Is the Covenant intended to land on the surface?

Isn't the story (again) that the mission was to a different planet but it was diverted while en route to that planet to investigate something on another? If so, then there'd be no reason to start sending down terraforming/colonizing materials to the planet they land on. 

Fair point. This seems like a one way mission though. I wonder if the Covenant is intended to land.

Looks a little 'flimsy' for atmospheric entry. I'd reckon it'd be pulled apart in orbit and the parts ferried down.

SM

That makes me wonder how they intend to establish a colony on ground and what happens to the larger ship.

Detach all the modules and ferry them down the surface usng landing vehicles.  Then take the remaining frame apart and take that down too.

Yeah, the 'flying cargo deck' ship at the end of the trailer looks like it was made for that purpose. I'm guessing the trucks/vehicles we see in the Covenant are ferried down on that thing, so as SM says, they could dismantle the Covenant in orbit and ferry it down in parts too. There must be large terraforming equipment either on board or that are constructed out of parts of the ship.

That makes sense. Somehow I cannot see the movie getting into those details, but it would be interesting in its own right.

isn't part of the actual ship supposed to part of the terraforming machine? I had read that somewhere but it could have been just a thought.

I would assume not....

I would also assume the Drop Ship at the end of the Trailer, is a ship that loads up parts of the Covenant Modules (Marked in Green)  to then Transport to the Surface and they are Assembled like a Giant Lego Set.

@Shasta

I agree that sounds like Ridley Scott, making the ship itself part of the terraforming machinery once it gets planetside. I feel there are probably a few drop ships or cargo ships that can detach....but Ridley always has everything make sense in his films or be of use and be logical when it comes to the ships or machinery...i just feel you are correct in that he would have created the ship with that logic or someting similar when designing everything....just Ridley being Ridley

Good topic dk.

The latest trailers show what appears to be the Covenant ship dropping down through the clouds towards the surface.

You guys are brilliant!! I NEVER saw the connection between how the ship is built and the design of the dropship!! I agree, such design aspects would be VERY logical and be very sensible in the planning of an initial colony site/set-up!

From a monetary standpoint, it would be a better investment to ensure maximum use of all equipment for the intended mission. WY may have gobs of cash but even the richest of the rich want maximum returns on minimal expense- if they are smart. It's just math.

The points made here about the modules are interesting especially in relation to the scene in the new trailer with the record player. Someone pointed out it looks like something from the ISS so it really could be the/a dropship. As I recall Ridley said that the Awakening title was especially profound given where the ship was heading next after Paradise so I'd assume where ever they go it's gonna need some effort to terraform it.

dk

Bingo! Exactly! It's also time-management efficient as the sooner a colony is up and running the sooner it starts producing, say, mined ores and such.

Blackwinter-witch

Especially the "such".

DK - You have posed an exceedingly compelling question! Like many of the others whom have speculated, I believe the Covenant is an orbital starship designed to drop smaller landers - a spaceborne hub. Thank you ever so much for taking the time to begin this extremely engaging topic! :)

dk

Well, to be fair, 'such' could mean assorted useful and beneficial things derived from alien plants and animals on various colony worlds.. But in the main, the sooner a colony starts producing, the better, is what I meant. :)

Blackwinter-witch Understood. I meant the "such" as something more sinister or at least a hidden agenda.

@Ingeniero 

In Your second image one can see the Covenant in orbit with all these pods underneath. It seems as those are not present on the second image. My guess is that those pods are some kind of separate livingquarters for the colonists, once they get settled on the new planet. Beeing absent in the second image could mean that they've been detached in orbit, beeing to valuable to risk in an landingattempt.

What do You think?

dk

Great and Dark minds think alike. :) BUT, I think it's safe to assume there won't be Aliens waiting to pounce on every world Humanity colonizes.

...BUT, there might be some things like, I dunno, some kind of Super-Opium that's Illegal, but when did any good money-grubbing megacorporation ever turn away from something that makes them beaucoup bucks? Sinister/hidden agendas, oh there's SO many possibilities...maybe some local plant, or combo of such Greatly extends Human Lifespan, BUT, it's hard to harvest/very limited growths, so it's KEPT QUIET and available only to those with supreme $$ and Supreme Discretion...

Blackwinter-witch ...and ultimately comes back to f%$k us all. Interesting how the franchise has religious themes of gods and demons, which is interesting in its own right, but it seems we screw things up by ourselves so well that we need no other worldly or spiritual assistance. We perfected the art all by ourselves. And what a way to sell it as a mission of building better worlds and other buzzwords to earn public trust. IDK I might be getting into BD territory here.

dk

No, you're making an excellent point!! In ALIEN: Manticore I have the Captain make that same observation regarding Humanity, the Engineers and how Humanity has enough problems of it's OWN making and doesn't need any more from Globicidal extraterrestrials.

Nefarious activities by persons and corporations, governments..well, that's just...The Human Way. Remember Ripley's comment about her 'not knowing which species is worse, you don't see them F---ing each other over for a dollar.' ?? That alone supports your points right there. :)

I am glad your book will have that element!

dk

TY for saying! :) When I was working out the dialogue for the characters (good thing hubby understands when I'm 'talking to myself') I had that burst into my head, thought about leaving it out, then realized that if I did discard it, it'd mess up some main story points, especially some key character motivations.

Also, and I think you'll agree, it's a Truth about the Human Condition. An unpleasant one, but a Truth nonetheless.

Yes, the human condition and scifi was brought up before in a different thread as I recall. Maybe the off the beaten path movie thread- I don't remember.

I think I may know what you mean about talking to oneself. I wrote some stuff on a thread nin coughed up. It was exactly that- rehearsing the dialogue with a mental picture of the scene and then writing it out how people actually talk instead of word smithing and polishing every line- if that makes sense.

dk

Makes total sense! It also really helps me in getting the 'mood' of a scene right, and being able to properly frame tones and such. I've tried just keeping it in my head, but I dunno, the 'feedback' one gets in acting/talking out a scene and dialogue, allows a better 'grasping' of things.
Discussions of The Human Condition are likely all across every ALIEN themed forum as mainly that IS what the franchise is about.

Blackwinter-witch Sounds like you are all in. Not sure if you are into the band Motorhead, but the late great Lemmy once said regarding presenting material to the masses- "Fly your flag up the pole and see who salutes it!"

dk

I forget at the moment who said it, but akin to Lemmy's advice, it was: "Write for yourself, not for the audience. Then you'll find out who genuinely appreciates your stories." It might have been Arthur C Clarke, maybe Asimov, or Bradbury...I just recall the quote.

BWW- sounds familiar. Mark Twain wrote some decent stuff and had some words about writing too. You probably know and don't mean to insult intelligence but here are some gems:

http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=4&cad=rja&uact=8&sqi=2&ved=0ahUKEwj068GRxY_TAhVS9WMKHTOiBEgQFggxMAM&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.onlineuniversities.com%2Fblog%2F2010%2F07%2F12-timeless-writing-tips-from-mark-twain%2F&usg=AFQjCNHKLCPvGjTaoic44TA9cX05Zdxbkw&sig2=scFKKkS5m7uQ0TUbCPJdNQ&bvm=bv.151426398,d.cGc

dk

NO insult percieved and TY for the link!! There's some really great quotes here! Many I didn't know previously! :)

The best part is the 'translations' of the quotes, those really help, and there's some VERY valuable advice here for all writers!!

TY again!!

Reading some of the comments and looking at the Ship, it would appear a ship this size once all the modules have been taken down would have trouble finding a space to land on their destination.

Maybe it can be broken down as SM stated or maybe it either stays in Orbit where they can use it as we would for communications and how we use Satellites in General.

Am am sure once we master vast Space Travel where we can send hundreds of people maybe hundreds of light years, the ship designs would be more in line of something that can be re-used.

Maybe they can send it back with Skeleton Crew to re-use?

As for the Company and Inside motives and Agenda's of the Nefarious kind, i am inclined to think at the present time so 2100-2105 the Companies objective for the Covenant Mission is exactly that a long term, long rang large colonization mission.

As back-handed as the Company came across in the Alien Franchise i dont think they would invest all that money and send 2000 souls on the off chance off what David was up to.

They would send a Military/Science exploration craft with a number of Androids on to either LV-223 or Paradise and not a Colony Mission.

I would think any company interest would come after the fate of those Colonists in future movies has been established and relates then to a Organism they can use  as a Weapon or Research for other uses of it.

BigDave

Good points!!

My considered theory on the ship (after a solid dose of eyestrain examining pics) is that it's a long-range, open-frame hauler, and covered in the modules for a pre-fab Initial Colony Site. The dropship as folks pointed out, it's design is VERY specific and fits to the look of the assorted 'modules' too closely to be accidental.

Once everything's offloaded and set up, working, the ship would return home to do the same again. Minimal innate ship-mass, maximum cargo-carrying capacity, meaning Low Overhead in establishing colonies quickly.

As nefarious as W-Y, and likely assorted other corporations are, like you I think Covenant is just a by-the-book colonization mission, albeit the first one of it's scale, and that W-Y had zero knowledge of where David and Shaw had gone, or even what happened to them post-Prometheus Incident. So, I don't see any company nastiness in this movie, but Walter MIGHT have some contingency 'sleeper' programs, always a possibility.

At first, I thought that the Covenant- provided that it's a lot bigger than the Prometheus- was too big to enter planetary atmospheres and effectively landing on the surface without being shredded and melting, (also depends on the atmosphere of course) and land on surfaces. I still do to some extent but it's rather difficult to measure the size of the ship without at least a dropship right next to it for size comparison.

Judging by the first picture Ingeniero posted, it does seem like the Covenant is travelling at a very low orbit imo (either that or it's an illusion of distance). Not sure if it will descend further though before (more) dropships are deployed.

 Can someone clarify if the Covenant was always heading to Paradise or if it got diverted on route to somewhere else?

Thanks :) 

@Blackwinter-witch

Totally 100% Spot on, this is how i see it too.

Indeed Neomorph  the Covenant did look like it had entered the outer Atmosphere, i think however as Blackwinter-witch put it, i would consider the main ship not being really intended to land on the Surface.

I think it could land however provided there was a purpose built platform for it, i just think it would need a massive Flat Area to land.

As far as the Size, i have not worked that out.. i would be willing to take some measurements for a estimate if anyone likes lol

I agree to Neo.

I further think the cargo lifter/transport is meant for "on site" transport.

Considering the briefly shown bumpy ride of the dropship i can't imagine the cargo lifter doing an orbital decent with, let's say, an ATV strapped onto it. Unless there's some sort encasement to protect the cargo during atmospheric entry.   

On the other hand, we're talking scifi here so anything is possible if the story needs it. ;)

Deep Space, this may answer your question.

"Deep into their mission, the crew is awakened from their cryogenic sleep pods by a mysterious distress signal that is human in origin. That signal leads them to another planet, a paradise that looks far more appealing than their initial destination. And then they do not peacefully settle on that planet and do not happily establish a colony because this is a movie with Alien in the title."

http://www.slashfilm.com/alien-covenant-characters-plot/

BigDave

TY !! :)

Given the tech we've seen in the ALIEN universe, like you I suspect Covenant COULD land, but it would need an appropriately large, flat or reasonably-flat area. But while it CAN probably do so, I doubt it's a 'preferred option'.

Ingeniero

"Deep into their mission, the crew is awakened from their cryogenic sleep pods by a mysterious distress signal that is human in origin. That signal leads them to another planet, a paradise that looks far more appealing than their initial destination. And then they do not peacefully settle on that planet and do not happily establish a colony because this is a movie with Alien in the title."

LOL Love it!!! :D