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This is question #2 regarding the background art of Worldbuilding.SE

The Question

What human-made improvements would have to be made to a brown dwarf star for humans to be able to live on it? Also, could a brown dwarf have such features (deserts, mountains, rivers, (see above) etc.) if it was made habitable?

Also, I would like to note that this is different from other questions discussing whether life could exist on something orbiting a brown dwarf. I am specifically wondering what humans would need to do to survive on the surface of a brown dwarf.

series

This question is going to be about the planet this world will be set on. The things I notice about it that are important are that it has mountains, rivers, volcanos, a desert landscape, and a planet that I'm going to pretend is orbiting it. The first thing that arose to my mind was a brown dwarf.

I will post the links for the next questions as I write them, or feel free to write one yourself and post the link here:

Q1:Organic Flying Whales

Q2:Human Survival on the Surface of a Brown Dwarf Star

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  • $\begingroup$ Big modification will be in dealing with +Gravity vs Earth 1G. If required I can come up with predictions of what some Brown Dwarfs Surfaces could support. BUT I am very certain they all would be towards the lower end of the defenition of what is a Brown Dwarf. I have this memory of a "Cool" Brown Dwarf were the surface Temperature is within Human Tolerance. $\endgroup$
    – Enigma Maitreya
    Mar 16, 2017 at 5:15
  • $\begingroup$ In April 2014, WISE 0855−0714 was announced with a temperature profile estimated around 225 to 260 K (−48 to −13 °C; −55 to 8 °F) and a mass of 3 to 10 MJ.[46] It was also unusual in that its observed parallax meant a distance close to 7.2±0.7 light years from the Solar System. $\endgroup$
    – Enigma Maitreya
    Mar 16, 2017 at 5:21
  • $\begingroup$ Off topic: the features on the top of the image suggest seismic activity and atmosphere. The bottom... well, if that is the sky below the ground, we may not be looking at a conventional astronomical body. Or maybe that is a very dark substance with dots of white something spreaded ontop. $\endgroup$
    – Theraot
    Mar 16, 2017 at 5:53

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Well, the first thing we need is a surface! The brown dwarf is made of gas, and the outermost part is normal gas just like you see on Jupiter or Saturn.

So you would need a floating platform of some kind, as discussed in this question. Keep in mind that it’s hot so a hot(er)-air balloon would be difficult.

But even with all the “improvements” you can have (basically, bringing an entire habitat with you) it will not be survivable because the gravity is 15 G in the smallest objects that would be so classified, getting up to around 90 G.

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