Why Do They Live on a Desert Planet?

[D. Gray Warrior]

I presented an idea for a conworld set on a desert world, and someone brought up that no one would live there, it would be terraformed if that is the case, and a desert planet could not sustain civilization.

My world is a futuristic setting with humans settling the planet. What about the planet would make it worth people settling it for? If they have space travel, then why don't they terraform it?

Now, the world isn't entirely desert, there are some fertile zones, but they are only small patches on the planet, fertile enough to support small civilizations and city-states.

How would this all work out?

 

[Svrtnsse]

The location might be important. It could be that it's in such a spot that stopping there to restock on supplies may be convenient - if such is necessary for space travel. It could also be that the location is an unclaimed/contested are right between to larger galactic empires. It could be a kind of tax-haven, or somewhere for smugglers to stop by.

 

[DragonOfTheAerie]

Even a barren planet might have valuable natural resources that could facilitate trade, like minerals and ores. People might come to the planet in a "gold rush" (but with whatever resource you desire) looking to get rich and end up forming permanent settlements there.

Another idea: maybe this planet was once a place to dump criminals, like Australia used to be.

 

[Saigonnus]

Also consider there may be water deep under the sand, water would allow civilization to exist even in the most remote desert. They could grow anything they would need within the confines of the community.


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[Vaporo]

Well, having interstellar travel doesn't necessarily mean having terraforming capabilities. They could just be flying around on nuclear pulse propulsion and cryogenics. Or maybe if they can terraform, but it requires an incomprehensible amount of time and money. Maybe they are terraforming it, but they're still in the early stages of the process. Maybe terraforming just isn't worth it. If they have access to large amounts of subsurface water and can grow their food in hydroponic greenhouses, why bother to actually terraform the place? Maybe they just import their food and water (free plot device right there). You said that there's fertile spots, so maybe the population of the planet is low enough that they can get all of their food from there.

There could be tons of reasons why they would choose to set up a city on a desert planet. It could be a mining colony, an advantageous military position, a waystation or convenient trans-stellar station. Take your pick.

How do people travel between planets in your story? What kind of engine do your starships use? If you know that, you may be able to figure out something more specific.

 

[D. Gray Warrior]

Even a barren planet might have valuable natural resources that could facilitate trade, like minerals and ores. People might come to the planet in a "gold rush" (but with whatever resource you desire) looking to get rich and end up forming permanent settlements there.

Another idea: maybe this planet was once a place to dump criminals, like Australia used to be.

I've considered something like that, with the planet being a penal colony, but later the descendants of the criminals got together formed civilization.

I think minerals and ores are what originally attracted people to Tatooine in the Star Wars universe. I admit Tatooine is the inspiration for the setting, but I want to do my own thing with it and don't want to rip off of it.

 

[TheKillerBs]

As a general rule, I try not to let "it's been done before" affect my decision to use a perfectly reasonable concept.

 

[DragonOfTheAerie]

I've considered something like that, with the planet being a penal colony, but later the descendants of the criminals got together formed civilization.

I think minerals and ores are what originally attracted people to Tatooine in the Star Wars universe. I admit Tatooine is the inspiration for the setting, but I want to do my own thing with it and don't want to rip off of it.

i'm a complete star wars freak and I didn't even know that so please don't let that ruin a totally reasonable idea. No one will care. Seriously.

 

[ThinkerX]

Could be the main attraction is a breathable atmosphere. Current research says that 'earth-like' worlds are extremely scarce - a literal one in ten million.

The problem with a desert world, is that you need a lot of water to get that breathable atmosphere in the first place. But, once you get it, the 'good air' is likely to last a really long time. So, scenario for the OP's world:

At one time, tens or hundreds of millions of years ago, the desert planet had at least one fair sized ocean. Said ocean had life, that resulted in a breathable atmosphere (earth equivalent of the later Cambrian Era). Then something happened to that ocean, probably over the course of millions of years. It dried up into first a series of small seas, then lakes, then marshy patches, and the life it spawned changed with it. This does argue for some fairly large underground aquifers - and maybe attendant prophecies/mythology.

(A more extreme version of this 'drying out' might have happened with Mars).

In my writings, most of the planets were terraformed 30-40,000 years ago by aliens, who then proceeded to bring in other lifeforms - like humans.

 

[Heliotrope]

Even a barren planet might have valuable natural resources that could facilitate trade, like minerals and ores. People might come to the planet in a "gold rush" (but with whatever resource you desire) looking to get rich and end up forming permanent settlements there.

Another idea: maybe this planet was once a place to dump criminals, like Australia used to be.

This is pretty much exactly like the planet in Dune, isn't it? (not saying you copied, just saying it's weird that someone would reject the idea of a desert planet because in Dune it is set up almost EXACTLY like how Dragon described.)

So in Dune the planet Arrakis is a desert as they come. No water, like at all. No arable land, at all. The people have fancy suits that collect their sweat, breath, and pee and turn it back into the fresh water for drinking. Only the rich have water which is imported.

But Arrakis has crazy amounts of a super expensive mineral called "spice" that is mined there, so they set up towns etc. They just have most everything imported from other planets.

 

[Ixidor]

This is pretty much exactly like the planet in Dune, isn't it? (not saying you copied, just saying it's weird that someone would reject the idea of a desert planet because in Dune it is set up almost EXACTLY like how Dragon described.)

So in Dune the planet Arrakis is a desert as they come. No water, like at all. No arable land, at all. The people have fancy suits that collect their sweat, breath, and pee and turn it back into the fresh water for drinking. Only the rich have water which is imported.

But Arrakis has crazy amounts of a super expensive mineral called "spice" that is mined there, so they set up towns etc. They just have most everything imported from other planets.

Slight addition to your post: The important thing to note with Dune is that the Fremen were migrants to Arrakis, and that Arrakis was their final stop of the Wandering Zensunni of Earth. They fled there to avoid persecution, and thus were not native to the planet (although they certainly became so).

This would be entirely different if we're talking about a planet on which life is supposed to evolve and kickstart and entire species. I mean, it depends on how "hard" you want your science fiction to be, but there's no way normal humans would be the end result of evolving on a desert planet. It'd be something much more adapted to the environment. And since all we have to go on is Earth, there's not a lot to back up the idea that a desert planet would be very supportive of life.

That said, if you want to ignore all of that and just go ahead with one anyway, then I think the obvious way to build around it is what Dune does: the lack of water. Pretty much wherever water can be obtained, people will be there. Perhaps even instituting population control (either forced emigration or birth control). Think of it like Ancient civilizations: You had Sumerians based around the Tigris and Euphrates rivers and the Ancient Egyptians inhabited the Nile Delta and Mediterranean coast. Your civilization's ability to wander is controlled by access to water, and the type of transportation. Horses can go but they need to drink. People can walk and pull carts, but they need water, etc. For a Desert World, water would be the end all and be all (which is why Dune works so well). You don't necessarily need to copy Herbert, but he has a very good concept imo.

 

[CupofJoe]

To quote "Life will find a way".
On Earth there are people in just about every possible location that can support them. They may be only wandering nomads but they have a way of life and a culture that has been around a lot longer than we realise.
In short... If a planet can support life, SOMEONE will think it is a good place to live.

 

[DragonOfTheAerie]

This is pretty much exactly like the planet in Dune, isn't it? (not saying you copied, just saying it's weird that someone would reject the idea of a desert planet because in Dune it is set up almost EXACTLY like how Dragon described.)

So in Dune the planet Arrakis is a desert as they come. No water, like at all. No arable land, at all. The people have fancy suits that collect their sweat, breath, and pee and turn it back into the fresh water for drinking. Only the rich have water which is imported.

But Arrakis has crazy amounts of a super expensive mineral called "spice" that is mined there, so they set up towns etc. They just have most everything imported from other planets.

Having never read it I'd have no idea. It was just the first thing that came to me.

 

[DragonOfTheAerie]

ThinkerX is right about breathable air being a huge plus, though.

 

[D. Gray Warrior]

Could be the main attraction is a breathable atmosphere. Current research says that 'earth-like' worlds are extremely scarce - a literal one in ten million.

The problem with a desert world, is that you need a lot of water to get that breathable atmosphere in the first place. But, once you get it, the 'good air' is likely to last a really long time. So, scenario for the OP's world:

At one time, tens or hundreds of millions of years ago, the desert planet had at least one fair sized ocean. Said ocean had life, that resulted in a breathable atmosphere (earth equivalent of the later Cambrian Era). Then something happened to that ocean, probably over the course of millions of years. It dried up into first a series of small seas, then lakes, then marshy patches, and the life it spawned changed with it. This does argue for some fairly large underground aquifers - and maybe attendant prophecies/mythology.

(A more extreme version of this 'drying out' might have happened with Mars).

In my writings, most of the planets were terraformed 30-40,000 years ago by aliens, who then proceeded to bring in other lifeforms - like humans.

I am considering it being an earth-like world in the distant past, and was the center of an ancient extraterrestrial civilization. Later it was desertized (that's a word now), and the natives were already nearly extinct by the time humans arrive and colonize it.

 

[K.S. Crooks]

Even a barren planet might have valuable natural resources that could facilitate trade, like minerals and ores. People might come to the planet in a "gold rush" (but with whatever resource you desire) looking to get rich and end up forming permanent settlements there.

Another idea: maybe this planet was once a place to dump criminals, like Australia used to be.

I was thinking much the same things. Whatever the ships are powered by could be found in abundance on this planet a few km under the desert sands.

Another option is that humans are there due to desperation. Perhaps the Earth is damaged or people are fleeing from another species and this is the first place found that has a possibility for our species to survive. It could even be a simple refueling station or inter-system space port where people and aliens transfer to different space craft to reach their final destinations.

 

[D. Gray Warrior]

Someone mentioned that it would be difficult for a desert planet to develop a breathable atmosphere like we have, unless it was initially an earth-like planet.

I was thinking of having geysers that erupt and they contributed to the development of the atmosphere. The fact that there are arable regions would indicate that there is some water on the planet.

I read somewhere that the Gobi desert gets snow, so could it snow on a desert planet in small quantities. After all, we are talking about a planet that is probably tilted on its axis like earth and there are probably seasons as well, like short winters that aren't very cold compared to earth.

 

[AJ Stevens]

To quote "Life will find a way".
On Earth there are people in just about every possible location that can support them. They may be only wandering nomads but they have a way of life and a culture that has been around a lot longer than we realise.
In short... If a planet can support life, SOMEONE will think it is a good place to live.

I think this is an important point, and you can certainly relate it back to our own world. Why do people live in the desert on Earth? Resources is the main reason; most obviously oil. A look at what Dubai looked like fifty or so years ago is quite telling.

Historically (and still today to a point), great desert empires existed within the fertile valleys of the rivers, so places with a small amount of water could be a distinct possibility.

Another thing for you to think about might be a historic or sentimental attachment to a place, which means its inhabitants may feel they're unable to leave. Or they lack the resources to leave. Rather than a penal colony, it could be that the areas with the least resources are home to the poorest people (that would hardly surprise anyone!) and you could present a rather dystopian world.