r/scifi • u/ColdHefty9381 • 2d ago
General Alien Invasion question
I have a question that I have been thinking about for a while. What would happen if aliens land on the moon and mars but don’t invade earth? Is there truly a reason they would have to invade earth at this point. They could also knock out our satellite communications which could be devastating. What do you think would happen and is this a possibility?
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u/adamwho 2d ago edited 2d ago
What's the point of any alien invasion?
It is incredibly hard to cross space. They would not be doing it for resources since those could be found other places. Living on ships might make more sense than actually on a planet, if they have this level of technology.
They might be looking for a place to live. Or study life in the universe.
Earth may or may not be a suitable place for them to live.
Most science fiction scenarios don't make any sense at all.
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u/Seanspeed 2d ago
Earth is one of the rarest types of planets around and uniquely hospitable to a wide variety of very complex life.
It'd be crazy if aliens weren't interested in Earth in some respect.
Also aliens with the technology to cross interstellar space would likely have some way to adapt and colonize. And would likely have prepared for it specifically after studying our planet beforehand.
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u/CoyoteScribbles 2d ago
TBH, we don't actually know how rare (or common) Earth-type planets are. It's very, very difficult to detect and analyze small, rocky planets like ours - most of the extraterrestrial worlds we're aware of are either gaseous supergiants, ice giants, or "super-Earths."
The galaxy could be absolutely teeming with Earth-sized, Earth-like planets and we wouldn't know it because the tech just isn't there yet. It's getting better with time, though, so hopefully soon we'll get that breakthrough.
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u/Seanspeed 3h ago
We are almost 100% certain that Earth-like planets are absurdly rare.
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u/CoyoteScribbles 1h ago
And the best-educated scientists of the 1840s were "almost 100% certain" that ocean life could not exist beyond 1,800 feet due to the darkness and "crushing pressure."
Point is, we could be wrong. Because our technology isn't quite to the point of being able to resolve planets of Earth's size, so all we have to go on are our best-educated guesses built on our current knowledge base.
WE DON'T KNOW, we are guessing, and our guesses could be wildly off-base.
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u/LolthienToo 1d ago
They might be interested in visiting like a nature preserve (or to hybridize with life here like the current zeitgeist seems to believe). But they have no reason to exterminate us
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u/Seanspeed 3h ago edited 3h ago
This is so bizarre. How on earth are you determining the motivations of a completely unknowable hyper advanced alien civilization? :/
They might exterminate us simply cuz they think we're a concerning mold on our planet, ruining its exciting biosphere.
They might exterminate us cuz they're not actually moral beings, but are a hivemind species that simply has an intrinsic motivation to colonize at all costs.
Shit, they might not even be organic beings, they could be some artificial intelligence gone free that determines human beings dont provide anything of value to themselves.
Or maybe some advanced species keeps us alive, but only as slaves or livestock.
How do you not see how we treat species 'beneath' us as any kind of worrying problem here?
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u/Marquar234 2d ago
Alien safari would be what I'd go with. Rich, bored aliens want to bag a human trophy to put on their wall.
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u/adamwho 2d ago
That is an interesting fantasy situation
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u/Marquar234 2d ago
It's Predator. It's a good premise because it also includes limits on weapons like how many countries have limits on what kind of weapons can be used for hunting. No idea if there's a limit on humans.
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u/CoyoteScribbles 2d ago
There is a limit on humans, in a way - they're only allowed to hunt and kill humans that are able-bodied, fully-grown, and that can and DO fight back.
Children? Off limits. Pregnant females? Off limits. Unarmed humans? Off limits.
They have to be armed and they have to be capable of fighting back and putting up a challenge.
Otherwise there's no honor (and thus social standing) to be gotten from killing them.
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u/Marquar234 2d ago
I meant limit as in the number of humans one hunter can bag in a season, not which humans are allowed to be hunted.
Which brings up a question. Are their various seasons on humans based on the weapons? Plasmacaster season, combistick season, etc?
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u/CoyoteScribbles 2d ago
It would be hilarious if there were. Get a whole story about a Predator trying to get one week off work to go human hunting before plasma caster season ends lmao
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u/pudgydog-ds 2d ago
Deuterium is something Earth's has that aliens would want. Yes, the gas giants have it. But the gravity wells, deep atmospheres, and radiation environments make that difficult. Any frozen sources require melting before processing.
And you should not say that an advanced species could easily overcome those restrictions. That is hand waving physics away.
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u/Tautological-Emperor 2d ago edited 2d ago
Thinking purely in terms of logistics I think limits what story you’re trying to tell. We don’t do that. Conflict is as much about ideology as it is decided by physical reality.
Maybe your aliens have a fundamentally, well, alien, view of the universe and in some way we violate it. Maybe we transgressed in some fashion, or some minor faction of humans did, and they believe we have to pay. Maybe Earth in the deep past, or weirdly in the deep future, was host to some enemy or did something to upset the cosmic community, and we have to pay the price in blood. I think even “invasion” and “war” limit your story. We have police action, extradition, efforts to stop trafficking of people, cultural artifacts, drugs, and even endangered species or biological material. There are poachers and thieves, slavers and war profiteers. Your aliens could be cosmic criminals, or cosmic police. Your aliens could be split, arriving only together but ideologically politically divided. Your aliens could be refugees, or conquerers. Afraid of us, impressed, or indifferent, or some mixture of all three. You shouldn’t feel the need to explain everything unless it’s necessary to your story, and even then, be weird. They are not humans. We know for ourselves how jumbled our psychology and culture is. Do the same for your critters. Be inventive.
Earth being untouched while aliens land on Mars and the Moon is a really interesting idea I like a lot. Explore what resources they may have there that we don’t. Maybe it’s ideological; spare living worlds from resource extraction. Or maybe, if you want to be really out there, maybe your aliens are at war with another entity in our solar system, native or also foreign. Earth gets front row seats to extraterrestrials waging their war in our cosmic backyard. I’d say be inventive. Use history, use what you can from reality certainly, but these stories should reflect meaningful things literarily, not just literally.
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u/Treveli 2d ago
I'd imagine that's a situation where either a) the aliens have found something unique and rare in the resources available in the Sol system, or b) they've exhausted the resources where they came from. Not showing interest in Earth, the only populated planet, they know the planet's resources aren't worth the effort - going up/down a grav well and dealing with the local atmo/environment - and trouble they'd have - pesky primitive locals using the equivalent of sharp sticks and rocks - getting to it. Or, they're limited by some interplanetary law that says they can't touch the local biospheres. As for taking out satellites and stations, the only real reason to waste time and ammo is if they were somehow interfering with the alien's system-wide operations - like disrupting comms or sensors - or the Earthlings kept sending their woefully inadequate weapons out and needed to have 'stop that' explained to them in simple fashion.
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u/igotanewmac 2d ago
No, they wouldn't. There's nothing on the moon or on mars that isn't abundant in space. Earth however, has these cute little bipeds that taste exceptional when roasted, and they don't grow anywhere else. Leave them alone for nine months and you even get new ones!
The resource the aliens want is us.
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u/lukehahn777 1d ago
The possibility they could digest such an alien food as humans is very unlikely. Keeping us as pet would require a complicated habitat, easier just to observe by telepresence
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u/VFiddly 2d ago
Is it really an invasion if no one's there?
If it happened now we'd just let them have it. Not much we could do about it anyway.
There is no real plausible reason for aliens to invade an inhabited planet when they could get any of the resources we have from an uninhabited planet and not have to worry about someone fighting back.
Alien invasion stories were easier to write when you could still plausibly have them come from inside the solar system. In the War of the Worlds they came from Mars and at the time that made sense.
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u/Seanspeed 2d ago
Why do zoos exist?
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u/Ntroepy 2d ago
Human zoos seems quite frivolous compared to the enormous effort it takes to travel many light years and invading another planet.
That said, I’d imagine that humans are one of the rarest entities in the universe. But that also applies to trees, goats, and bacteria so not so special by comparison.
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u/Seanspeed 3h ago
Life is not rare on Earth. But if it's rare in the local galaxy, then it takes on a whole lot more meaning.
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u/AlsoSprach 2d ago
The earth is the only planet in the solar system with a moon that has the right size to distance ratio to create perfect solar eclipse. This could be very unusual in the galaxy as well and seeing full eclipse like only the earth has might make us worth visiting.
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u/Trike117 2d ago
But if you were in a spaceship that could cross such distances, you can just maneuver to a location that puts a planet between you and a sun in order to make such an eclipse.
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u/ifandbut 2d ago
Yes, but it wouldn't be "natural". Maybe they prise the rare experience.
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u/lescannon 2d ago
But they'd have to be able to know this from far away, and get here in time to see it. The moon is getting further away from the Earth, so that magic ratio won't last forever.
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u/rationalmisanthropy 2d ago
The only thing unique on Earth which isn't abundant elsewhere is life.
Which we're doing a really good job of extinguishing, because we love shopping.
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u/Much-Environment6478 2d ago
It's not a possibility worth considering. Earth is a tiny speck in the middle of a possibly infinite universe so why would they ever even look in this direction? If they lived for thousands of years or had the technology to travel through wormholes (which would have to be the way they travel such vast distances) they could just find uninhabited planets or arrive here and we'd never know.
Aliens announcing themselves by messing with us is absurd. They'd be so far advanced that we might not even be able to see/detect them.
[Edit: clarity]
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u/Rivenaleem 2d ago
There's no might about it.
Anyone who could get here, and want to harm us, could do it without us knowing.
A ship with the necessary power generation to travel to here, plus a gamma ray generator, will sterilise the planet. We'd just see a bright flash in that range of the spectrum and then everything dies.
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u/Underhill42 2d ago
So they "invade" the solar system, but leave Earth alone?
Honestly, if they invaded at all, that's probably one of the more likely scenarios - they want the resources or strategic value of the solar system, but there's no particular reason to bother the primitives occupying one small rock - that's just going to encourage them to make a nuisance of themselves.
In fact living worlds, at least with complex life, are probably rare enough to be left alone on general principles - the potential long-term scientific, medical, and cultural value far exceeds the mineral value of one more rock.
While there's not much benefit to be had by conquering us - any more than there is for us to conquer dolphins or chimpanzees. We might be better at obeying orders as slaves - but probably not half so well or cheaply as robots.
We may be ants to them - but most people that aren't complete jerks will go out of their way to not step on an anthill. Compassion seems to be a pretty universal trait among higher animals, at least in situations where there's nothing much to be gained or lost either way. Reasonable to assume it would be present in aliens as well - especially since it's likely to be a big help in working together to build a society in the first place.
About the only reason to look at Earth at all is research, cultural exchange, or to uplift us for our own good. Or if there's some status to be gained among their peers by doing so, as in Brin's Uplift Saga.
And assuming they are leaving us alone, we'd have to be pretty reckless to try to drive them away - like a wasp trying to chase away picnickers in the neighborhood. It's not impossible that you succeed... but far more likely you're crushed and maybe your hive is destroyed to prevent future problems. Better for everyone if you avoid being a nuisance and gorge on any carelessly discarded crumbs (knowledge, technology, etc.)
Though it's also worth considering the situation where they send a seed ship rather than a fleet, since interstellar travel is so incredibly challenging... which proceeds to begin turning e.g. the asteroid belt INTO a fleet. In that case maybe we want to interfere as hard as we can while still have numbers and logistics on our side.
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u/lescannon 2d ago
If we knew about it, we'd spend time and money trying to make contact, and shift resources to develop our spaceflight capability to be able to go to them. Probably also ramp up armaments and construction of shelters.
If the aliens want our planet, but can wait, then they can just wait to see if we crash our civilization, or help us along by introducing a pathogen that targets humans, or mess with the climate (ice age might be possible by releasing moon dust in the upper atmosphere). Or just bombard us by updating the trajectories of some space rocks - though that might mess up the biosphere for even longer. Taking out our satellites would be a big economic disruption, but be seen as a declaration of war so probably would unite us. War is not usually profitable - except for the manufacturers and bankers - if there is any parity between the combatants.
Occupying the moon might be just the Ferengi establishing a monopoly on trade with us. Maybe the galaxy needs cats to fight an infestation of Tribbles.
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u/Annual-Ad-9442 2d ago
if they are invading Earth its because M-class planets are important, there is someone on Earth they want, there is an extremely limited resource on Earth, their culture/religion demands it, gameshow, science. once a species achieves something like space travel they should in theory have access to all the resources in space and therefore not have to invade. on the other hand humans can and would invade another planet because they want a class M or because its easier or cheaper to mine a resource on a planet.
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u/Drapausa 6h ago
The question is why? Why invade another planet? For it's resources would be the logical answer, but why then go to an inhabited system and risk some sort of attack? If you have the technology to fly to other star systems, sure you could just harves asteroids or go to some uninhabited system
The only reason I could think of why aliens would come to our system would be to capture us as slaves or something like that.
Otherwise, there's really no point. And even the slave thing is a stretch as a species that advanced would have machines vastly superior to mere humans.
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u/Global_Handle_3615 2d ago
If they didnt start taking out satellites or dropping small rocks on us then Lots of money would be made available to nasa and other space agencies to start attempting contact and also get us to the moon and mars asap for contact.
If they did start dropping rocks its a case of what could we do to respond without the sites for launch etc being immediately targeted. If they can immediately strike any site from orbit I would assume underground silos for the "important people"
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u/RJ_Augar 2d ago
It depends if there is anything we have that they want. Given that we have the only habitable (by our standards of life) biosphere in the solar system, they may want resources that only can be found on a living world (living dirt, wood, large amount of naturally grown food, people for labor, etc).
From there it depends on how they want to go about getting said resources. They have the high ground and have established a base on the Moon/Mars, so they could strike at key targets with orbital attacks (C&C, missile locations, military bases) and then raid the planet at their leisure taking what they want, when they want it. Or they could use the threats of those attacks to force the world to pay a tithe of those resources, truing us into vassals/slaves without ever needing to land.
And if it's more mineral wealth/something not unique to Earth they want, then they can just ignore us and take want they want from easier to reach locations that aren't at the bottom of a gravity well. They may knock out our space capabilities, just so they don't have any competition, but that depends on their motivation/goals.
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u/Otherwise-Ad-6905 2d ago
I can't think of any reason an alien species that could travel here from beyond our solar system would want to invade earth.
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u/Blando-Cartesian 2d ago
Maybe they really want to check out a solar eclipse. Aside from life, star and moon configuration that create eclipses is the only rare thing we have. All the rest is same matter space travelers can pickup anywhere.
Destroying satellites would be pointless and create a Kessler syndrome of circling junk. Just a really dick move considering how hard space travel is for us, and how much we use satellites for everyday things.
Setting up a station on Mars would be an interesting diplomatic way to make contact. Too far to seriously freak out people, but close enough to get widely confirmed and contacted without favoring any country.
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u/pichael289 2d ago
Earth has nothing that can't be found easily elsewhere in the solar system. Almost nothing, what it does have is abundant biodiversity and maybe minerals formed by biological processes. I don't know about the latter but the former isn't a resource they need to harvest but rather one they need to study.
We never see ships in space. We would be able to see them pretty easily but nothing. They are not leaving the planet which implies this is a reconnaissance type mission. They have to get that data back somehow, and assuming they aren't self contained and are reporting back, thats where ships on the moon or Mars would come in. The stealthy guys down here are observing and sending tight signals (maybe a laser?) so we don't detect them. The ships on mars or, more likely hidden in the asteroid belt, receive that signal and transmit it long distance once the solar system is in the correct alignment.
At least that's one way I could think this would be plausible l.
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u/Expensive-Sentence66 2d ago
Gold and other trace or heavy elements are oddly abundant in high quantities on Earth and easily accessible. They are not on Mercury. They are not on Jupiter.
These elements tend to form in specific zones as stars form. If it's a terrestrial planet in that zone with a light atmosphere and doesn't have crushing gravity it's a bonus. Gold could be pan handled in common streams and rivers but the easy stuff has been mined already.
Try mining for gold on Mercury or Venus.
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u/Embarrassed_Ad1722 2d ago
They'd probably invade us to eliminate us as a threat or use us as food/resource. Can't find this elsewhere in the solar system. Aside from that resources are easily found elsewhere and in more abundance.
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u/lukehahn777 1d ago
No need to invade. Align an impactor: et viola, extinction event. The only thing we can offer is maybe what will save us, our culture, our distinct biology and evolutionary history. Songs and stories. I'm not the only one that would be totally fascinated by those aspects of alien life.
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u/Expensive-Sentence66 2d ago
If they knock out our com sats we just send in Jeff Goldblum with his power Mac and have him plant a virus. Optimus Prime has us covered anyways.
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u/BeginningSun247 2d ago
The real question is "what to do the aliens want?" That needs to be answered before we can really discuss this stuff. Do they want the Earth without us? Do they just want to kill everything? If they want resources then anything they could possibly want is more abundant in space than anywhere else.
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u/FewCartographer8620 1d ago
According to the book space creatures verses madam President the aliens want us to be vegan!
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u/earth-dragon-666 1d ago
If they are able to traverse the universe resources might not matter to them, my guess would be to make friends and help us
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u/nopester24 1d ago
There's nothing to invade on the moon or mars. At best they'd dlset up staging areas to invade earth later
From there it may be easier to study us and take down our satellite networks.
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u/JGhostThing 14h ago
If they don't invade earth, they show they are an intelligent species. Bringing military forces to another star system is an extremely expensive gesture. Why would they want to do this?
Unless, of course, they really want human women. Maybe they think that Earth Girls are Easy (fabulous musical comedy). Some really fun songs.
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u/AndreasderJuengere 2d ago
Aliens aren't Americans. They will contact us in a civilized and mannerful way.
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u/Trike117 2d ago
The US is just practicing the age-old tradition of invading foreign lands and stomping about. Just the latest in a long lineage of colonizers and conquerors.
The Persians: crushing the Middle East and deposing the Egyptians. The Greeks: Alexander the Great and his subjugation of the known world. The Romans: most of them. The Huns: Attila and his cohort. The Mongols: Genghis Khan and his Golden Horde. The French: Napoleon, among others. The Spanish: the Conquistadors running riot over South and Central America. The British: everywhere always.
Even after the British wrecked New Zealand, when the Māori heard about an island with a pacifist group of people called the Moriori they launched an invasion using a British ship and muskets, resulting in the wholesale slaughter and enslavement of the Moriori who didn’t fight back.
There’s always a bully. It’s humanity’s darkest trait.
The only unique aspect of America doing it is that the nation (mostly) stopped taking over other countries in the 20th century. Particularly unique after WWII when the US could have become the next global landowner, instead becoming an empire of influence rather than ownership.
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u/lukehahn777 1d ago
Ah yes, the euro trash opinion of Americans after they created most of the world's problems through colonization. Do tell about your Cortez or Columbus out to find new lands to rape for king and country. Hypocrite
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u/AndreasderJuengere 1d ago
Mate: you sound agitated. In two weeks you have reasons to feel better.
Until then, please figure out what I could have meant by mentioning ''past'' and ''present'' :)
In the meantime: to focus on facts isn't wrong. But a cool head will improve your sight.
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u/Alarmed_Permission_5 2d ago
Aliens wouldn't need to come down from orbit at all. The gravity well would allow them the option of orbital bombardment - see The Expanse for a visual demonstration and Footfall or Moon Is A Harsh Mistress for written versions.
As for a possibility? See The Fermi Paradox.
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u/pokemonhegemon 2d ago
There aren't many resources on Earth that you couldn't find elsewhere in our solar system. I think one of the main ones they could find on Earth that they can't find elsewhere would be chlorophyll.
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u/PrinceFlorfian 2d ago
I don't want to spoil the exact book I read, but I recently read a Sci-fi book that touches on that subject. The aliens in this book went into orbit around the earth and created a base on the moon. They then launched small, targeted invasions of very specific locations while they continually lobbed meteorites at Earth. Eventually, when humanity wouldn't surrender, they provided the ultimatum of "surrender or we'll strike your planet with a massive extinction causing meteorite". I definitely thought that part of it was unique and much more realistic. Why risk your own people's lives, when you can just bombard the planet with meteorites until it's unlivable for local fauna?
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u/Fluid-Let3373 2d ago
I am reminded of a quote from Asimov's foundation novels, violence is the last refuge of the incompetent.
They want human children, knowing there are plenty of unwanted orphans. They offer crude oil in exchange, if we refuse they will give us free gold. We would take the deal of kids for oil.
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u/nightcap965 2d ago
I always loved John Varley’s aliens. They just took Earth and wiped it out. No negotiation, no explanation, no contact. The human remnant lives on Luna and on other planets, moons, and asteroids of our solar system, but Earth is just gone.
And then you have silliness like Defiance, where the aliens terraform Earth. Um … Earth is terraformed by definition.
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u/ShiningSoldier 2d ago
The only logical explanation would be that they need a resource that is abundant on Earth, but rare everywhere else. Like kittens, for example.