After the latest batch of officers and administrators have graduated from the naval academies all over the world the final remaining installation in Britain – the naval academy – is integrated into Germany as well, thus completing the integration of Britain.
In November Brauchitsch Transport Corporation launches 2 freigthers, 1 large freighter at 34.1kt with 25kt capacity and 1 huge freighter at 67.6kt with 50kt capacity. The authorities are at a loss what they actually want to transport, but it is suspected that they want to be prepared for when Germany starts to send automated mines to important mineral sites and infrastructure to potential colonies. And while both plans have not been communicated to the public plans are prepared for this. But it seems that they do not know that it is planed to test a new idea for the transportation of the minerals itself. There is a theory that batches of minerals can be shot from giant magnetic cannons and be received by a similar device at the destination. Early tests have been very promising amd a first “Mass Driver” is already under construction (but at a fairly low priority at the moment).
In early December a second civilian shipping line is established, Bartsch Shipping Lines. Later in December the Elisabeth Huber Geo-Team on Luna complete their investigation, but come up empty handed. Neither did they find any minerals nor have they been able to force entry into the installation they did find and which seems to be the source of the signals detected on Earth. They head back to Earth with a small shuttle that has been send for them. And in another shuttle they are heading off to their next destination, the comet Comas Sola
(personally I dislike the micro involved in moving the geo-teams by actual shuttle, due to this I simply “beam” them to their new destinations – disbanding them and re-creating them). It looks like military forces will be needed to open the alien installation, but currently Earth lacks the means to move troops to Luna.
At the end of December Zeppelin Werke finished its expansion to 3kt and the slightly smaller and faster Humboldt Mk2 (which is still way inferior to the new Humboldt shuttle). Due to this no new ships are ordered for now, but the capacity expansion contines. Kapitän zur See (R3) Detlef Zweig (Survey 20%) is assigned to the Humboldt Mk2 which shows another advantage of the new Humboldt shuttles. They do not need a Fregattenkapitän (R2) to command them, a Korvettenkapitän (R1) is enough and thus officers more qualified for survey will be able to do the planetary surveys. Zweig is order to look for minerals on the closest system bodies.
1884Competition among civilian shipping lines will be really intense with two new competitors, Rosenfelder and Lindenbaum. And in March the remaining colonies on Earth improve their status to candidate populations. In April Timo Geizler completes Turret Tracking Speed 2kkm/s and Bastian Redlich (PP 20%) start to look into Capacitor Recharge Rate 2. And 474k Duraium at 1.0 accessability is discovered on Ceres. This is a very nice find, but Corundium is still more of a problem.
Temple-1 – surveyed at the end of May – looks decent, but still no Corundium: Neutronium 42kt @0.6, Corbomite 40kt @0.6, Tritanium 52kt @0.5, Mercassium 117kt @0.8 and Gallicite 10kt @0.9. A new research lab was constructed and another one ordered and Meyer Werft expanded its capacity by 10kt and another 10kt are ordered.
In August research into Cryo Transport is completed by Jana Scheele (LG 35%) and she start to look into Troop Transport Bays. In theory Earth would be able to colonize other planets and moons, but currently still lack the infrastructure to support large colonies. But production of infrastructure will get a higher priority and a first test base will be established on Luna with the available infrastructure (40 units). Civilian shipping is ordered to take care of the transport.
In September Wilhelm von Knapp (BG 40%) completes looking into Terraforming Rate 0.12 and tries to further improve it. Later this month the first Humboldt-Shuttle is completed and tasked with surveys of the more distant planets and moons due to its higher speed and longer range. With knowledge about a smaller engineering section just about 4 month away there is no order for an additional shuttle for now. A civilian mining colony was established on Faye with 3 mining complexes – Duranium 37kt @1, Corbomite 22kt @0.8, Trianium 30kt @0.5 and Mercassium 18kt @0.9 – none of this minerals are desperately needed at the moment, but are still useful. In addition the treasury holds more than 150k credits, with a surplus of about +580, so the decision to buy those minerals is easily made.
After finishing EM Sensory Sensitivity 6 in October Gabriele Schenk (SF 50%) starts to look into Beam Fire Control Range 10kkm. Towards the end of December August Roth (PP 15%) completes his research into the new Pebble Bed Reactor and continues with Nuclear Pulse Engine Technology.
1885Heiko Zenz (LG 45%) finishes his Engineering Section – Small project and tries to reduce the size even further. The reason for this becomes clear when the new section is fitted into an improved Humboldt shuttle. It is still way too large for a fighter chassis. But since it is still an improvement one new Mk2 is ordered.
Humboldt Shuttle Mk2 class Geological Survey Vessel 500 tons 14 Crew 140.5 BP TCS 10 TH 5 EM 0
500 km/s Armour 1-5 Shields 0-0 Sensors 1/1/0/1 Damage Control Rating 0 PPV 0
Maint Life 9.2 Years MSP 88 AFR 4% IFR 0.1% 1YR 2 5YR 28 Max Repair 100 MSP
Intended Deployment Time: 72 months Spare Berths 0
5 EP Nuclear Thermal Engine (1) Power 5 Fuel Use 89.1% Signature 5 Exp 10%
Fuel Capacity 60 000 Litres Range 24.2 billion km (561 days at full power)
Geological Survey Sensors (1) 1 Survey Points Per Hour
This design is classed as a Fighter for production, combat and maintenance purposes
February sees the launch of the first luxury spaceliner by Rosenfelder Marine, enabling the more affluent people to take a pleasure cruise into space. An environment previously reserved for scientists and the military. With the second mass driver completed on Earth civilian transports get a contract to move a mass driver to Faye. Soon it will be known whether mass drivers work over planetary distances as well. In March Elisabeth Huber’s Geo-Survey team finishes their work on Mercury without finding anything, they are shuttled to Faye where the mass driver is starting to send minerals back to Earth. And the mass driver is working as expected with the driver on Earth neatly catching the packets send by the driver on Faye. This should safe fuel and transport capacity, even though at the moment both of those are there in abundance. The geo-team fails to find any new deposits.
In June Stephanie Trattner (MK 20%) finished research into Railgun 10cm and continues to look into larger calibers. And it is starting to get really crowded around Earth, despite still not much to do for the civilians (well, except moving stuff from Earth to Earth
).
That’s it for today…