February 2023 Challenge: PanOPTiCA 477315 alpha/beta

[jshoer]

Thankfully, our long-range spectra revealed oxygen atmospheres on not one, but two planets in this system, B and C. Obviously, this is great because we'll have air to breathe, but it also indicated the presence of vegetation. Indeed, as we approached, a robust vegetation signature appeared on C. There's some on B, along with liquid water, but it looks for the most part like a desert world. The outer worlds have a good number of icy moons and plenty of atmospheric water vapor, which we can use for fuel.

We still haven't managed to get good data off of the alien objects. Investigations will continue. I don't envy the Captain in her decision whether to establish a settlement first, or visit the transmitter array first...

### Latest WIP ###
February2023Challenge07.jpg

Today I detailed the ship with lights and hull discoloration/space weathering. I was looking for something else to add information content, so I came up with the idea of showing observed spectra for each world...that's a 400-700 nm spectrum, otherwise known as the visible spectrum, with overlaid reflection spectra of dirt/water/snow/vegetation and overlaid emission spectra for molecular oxygen/water vapor/a couple other elements. Unfortunately 400-700 nm is not great for distinguishing the vegetation from dirt from water; near-to-mid infrared shows a lot more obvious spectral features. But for a visual map I decided to stick to the visible spectrum. I toyed with the idea of stretching the actual range I showed (like red = 1200 nm), but I would have had to come up with some kind of indication of that.

Anyway, you can tell which planets have oxygen now!

Now I'm thinking...what else does this need? Or What's not working?