Is it possible to add Callisto to the solar system?

Hi all,

First let me say that the Chapter 1 beta looks and plays pretty good in my opinion, and that I’m very impressed with how quickly the team responds to founder feedback.

Now, this might be a minor issue, not a gameplay or pacing thing, but it really bugged me ever since the first videos of the Solar System were posted by Brad. I’ve mentioned this two or three times in the discord, but didn’t press on it, and never got a formal reply. So here goes…

 

Callisto, one of Jupiter’s moons, is not represented in the SCO Solar System, and it needs to be!

Here’s why:

• Callisto is big. It’s the third largest moon in the Solar System, smaller only than Ganymede and Titan, and it’s bigger than all of the rest by a large margin. Callisto is actually almost identical in size to the planet Mercury.
• Callisto is one of the four Galilean moons (together with Ganymede, Io and Europa), which were discovered by Galileo Galilei at 1610. These were the first moons ever observed in the Solar System aside from our moon. The Galilean moons were the first celestial objects to undisputedly orbit something other than the Earth (Jupiter), and as such, they provided a very strong evidence against the then accepted geocentric model.
• As a Galilean moon, Callisto is quite easily visible from Earth. A child with a pair of binoculars and clear skies can see it (I could actually see it through my window with my field-binoculars right before starting typing this, but now it’s gotten cloudy). Because of this, the Galilean moons are among the first things every beginner amateur-astronomer, or anyone with an interest in astronomy and a small telescope, learns to identify in the night-sky. If it’s a Solar System object, and I can see it with my eyes, it should be in this game.
  The Galilean moons are one of the basic, most well-known features of the Solar System – there are eight planets, Saturn has beautiful rings and Jupiter has four big moons (oops, sorry, I meant nine planets… almost forgot Artemis). 
  Adding Callisto goes well with the notion that the SCO universe is our universe, together with fact that the SCO star map is a representation of our real stellar neighborhood, as Brad stated.
• Callisto is also considered the best candidate for a base for human presence in the outer solar system, as it is big, benign, geologically stable and far enough from Jupiter to be outside of its deadly radiation belts. This can be exploited by Stardock or by modders for some future content.

I know that the game-engine can support a lot more than four moons per planet, but if some other reason restricts Jupiter to only four moons, I think that Callisto is much more important and appropriate than that upstart, sorry excuse for a moon, Adrastea. That tiny space potato is not even spherical in real life. Just remember to put some uranium on another moon (Though I have to admit that Adrastea was quite fun for me with the lander).

 

All of this is moot, of course, if there is some in-game lore explanation for Callisto’s absence. But if not, please consider.