the dome's ceiling topping out at 2,000m, they have actual clouds even though the "sun" is just an artificial affair created by holographic projection.  Like their smaller predecessors, they can replicate most kinds of weather and a basic seasonal cycle... though they seem to forego extremes of weather that could be dangerous or impede daily life (like the snow storms we had this past winter).

[kanorgreymane]

:DYeah I can see that having the kind of weather we had this past winter would be a bitch. I figured some thing the size of Frontier would develop it's own weather, just wondering what other systems they may have.