Day is "days" long, therefore the (very dark) night will be equally long so the men work hard to make camp.
Colours are difficult to identify in the dim light.
As usual on terrestroid planets in Poul Anderson's works, there is an equivalent of grass:
"...those tussocky growths which seemed to correspond to grass..." (p. 36)
There are no seasons because there is little axial tilt. Also:
"Photosynthesis under a red dwarf star can't use chlorophyll." (ibid.)
Scientific knowledge is crucial in sf.
Local wild life lacks certain amino acids, vitamins etc but the men eat packaged supplies, then get their food plant working. This is described in detail and we will return to it this evening when I have returned from a day trip to Blackpool. Chapter V has presented a plausible explanation of why the food plant at least had survived the wreck of the ship and its two ferries. Poul Anderson sets his characters up for several years on this planet.
4 comments:
Note that grass is a comparatively recent development on earth -- its origins are about 100 million years ago, but it didn't become dominant anywhere until about 15 million years ago.
Kaor, Paul!
I recall how the humans who colonized Altai, in the Technic stories ("A Message in Secret), thought that Krasna (its sun) was depressingly dark and red after Sol. But it was much brighter than that dim red sun in WORLD WITHOUT STARS.
I think all terrestroid planets will need something analogous to our grass to even be terrestroid. And grass introduced to some planets, like Nike, might displace more primitive plants ("A Tragedy of Errors").
Ad astra! Sean0
Multicellular life is, apparently, rather uncommon. That would open a lot of planets to large-scale colonization by Earth lifeforms.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
I like that idea, if it's true.
Ad astra! Sean
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