CHALLENGE FOR CAMPERS OF CAMP QUEST ‘97

From Edwin Kagin, Camp Director

It is traditional at Camp Quest to each year give our campers several "challenges" to work on in groups for the week, and to report their findings on the last night. In all past years, this has been done by giving each cabin a separate challenge. This year, we must break tradition and give the whole camp one challenge with six parts, with one part assigned to each cabin. Here’s why.

We have today received a top secret communication from the prestigious phantasm known as the Special Planetary Answers Colonization Expedition. It reads as follows:

Greetings from the S.P.A.C.E. We ask that you hold this information in the highest confidence. For some years we have been sending space probes to a planet that cannot be seen by ordinary astronomy, whose location must not be revealed for reasons that will not be explained.

We have named this planet "Questerion." We know it is about the size of Earth and that it can sustain human life. There are flora covered plains, forests, and mountains. It has rivers, lakes, oceans, ice covered poles, and a breathable atmosphere. Depending on location, the average temperature range, apart from the poles, is 40-93 F. during the day and 28-57 F. at night. 46.7% of the planet is covered with free water. Tests done by our probes have convinced us that the majority of the vegetation (including what appear to be fruits, grasses, nuts, and much unknown flora) is edible, although it is impossible to be sure. It is unknown if any of the alien plants may prove harmful, or even deadly, if touched or consumed by humans. There are life forms that seem to be animals, birds, fish and other sea dwelling creatures. Many could almost certainly be used for food, with the same cautions that apply to the plants. It is not known if any of the fauna might behave in dangerous ways when confronted with the presence of humans. We do not believe there are higher life forms of human intellectual ability, but again there is no way we can be certain of this. It is essential that we find answers to these and many other questions. This can be accomplished in only one way.

It has been resolved to send a space ship of humans to establish a colony on Questerion. The trip will last 3 years and 80 days. The spaceship will not return, and, while signals can be received from Earth, no communications can be sent back to Earth. The colonists should assume they will never return. It is not believed another ship can be sent for at least 325 years. The Space Ship Quest (S.S.Quest) can only carry a fixed cargo of humans and supplies. There will be only enough food and water for the trip. All meals will be prepared automatically by computers. The space craft will be controlled and landed by pre-programed computers; there will be no flight crew. After landing, the ship will shut down and seal itself one hour after the doors automatically open. There is no way any part of the ship or its equipment can be removed, damaged, or opened by the colonists. This is so the ship can be reused if Earth ever makes physical contact, or if the technology of the colony should develop to the extent that the ship can be opened and operated again.

The ship will leave Earth on November 26. Upon arrival, it will land in the most temperate area of the planet at dawn. The landing will be on an open plain that extends in one direction for about 29 kilometers to a salt water ocean. About one kilometer in the opposite direction is a large woodland near the shore of a fresh water lake about the size of Lake Erie.

We need the brightest and most creative minds available to advise us on this project. Naturally, we have decided to ask the campers of Camp Quest for help. We ask you to provide, at your final evening at camp, in any manner you choose, your recommendations on the following six questions:

(These must be the campers’ responses. Adults may answer questions, but not make suggestions)

1) What 24 colonists from Earth should be selected? The ship has room and food for only 24 people. Assume the persons selected are willing and able to go. Do not choose yourself or any actual person. This is to be only a model to determine the kinds of people it would be best to send, so suggest 24 separate types of human beings from all of those who inhabit our planet. Please consider all possible factors, including but not limited to, age, sex, race, nationality, education, religion, politics, training, skills, artistic ability, accomplishments, psychological and physical factors, and any other human attributes and abilities you consider most desirable in those persons we will send to build a new world. Are there any types of humans who should definitely not go?

2) What items should they take? Each person should take only items that can be carried. Each must bring one average size book and one average size hand tool--no more than one of each. What should these items be? Assume that everything brought will be used for the benefit of the entire group and will be those items thought necessary to survival and comfort and best suited to colonize and develop a new world. Each person will also lead one animal, or other non-human creature, of any size, but no larger than a pony. Recommend 24 individual animals for the colonists to bring to Questerian. The ship has room and food for only 24 animals. No large equipment can be brought. In addition to the animal, the tool, and the book, each person should bring no more than a total of 20 pounds of anything else you suggest for the use of the colony, and each can bring an additional 5 pounds of personal choice items. The ship cannot carry more weight that this. Remember, except for the animals, everything must be carried. Nothing is to be carried by the animals. What should each person bring? Assume that the items taken will be the only supplies ever available from anywhere in the universe except for what might be produced on the planet Questerion itself. Assign 2 persons discussed in question 1 to carry the items discussed in questions 3 and 4.

3) What form of social organization and code of conduct should be established for the colony? The colonists will almost certainly make their own rules and laws as their society and culture develops and as new situations arise. They are leaving Earth forever, and no power on Earth can control what they do. However, on the long space flight, and when they land, there should be some basic rules and principles of social organization and ethical behavior to guide them, including rules for changing the rules. Should there be any absolute rules that can never be changed for any reason? If so, what should they be, and what is the authority for them? What penalties or punishments, if any, should be imposed if the rules are broken? How should the rules be enforced, and who should enforce them? Assume all colonists will freely agree to abide by this "Questerian Compact." What should it be? Don’t write it, just give suggestions, with reasons. What religious doctrines or principles, if any, should be included? The document must not weigh over ½ pound.

4) What history of Earth and its inhabitants should be taken with them? The colonists will never return. There will hopefully be additional generations who have never lived on Earth. These persons may someday go back to Earth or greet a space ship from Earth. Also, there is the possibility that some contact may eventually be made with other intelligent life by the colonists or by their descendents. We must also consider the horrible, but unlikely, chance that the entire colony could die or be destroyed as a result of something presently unknown and unpredictable. For all of these reasons, the colonists will take with them a history of our planet and of human life on Earth. Please suggest what this should contain, going from the beginning of Earth to the present. You should assume this will be the only history of Earth and its people that any intelligent life form in the universe will ever see. It must be as honest and truthful as possible. It will, of course, have to be very incomplete, but it should be a fair and accurate summary. Do not attempt to write it yourselves, just let us know what it should it say? It must weigh no more than ½ pound.

5) If any of you feel the least tiny bit homesick, or miss your family and friends, think of the colonists who will be leaving not only their homes but the planet Earth forever. You will all be back from camp in one week. The colonists can never go home. This mission is top secret, so they cannot tell anyone what they are doing or where they are going. Please give us an idea of how they can explain to their friends and family that they are alive, well, okay, safe, not crazy, and are doing something that is really very very important and that it is something they want to do. Please help us write a letter that can be sent to all of their friends and family and anyone else they wish us to send it to. Except for the name of the person it is from, the letter will be the same for each colonist. It will be sent after the space ship leaves for Questerion. Assume that the people getting the letter will know for sure it is really from the person it says it is from. It must somehow make it very clear that the person the letter is from will never ever be seen or heard from again and that it will be impossible to ever find them or contact them again at all. What should this letter say? Remember it must not give any hints of any kind that the person it is from has left Earth for another planet.

6) If you think it is hard to figure out what to plan for campers at Camp Quest to do for one whole week, think of the problem of trying to figure out just what should be planned for 24 people to do in a space ship for 3 years and 80 days. Please give us your best advice on suggestions to best occupy the time for people who have absolutely nothing whatsoever to do for this very long trip on a space ship that operates completely automatically. There is only so much room available on board. None of the items that are being taken for use on the planet can be used at all during the trip. These things will be stored in a sealed cargo area that will open automatically when they land on Questerion. The animals will be fed, watered, and completely cared for by computers during the trip, and the colonists will have no contact will them at all until the space ship lands. None of the items used during the trip can leave the ship when it lands. There will be one general purpose room on the ship for the use of all aboard. It will be the size of a standard school gymnasium, and there will also be an exercise room with basic equipment, similar to a nautilus. The gymnasium size room will be designed to convert easily into several different kinds of rooms and uses, including gym, pool, ice skating rink, playhouse, dance hall, art studio, and meeting hall. There will be all the equipment needed for all of these things and for many sports like tennis, volleyball, etc. Each passenger will have a small private room and a computer for his or her own use that can be networked with any or all of the other passengers’ computers. The computers can communicate with each other, but not with Earth. For the whole trip, the colonists can access and receive from Earth any information available on the Internet, and they can read any e-mail messages sent by anyone over the Internet. However, the computers can only receive; they cannot sent any messages of any kind back to Earth. The colonists can also monitor every radio and television broadcast on Earth. Everything accessed can be downloaded by the computers. None of the computers or anything downloaded or created on the trip can leave the spaceship when it lands. What should the colonists do for 3 years and 80 days?

(All 6 groups should consult with each other to make sure there are no conflicts in their suggestions)

THE FUTURE OF THE UNIVERSE DEPENDS ON YOU!!!

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