starship-design: What if...

[kyle <stk@sunherald.infi.net>]

Hello fellow starship designers!

I was thinking about our destination planet, and was wondering: It's
earthlike,
so what if there is a pre-industrial society there, or even just a
presentient
species there? What should we do? After all, it is their planet, even if
they are
extremely primative. 

I know this will sound paranoid, but we must be prepared for all
possibilities:
Whit if we find evidence that the planet has been visited in the past by
a
starfaring technological race? Even more unlikely, what if we find there
an
OPERATIONAL von-neumann colony, or something of that order. I know these
are
extremely unlikely possibilities, but we MUST BE PREPARED FOR ANYTHING.
After
all, it would not be they, but we who are the aliens.

				Kyle Mcallister