I say there was only the one single station. There weren't any indications of any others in the movie, and I could swear that the idea of having multiple stations was initially included but was specifically abandoned during production of the film. What do you guys say?

I think it was in the extras disc that there was only one power station.

There is nothing on film to suggest otherwise.

Another online debate?

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I told you I'd shoot, but you didn't believe me! WHY DIDN'T YOU BELIEVE ME!?!

YES! LOL with the same guy at that. I don't mean to come off as like... combative with him. I just know my Aliens man! And it looks like we were right.



this was his response...

Well it would make sense if there were multiples...

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I think there were multiple Atmosphere Processors in the novelization by Alan Dean Foster, but I can't be sure, it's been a while since I read it.
What always got me is that there were all these colonists; but where did they all sleep? Maybe the Colony in the film was a workplace, with a separate living colony elsewhere.

In alien wasnt the planet identified as a planetoid 1200 kilometers in diameter by Lambert? Isnt there a certain gravitation pull or planetary mass or velocity for an atmosphere to stay in place in the first place.?

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If you can't eat it, drink it, smoke it or jump it....RUN!!!

In Alien, it didn't look like they were experiencing low gravity so I'd assume if the planet had an atmosphere, it had enough spin to hold it.

And this guy you keep running into seems ot be looking for a fight. What a tool.
I'd put him on ignore.

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"Awww, someone tell me that's a boot!

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III drops

but in the book and the movie alien it hinted that a typical day would be roughly 2 hours. Doesnt seem worth it to terraform in the long run.

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I'm pretty sure this is determined by its size and density and nothing to do with its axial revolution.

I can obviously conclude that more than one atmosphere processor was built on the planet. Can you imagine how long one smoke stack spewing carbon monoxide would take to make a lifeless rock even warm enough to be inhabitable? A lot more than 57 years, I'm sure!

yea, there was more then one Atmosphere Processor on Acheron. They were scattered all over the planet.
read the novel and you will see.

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"I am the ultimate bad-ass. State of the bad-ass art."

Only thing I wonder is for sure it would take decades to make a viable atmosphere but what's the point if you only have sunlight for a few hours? Can't grow crops or anything that produces O2.
As for planetary density maybe it's being terraformed for mining?
But I remember in Alien seeing fumeroles blowing, so that it would mean it has some sort of geological activity?

Sorry probably reading way too much into this.....

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If you can't eat it, drink it, smoke it or jump it....RUN!!!

There are a lot of things that were different in the novel. I believe the novelization was based upon the first draft script and not the final film. There were a few things in the novel that are not in the film and some things are different. For example Goreman gets stung in the novelization instead of getting knocked out by a heavy box in the APC while they escape from the Hive in the APC.

In the first script, Ripley asks "Is that the atmosphere processor?" and Burke mentions that there are "thirty or so" atmosphere processors scattered across the planet. That line was clearly removed when the movie was filmed.

In Cameron's story treatment the planet had dozens of Atmosphere Processors but in the final script its only one

....ripley says in the movie ' Is that the atmosphere processor?' burke says' yes it is' no pural....just one..

forget Alan dean fosters book....

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Pfc Glenn Allen ,
1st Batt. 69th Regiment,
Homers Hero's..
Drops so Far.... 29 and counting

I always took that line to mean "The atmosphere processor that's attached to the colony... the rest being scattered elsewhere."

I could be wrong, after all... Where are the small albino aliens?

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I see....
I really enjoyed the novel and I'm reading it again although I jsut finished it a couple of days ago

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Pfc. Wells, Brandon. W
"I am the ultimate bad-ass. State of the bad-ass art."

My calculations and atmospheric projections based on the NASA work for the MARS project would conclude that 6 geosynchronously spaced processors on the three axes would be the minimum required.

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No, they are not going to see this coming...

Its on record that Cameron hates the novel he has said it in a interview at the time of the films release and he moans about these types of books (film novelisations) in the introduction of the novel the Abyss... the only novelisation he has given his approvel to....

if there was more than one atmosphere processor station would not someone in the film say that? after all if they are all linked in some way if one blows up would not they all blow up?

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Pfc Glenn Allen ,
1st Batt. 69th Regiment,
Homers Hero's..
Drops so Far.... 29 and counting

Good. Thanks Glenn. It's been settled. All novels suck & the movie is the standard. Ok, now that's been settled. That ONE atmosphere processor station must have been a super duper, kick ass version designed by WY to sort out the entire planet. Much more cost effective. My 2 cents.

Mike

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There is nothing more impressive than a bloody big Alien wiggling on the end of a sharp stick!

Logically I would imagine more than one processor simply for the money side of it.

Weylund Yutani would want this planet finished as quick as possible. This would be important to them so they could start populating the world for whatever industrial/agriculture business they had in mind. I doubt they were doing it because of overpopulation. Greedy buggers.

Ok Here is what we know from what is on screen:


LV-426 did have an atmosphere to begin with, but was comprised of unbreathable gases- methane being one of them.

Van Leuwen said that there had been colonists on LV-426 for at least 20 years who go in and set up "these atmospheric processors to make the air breathable"- and that it "takes decades".

Also from the inquiry scene- LV-426 is a rock with no indigenous life.

So the impression that I got is that the colony on LV-426 is a mining colony and that Weyland Yutani is primarily a mining industry (despite their slogan). This would tie in with the Nostromo being a tow ship with 20 000 000 tonnes of mineral ore. Not an agricutural colony. If there are colonies on distant planets that are there to grow things they are not run by Weyland Yutani. WY is the proverbial villian in this series- likened to any multi-billion dollar industry that couldn't care less about it's workers or the effect it might have on an ecosystem.

As already stated- Ripley asks "Is that the atmospheric processor?" and Burke answers "Yep that's it". No plural- no big explanation that there is more than one (however he does start spouting Company propoganda about what a marvelous piece of machinery it is).

Sooooo...

I think Burke would have mentioned there was more than one processor during his rambling as he was so proud of it and the Company (or he is just used to brown nosing all the time and doesn't know when to turn it off).

When Van Luewen said "these atmospheric processors" this could go either way. He either meant multiple processors on one planet (LV-426) or a single processor on multiple colonies stationed on different planets throughout the galaxy. I believe the latter is the case here.

The processor was designed to make the existing air breathable- not create an atmosphere. A reverse of pollution and global warming etc.

It was also said to "take decades" and that the colonists on LV-426 had been there for 20 years. There is nothing to indicate that the atmosphere had been breathable for any length of time- it could be that the atmosphere had just become breathable prior to the incident with the Jorden family (perhaps in the last year or so) and that the colonists had to wear enviroment suits before this.

I think the writers really got it wrong by making LV-426 only 1200km in diameter. This is approximately 1/3 the size of our Moon. I don't truly understand physics enough to know if a smaller planet could have an equal (or at least close) gravitational pull if it were made of a material denser than that of what Earth is comprised of.

Bottom line is that there is nothing to suggest there were multiple processors- it is all speculation that it would take "too long" for one processor to alter the atmosphere of a planet (talk about an absence of evidence ). However there is evidence that the concept of multiple processors was changed to one processor in the script drafts.



It's a sci-fi movie. There is something called the "suspension of disbelief" that has to come into play here methinks.

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I told you I'd shoot, but you didn't believe me! WHY DIDN'T YOU BELIEVE ME!?!

In alien the planet they went into orbit around had a moon I think. Wonder which one became the colony. Don't recall any mention of a moon in aliens.

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If you can't eat it, drink it, smoke it or jump it....RUN!!!

I thought the moon was LV-426?

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I told you I'd shoot, but you didn't believe me! WHY DIDN'T YOU BELIEVE ME!?!

I think you're right went and ran the movie thru to that point the bigger planet looks like a gas giant with rings...

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If you can't eat it, drink it, smoke it or jump it....RUN!!!

Well said. And yes I think Van Luwen's comments were simply generalizations on the whole colony/terraforming industry. I believe they dropped the idea about having multiple processors because it would have meant that there would have been more settlements or at the very least a larger settlement with better ways of exploring and getting around the planet to maintain the other APs.

It also would have meant that it wouldn't have made sense to take so long to find the derelict (and even then only with Ripley's information). There would have been a larger investment in the planetoid and a MUCH larger rescue team would have to have been sent.