Imagine for a Moment

1. My ship would be equipped to isolate and bring back misc samples and life forms. It would also have defensive capabilites 2. Staff would be picked not just for qualifications, but their current skills banks. Cross training a must. 6 month Pre-flight training mandatory 3. State of the art across the board equiptment plus parts 4. Until I know Engineers can be trusted, we park on the other side of the planet and go into observation mode, recon and report. Then, we analize data and proceed... 5. Decipher every symbol or artifact we can get our hands on before contact... 6. SHIPS NAME: Masterman 7. We meet in a neutral area...We dont have anything they want, so we would have to be on our toes throughout the whole meeting. Once bad or questionable move is made...we may have to pull the plug

Who is Ted Weyland? Or Tom Weyland for that matter??? You may be getting the TED talk and names mixed there :-P

He's talking hypothetically, how would you have run the mission differently - a good question, but we're talking a LOT of hindsight here. Firstly, I would've had more "professionals" in there - as in scientists who wouldn't remove their helmets within 5 minutes of breathable air readings. Establish a FIRM chain of command...no holograms telling everybody these two call the shots, then a company rep saying SHE calls the shots, then a pilot who does whatever he hell wants anyway. I would've established a forward base of some kind, or at least stationed some crew out side of the temple during exploration. I would've had at least a half a dozen more robots to carry out dangerous exploratory tasks. They would take up less resources than humans during the flight. And put them on a short leash - no opening friggin' doors willy-nilly without permission. I agree with Ritchie above - decipher everything written, and analyze all specimens before acting. Actually sit down and discuss a course of action with the other crew members. If things go to shit...here's the hindsight part...have weapons that are worth a damn. Something that can blow a hole through an Engineer, the tentacles off Cuddles, or the head off a sphincterpede at 50 paces, case closed.

Sorry it took awhile for me to get back due to the changes made on this site, now I can finally post on here again @Cypher, I edited my thread @Richie, like your mission parameters, how did you arrive with the name of your ship" Masterman " sounds intimidating, but like it allot... Defensive weapons is a must and I like the idea of cross training your scientist and staff... @jim100a100, professionals is a must, and I would have many androids that simply carry out commands w/o deception/deviation and report back to whoever is in command... as far as having the weapon capability to take down an engineer, in the scene where the guy shoots the engineer w/Weyland’s powerful rifle did not even phase the engineer. I assume that flame throwers would ward off most of the new aliens in this movie, but the juggernaut withstood the nuclear blast from the Prometheus, so I hope some type of bunker buster missile could work... Thanks for your imput...

Mission New Hope Ships would consist of: 1 scout/survey ship called “ The Infiltrator “ it’s crew of 3 intelligent androids and task is to approach LV-223 on stealth mode, scan entire surface looking for life forms, habitats, intelligence, report back to command ship. If seen by any inhabitants on LV-223, ship is to send final data and self destruct... 1 command ship called “ New Hope “ crew consist of every living Nobel Peace Prize winning scientist, an experience flight crew, a squad of Mechwarrior solders and all the equipment to set up a forward base.... the ship would have the latest defense weapons on board and the latest labs for the scientist to work from.... Mission: Make 1st contact after scientist have deciphered all information....request to have engineer share any technology that will enhance the human race, ask how we can serve them.... if the shit hits the fan, we will nuke from orbit, it’s the only way to be sure, right corporal Hicks?