Aven Prime is a science fiction game. Although we generally emphasize the fiction over the science, it's important to recognize that there is, in fact, real science behind Aven Prime.
Early in development, we reached out to Prof. Abel Méndez, Planetary Astrobiologist and Director of the Planetary Habitability Laboratory at UPR Arecibo, and peppered him with questions related to habitable extrasolar worlds.
Although we felt it best to leave most of the gritty scientific details out of the game (we broadly agree with Jeff Vogel that less text is usually better and in-game text not related to gameplay should be minimized), we thought it would be a good idea to gather the definitive answers to scientific questions here.
What kind of world is Aven Prime?
It's a moon around an alien gas giant. Probably the closest analogue is Pandora from the movie "Avatar": a moon around a gas giant with an atmosphere that isn't really breathable by humans.
How far is it from Earth?
10 light-years. All members of the Aven Expedition were frozen in cryostasis during the journey, which took much more than 10 years.
The Aven Expedition consists of roughly 10,000 colonists on a single massive colony ship. The colony ship drops down Prometheus Landers and a few inflatable modules onto various parts of the world in order to build a new human civilization.
What constellation is it in, and what planet does it map to?
Like Pandora from "Avatar" or Tattooine from "Star Wars," Aven Prime is a fictional planet -- It does not map to a specific known world. However, as we can see from the recently-discovered earthlike worlds in the TRAPPIST system, it's scientifically realistic.
What's the atmosphere like? How are there plants, but people can't breathe it?
Aven Prime's atmosphere is slightly thinner than earth's, and has more nitrogen and CO2 compared to earth, and 1/4 as much oxygen. So while it's not toxic to humans and does have oxygen, it's not really breathable and requires the colony to be hermetically sealed.
However, just as with Pandora from "Avatar," the atmosphere is quite friendly to plant life.
Can you explain the seasons and day/night cycle?
Time on Aven Prime is divided into sols. Each "sol" lasts roughly as long as 1 week on earth. It's essentially a "day."
The beginning of the sol is divided into "spring," "summer," and "fall" seasons, which are of course much shorter than seasons on Earth. The "winter" season is nighttime, and the only light is reflected from Aven Prime's gas giant.
What's the gravity of Aven Prime compared to earth?
Aven Prime has roughly 93% of earth's gravity.
When does this all take place?
Five centuries in the future. Humanity has already built small colonies on Mars, the moon, and several of the moons of Saturn and Jupiter, in addition to various floating space colonies, and has finally developed the technology required to reach another star system.
Where is Earth in all this? Has the Earth been destroyed?
No, Earth is fine. The Aven Expedition is in contact with Earth but communication takes 10 years since it's 10 light-years away (actually 20 years for a full back-and-forth dialogue).
There have been a few tumultuous events on Earth -- listen closely to an Earth History Center and you can hear about some of them! Many of the nations we know today no longer exist or have changed radically since the 21st century.
But Earth and the human civilization that thrive on it are both doing A-OK, and humanity's continued prosperity is what enabled the Aven Expedition.
Why was Aven Prime chosen for the first expedition outside the solar system?
The Aven Prime system offered the best combination of proximity to earth and multiple habitable worlds.
Can you explain the different environments / biomes?
Just like Earth, Aven Prime has many different biomes (environments).
Similar to Mars, Aven Prime once had many seas and oceans which since receded and evaporated. Unlike Mars, though, Aven Prime had a great deal more water, and although it's generally a bit drier than Earth, much of that water still remains.
- The polar regions have "arctic" biomes broadly similar to the colder parts of Earth. This includes the Azara Falls and Tenari Glacier maps.
- The hot equatorial zones have "desert" biomes. This includes the game's Sandy Gulch, Arido Mesa, and Valley of Death maps.
- A handful of areas are "wetlands" similar to forested areas of Earth. These include the Vanaar, Hyla's Crescent, and Kelori Strand maps.
- Finally, a few of the ancient seabeds are full of crushed micro-crystals of azurite that give the terrain a distinctive blue tint. These exist in some of the very harshest corners of Aven Prime, and they include the Eden Crater map and the Cerulean Vale preorder map.
What sort of star(s) does Aven Prime have in its system?
Just like Earth, Aven Prime exists in a world with a single type-G, yellow star.
Those huge crystals seem super unrealistic ...
The crystals are made from lightweight minerals that formed early in Aven Prime's development in wet subterranean caves. The lighter gravity combined with trapped bubbles of CO2 and nitrogen allowed them to grow to a larger size than even the largest crystals on earth.
Giant crystals do in fact exist on earth: see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A5pAzqmHBGI
The Aven Expedition is currently unaware of any particular use for these crystals; however, that may change in the future.
How are earth crops able to grow in Aven's soil?
The soil of Aven Prime has most of the same basic chemicals as soil on Earth and similar pH levels in most areas (excluding "badlands" maps where only native crops grow). The soil does require fertilization with Earth bacteria and other microorganisms in order to be sufficiently friendly to Earth crops; however, all Farms and Greenhouses automatically perform this fertilization as needed.
What's the "potash" that I see in a lot of the missions?
Potash is not science fiction at all; it's a potassium-based fertilizer commonly used on Earth: http://www.pda.org.uk/what-is-potash/
I hear that Aven Prime also has its own native edible plant types? How would an alien world have crops that are edible by humans and compatible with human biochemistry?
All the "crop" types native to Aven Prime require chemical processing at a Mill or a Chemical Plant in order to be converted to food edible by humans. This modifies their chemistry at a fundamental level.
So while you can grow native crops much more quickly than earth crops, the native crops require special chemical processing that rice, quinoa, melons, etc do not.
Are there other habitable worlds in the Aven Prime system?
Yes! There are several, in fact, and some of them are quite similar to Aven Prime. We hope to visit some of them in future sequels or expansions.
I can see from the screenshots that there's life on Aven Prime, but is there intelligent life?
That question can only be answered by playing the game.
Thank you for being a part of the Aven Colony community. Have more science-related questions? Post them in the comments and we'll do our best to answer them!
Paul