Why mine on Pandora?

[Eternal Enigma]

I’m certain someone else has already brought this up, but I’m going to bring it up again. Something that has occurred to me after viewing photos of Polyphemus and realizing again that there are other moons that orbit this planet I began to wonder why the RDA would mine on a planet with an abundance of life instead of one of the other moons that may have none at all. I would imagine that if Pandora had unobtainium then surely the other moons of Polyphemus would too. Generally all planets and moons formed in the same star system contain the same elements. To me it seems like the right thing to do would have been to try and mine for unobtainium on the other moons after realizing that Pandora was so heavily populated. I don’t buy the fact that Pandora has the only known source of unobtainium because one of the other moons had to have been a better candidate for mining. Perhaps Pandora had the most concentrated levels of unobtainium, but does that really justify destroying life?

[Wanderlust]

Then there would be no plot/conflict.

[Mike Philbin]

Eywa would have still SENSED the human invasion, mining on a moon with less indigenous life on it?

Are the moons connected by Eywa?

[dgjmaas]

I’m certain someone else has already brought this up, but I’m going to bring it up again. Something that has occurred to me after viewing photos of Polyphemus and realizing again that there are other moons that orbit this planet I began to wonder why the RDA would mine on a planet with an abundance of life instead of one of the other moons that may have none at all. I would imagine that if Pandora had unobtainium then surely the other moons of Polyphemus would too. Generally all planets and moons formed in the same star system contain the same elements. To me it seems like the right thing to do would have been to try and mine for unobtainium on the other moons after realizing that Pandora was so heavily populated. I don’t buy the fact that Pandora has the only known source of unobtainium because one of the other moons had to have been a better candidate for mining. Perhaps Pandora had the most concentrated levels of unobtainium, but does that really justify destroying life?

According to expanded universe material, Pandora was struck by a Mars-sized object early in its geological history, sort of like the theory of how our own moon was formed when a large object struck Earth. As the the magnetic field of Polyphemus interacted with the disrupted core of the early Pandora, this created an environment in which the unobtanium could form. If no other moons of Polyphemus were struck in the same manner, it is reasonable to assume that they don't have any unobtanium.

[Sanjwale]

maybe that stuff isn't on the other planets.

I get now the story of the movie battle los angeles over here.
there are aliens coming on this earth because this earth has water. maybe it is the same in the movie. that only pandora has that stuff. (lost the name xD)

[HufweMakto]

maybe that stuff isn't on the other planets.

I get now the story of the movie battle los angeles over here.
there are aliens coming on this earth because this earth has water. maybe it is the same in the movie. that only pandora has that stuff. (lost the name xD)

Actually that's the problem of Battle: Los Angeles; water and the components of water exist elsewhere in the solar system, though it's kinda hard to conceive of getting liquid water out there.

However, some scientists have noted that aliens might invade us for biological life, though even I find that kinda stupid in a way. It would have to be something on Earth that would be considered a rare earth mineral or something.

[Sanjwale]

it was just a example but maybe there is something in the ground whe don't know.

[akgeff]

I wouldn't be suprised if unobtanium is an intrinsic reason why life on Pandora evolved the way it did and that the removal of it from Pandora in significant amounts would do irreparable harm to not only the life on Pandora but Ewa as well. It seems logical to me that unobtanium exists at the cellular level if not even at the molecular level in all of the biology of Pandora and has influenced the evolution of life on Pandora in fundamental ways from the begining. I don't think it is coincidence that Home tree or the tree of souls were located in areas with high concentrations of unobtanium. The superconducting qualities of unobtanium would go a long way in explaining the planetwide interconnected network of Pandoran biology.

[_Omaticaya_]

Probably exploreratheart said the right thing, the raw truth... But maybe as you said Pandora might have had more unobtanium, and i think, as far away as they were from earth, and with no love at all, they didn't even consider destroying life as a problem... Plus, you didn't mention the scientists mate, they were an excuse to mine, but still they needed the rainforest to study the trees and the biodiversity there, and they'd have just studied rocks on the other planets, while on Pandora, they had a WHOLE new planet to explore, pity they ruined it...

[Wanderlust]

Hey, every planet is an equal opportunity amazing exploration mine.

Also the scientists used the companies profit motive to carry themselves to Pandora in order to study it. A drive which lead to harm of the study subject.