Help Us Recruit for the GAILE Exoplanet Pioneering Project
In 1977, L. Stephen Wolfe and Roy L. Wysack collaborated on a book about the first human colonies on exoplanets (planets in other star systems). The book was called Pioneers from Earth, and published by Grosset and Dunlap (US) and David and Charles (UK) under the title Handbook for Space Pioneers.
In the late 1970s, information was conveyed on paper: books, magazines, and newsletters. For cost reasons, the Handbook for Space Pioneers was limited to black-and-white line drawings. Three-D computer aided design (CAD) and computer art were in their infancy. The drawings were made in India ink on a drafting board, and the text was written on manual typewriters.
Thirty-eight years later, the worldwide web provides almost infinite space for publishing. Powerful computer tools for drawing, design, rendering, map-making, and video production are within reach of hundreds of millions of people. NASA’s Kepler project has discovered more than 1,800 exoplanets in other star systems.
In the spirit of the 21st century, we have republished the recruiting materials of the Galactic Association of Intelligent Life–Earth Branch on this web site. We need more material about life on the planets.
The best way to get it is to open up the site to people who want to imagine and create what life on newly settled planets would be like. How would the landscapes and seascapes look? What sorts of homes would people live in? How would people supply themselves with food, energy, clothing, healthcare, and all the benefits of 24th century life if they weren’t constrained by what had been done on earth for thousands of years?
We’re asking for contributions from artists, engineers, architects, fashion designers, map-makers, 3D modelers, scientists, and writers who want to help us fill out the details of life on eight planets. We need realistic images of homes, villages, and cities; plants, animals, and landscapes; people, clothing, and body art. We’d like to see inventions in the form of CAD models and 3D renderings.
We also would like volunteers to make 3D models of the planets from the original maps. And we’d like CAD experts to model in 3D the ships that take people to their new homes.
All volunteer contributions will remain copyrighted works of their original owners. We will acknowledge your copyright, and give credit to you in GAILearth.com. All we ask is for unrestricted, permanent, royalty-free use on GAILearth.com. If we create new works and/or derivative works and wish to use your contributions(s), we will seek your permission for such use. We agree that contributors can publish their work on other websites or sell high-resolution copies or physical prints and models over the web or by any other means. For more information, please see the GAILE Terms of Use policy here.
If you’d like to be a part of a worldwide cooperative science-fiction project where creative people can contribute their ideas about what life on exoplanets might be like, send an idea, a sketch, or any JPEG image to recruitment@gailearth.com. If you have questions, please write us.