Solo Traveller: Hendar

For a planet that literally makes money, there seems to be no real security at Hendar. We called in to the port, a small class C that was situated next to a lake and, from what our passengers said, near the printing presses that they were there to inspect.

"The is the No Refunds arriving at Hendar, requesting clearance for landing." It seemed to take several minutes before a laconic voice finally responded. "'ello No Refunds. You are cleared for landing pad 2. Do you have any goods to declare, or passenger?"  

I started the standard transmission of our passenger and cargo manifest and was interrupted a few moments later. "I'm sorry, No Refunds. We currently do not support that mode of transmission. Please state for our logs your manifest." Fortunately for us, we only carried the two inspectors, the medical supplies and some freight cargo we had picked up for delivery. After going through that short list, the same voice responded, "Thank you. We'll be a-seeing you shortly then." 

It was almost three hours as we came into Hendar's immediate vicinity, and I was amazed that such a tiny world had an actual breathable atmosphere (probably not by the current rules, but original world gen allowed this. Or I messed up 40 some years ago!) The atmosphere was barely an impediment as Captain Laux expertly landed the ship, landing on pad 2. Having only 5 landing pads, it was not difficult to make out the large "2" painted on the pad. There seemed to be a lot of extra details around that "2": I zoomed in an exterior camera and saw that there were scenes of the mountains I could see over the very short horizon painted on the pad. I've never seen a decorated landing pad before.

As the No Refunds settled on her landing gear, a small van came out of what I assumed was the admin building, bouncing almost comically in the low gravity as it approached. As the captain passed Ewo and myself, he told me to use the airlocks for our passengers. Though the exterior atmosphere was breathable, it was also thin, and we preferred regular air pressure. 

I went to the passenger cabins and assisted with what little luggage they had. We fit into the starboard lock, and the air became thinner as we pressurized to Hendar's native atmosphere. It was also chiller than expected out there as I walked Ms. Tachac and Mr. Simril down the ramp and into the waiting passenger van. It smelled a bit odd, then I realized it was some sort of diesel engine running some cooking oil or something that gave it a unique, food-flavored aroma as it turned around and headed back to the low concrete building. I had a spring in my step from the low gravity - I felt I could probably jump up to the air lock, but, having transitioned enough times between gravity fields, I loped back up the ramp, repressurized the lock, and went back inside the ship.

Well, I at least finally landed on Hendar. As previously mentioned, this is a small world, size 1, that somehow manages a thin atmosphere. Classic and Mongoose v1, 2d6-7 + size means this is a valid atmosphere. T5.09 is flux + size, so again legal. Just seems really unlikely that a world only about 900 miles in diameter, with a gravity of 0.15G, could maintain an atmosphere. Now, I also realize that the universe is big, and we've only scratched a tiny bit out in terms of understanding things. 

So, to figure this out we need the escape velocity, and this handy chart I found:

An alternative expression for the escape velocity particularly useful at the surface on the body is:

With Hendar being a size 1 world, we have a diameter of about 1600km, so escape velocity - and then my math did not compute. But: it is smaller than Pluto. So, it would have to be a LOT colder to maintain an atmosphere if I am reading all this correctly. But hey, it is a game, not a simulation of real planets (if it was, there would probably be a lot fewer habitable planets than Traveller assumes. Apparently, we are really lucky by having Jupiter in an orbit out there as it "sweeps" a lot of the solar debris and helps keep our little solar system a bit safer. 

We'll just twang our suspenders of disbelief, and I'll try & continue the story soon. Inside the port there will be grav plating, and probably a cheap hostel or something so that those living on the planet can sleep periodically in a heavier gravity for health reasons. I think we'll have some sort of custom or quirk for that.