Author Topic: Cold Sun - Part 2: Breaking Orbit  (Read 1688 times)

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Offline Steve Walmsley (OP)

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Cold Sun - Part 2: Breaking Orbit
« on: February 05, 2019, 12:59:27 PM »
Only a brief update covering the next three years, but useful to see how things are progressing

20th March 2047
The Russian Federation develops nuclear pulse engine technology.

23rd June 2047
The first pair of Tridente class freighters are completed by Brazil. For the moment, they have nowhere to go. Two more are laid down.

15th November 2047
The Republic of India develops nuclear pulse technology. Two weeks later, the Colonial Alliance joins the nuclear pulse club.

18 February 2048
Brazil is the first nation to complete research into the Sorium Harvester module.

3rd May 2048
Russia becomes the second nation with Trans-Newtonian spacecraft with the launch of two Project 001 freighters. China follows three weeks later with the launch of two Type 002 freighters, while Brazil now has four Tridentes in service. Every nation except the European Union has freighters and geological survey ships under construction. The Colonial Alliance and the Russian Federation also each have a single colony ship under construction, although neither will be ready until April 2050.

7th June 2048
Brazil launches Sirius and Almirante Maximiano, the first two geological survey ships. Despite its small economy, relative to the other powers, the Federative Republic of Brazil is leading the way in terms of spacecraft construction. Both ships break orbit and begin a survey of the Sol system.

13th June 2048
The Brazilian survey ship Sirius makes what is probably the third most momentous discovery in human history after the cooling of the sun and the breakthrough into Trans-Newtonian physics. Her survey sensors detect the ruins of an alien city, buried beneath the shifting red sands of Mars. Not only does this prove the existence of intelligent alien life, which adds new danger to the planned exodus from Sol, it also creates an opportunity as some of the damaged alien installations might be recoverable or contain valuable information. The technology needed for the investigation and exploitation of the ruins will be a high priority for Brazilian scientists, after they have determined how to leave the Sol system. Brazil decides not to inform other nations of the discovery, even though they will eventually discover it for themselves, on order to gain whatever head start may be possible.

SM Note: I didn't add the Martian ruins - they were generated randomly. A very pleasant surprise.

18th June 2048
The Brazilian head start will be very short, at least over the People’s Republic. China launches the Type 001 survey ships Taizhou and Jinhua, which soon make the same discovery as their Brazilian counterparts. Unfortunately for both nations the situation on Earth has to take priority, which greatly reduces the advantage they gain through early discovery.

19th June 2048
The geological survey of Venus reveals 360,000 tons of 0.6 Duranium, 30 million tons of 0.8 Neutronium and 230,000 tons of 0.6 Corundium, plus a large deposit of low accessibility Gallicite. All three accessible minerals will provide very useful when Earth’s own deposits run out. There is also a minimal chance that additional minerals will be found by a ground survey.

4th July 2048
Jupiter has thirty-six million tons of accessibility 0.9 Sorium. Once humanity builds a fuel production infrastructure, Jupiter should satisfy its needs for decades.

15th July 2048
The European Union is the fourth nation to develop nuclear pulse technology.

20th July 2048
The average surface temperature of Earth falls to 2C, which is halfway between the previous ‘normal’ temperature of 14C and lower boundary of human tolerance at -10C. While -10C is extremely uncomfortable, it is survivable with existing and easily available building materials. Below that point, specialised infrastructure will be required or humans will start dying in large numbers. The current state of the six nations is as follows:



29 August 2048
The People’s Republic of China develops the Terraforming Module. As a result, the Type 004 Terraforming Base is designed and will be built by Chinese construction factories. While the Chinese will be performing a service to all of humanity if they can slow the rate at which the temperature on Earth is falling, the long-term use of the platform will be to help establish a new Chinese home world.

Type 004 class Terraforming Base      126,400 tons       510 Crew       2,688.2 BP       TCS 2,528    TH 0    EM 0
1 km/s      No Armour       Shields 0-0     HTK 66      Sensors 0/0/0/0      DCR 1      PPV 0
MSP 13    Max Repair 500 MSP
Shao Xiao    Control Rating 1   BRG 
Intended Deployment Time: 3 months   
Terraformer: 5 modules producing 0.0025 atm per annum

18 October 2048
India launches its first Trans-Newtonian spacecraft; a pair of Khukri class freighters.

6th January 2049
The Colonial Alliance launches three Roanoke class freighters. All nations except the European Union now have freighters in service, although there is nowhere for them to go.

11th January 2049
Russia launches two Project 002 geological survey ships, Fedor Golovin and Viktor Leonov, and soon becomes the third nation to learn about the Martian ruins.

26th January 2049
China completes its Type 004 Terraforming Base, which is now stationed in Earth orbit. The base begins to add Aestusium to the atmosphere in an attempt to counter the falling temperature.

25th February 2049
The Russian Federation researches Jump Point Theory and begins to work on gravitational survey sensors and jump drive technology. Brazilian scientists make the same breakthrough within two weeks. The hope that humanity could find a way out of the Sol system has been realised in theoretical terms, if not yet in practice. It remains to be seen if this discovery can be exploited in time.

6th April 2049
India launches two geological survey ships. Only the Colonial Alliance and the European Union do not have survey ships in service, although both have ships under construction.

8th May 2049
The People’s Republic of China develops jump point theory. China is still using nuclear thermal engines, but the availability of interstellar travel was deemed more important for research than faster spacecraft.

The temperature on Earth is close to 1C and the Chinese terraforming base is having minimal impact so far as five terraforming modules cannot deal with the rate at which the temperature is falling. Therefore, the Chinese persuade the other nations to hold the first global summit in almost ten years. At the summit, the Chinese state that every nation should contribute to the effort to delay the fate of the Earth. However, to do that they need to build their own terraforming bases, which requires knowledge of the technology that only the Chinese possess. With that in mind, they propose a general technology exchange with each nation contributing something that the others have not yet developed. As part of this exchange China would offer terraforming technology.

Most nations see the benefit of the plan. The Colonial Alliance offers wealth technology, the European Union offers construction technology and Brazil offers the Sorium Harvester. All of these technologies require a similar amount of research effort so it would be a fair exchange. India is in a worse position as the only technology advantage it has over the others is fire control speed, which is not as difficult to research or particularly useful in the current situation. It does possess nuclear pulse engines, which are not available to either Brazil or China, but this would not be a benefit to the other nations. Brazil points out that it is close to developing improved wealth technology, so it would not really benefit from the Colonial Alliance contribution. The nuclear pulse technology would be an acceptable alternative. China is also partway through development so the same applies. Although China would benefit slightly more from the overall arrangement, the other nations accept that China brought everyone together and the extra benefit is accepted. India also agree to pass on the fire control technology so the other nations gain some benefit from India. Which leaves the Russian Federation.

The only field in which Russia has an edge over most of the other nations is in engine size, as it has developed technology allowing engines up to 2000 tons. China also has this technology. This is not comparable in research effort to the other technology on offer, so Russia makes an additional offer. After recently developing jump point theory, Russia concentrated its efforts on gravitational survey sensors, which will be available in four months. Russia suggests the main technology exchange takes place now, including the large engine technology and it will pass on the sensor technology as soon as it is developed.

While the proposed exchange is not a perfect deal, every nation is happy that it will receive valuable technology. Also, given the increasingly serious situation on Earth, the desire to cooperate is much stronger than would normally be the case. Therefore, all the national leaders agree to the proposal and the technology exchange is made. In addition, every nation agrees to build a terraforming station with at least five terraforming modules within the next 12 months.

2nd June 2049
India researches jump point theory.

15th September 2049
The Colonial Alliance launches its first two geological survey ships, Galileo and Copernicus.

25th September 2049
The European Union researches jump point theory

30th September 2049
The Russian Federation develops gravitational survey sensors. As previously agreed, Russia distributes this knowledge to the other five nations.

5th October 2049
China completes its second terraforming base and the Colonial Alliance completes its own Gaia class terraforming base. So far the single existing Chinese base has only added 0.0017 atm of Aestusium, which is about one sixth of one percent of total atmospheric pressure. The rate of addition will now triple and the other four nations all have bases under construction. The surface temperature of Earth is currently 0.98C.

1st November 2049
A Russian terraforming base joins the international effort.

16th November 2049
The Colonial Alliance is the last nation to research jump point theory. Even though all the nations all have gravitational sensor tech and could build gravitational survey ships, none have created a new survey design. As jump tech will be available for almost all nations within a year, they are waiting to create jump-capable designs.

21 December 2049
India constructs a terraforming base in Earth orbit.

14 February 2050
The European Union constructs a terraforming base.

1st March 2050
The Colonial Alliance completes Exodus 001, the first Trans-Newtonian colony ship in human history. This ship and the others that will follow from all six nations represent the hope that humanity will soon find a new home. In the meantime, the ship is used to establish a small colony on Mercury using infrastructure transported by Roanoke class freighters. The innermost planer of Sol will stay warm the longest and currently has a surface temperature of 389C. However, because it is a tide-locked world, the twilight zone between the light and dark halves of the planet provides a partially habitable area with a colony cost of 2.93. As the sun cools, the colony cost will fall. In fact, with the addition of an atmosphere, Mercury would become an ideal habitable world at some point in the future, albeit only temporarily.

8th March 2050
China produces its first Type 003 colony ship and shortly thereafter founds its own colony on Mercury.

20 March 2050
Brazil completes construction of a terraforming base. Seven bases from six countries with a total of thirty-five terraforming modules are now in orbit of Earth. The amount of Aestusium in the atmosphere is 0.007 atm, or about 0.7%. This is finally having a positive effect and the temperature has increased to 1.9C. Adding greenhouse gas to counter the cooling of the sun does have limitations, as there is a point at which further gas will not help. However, that is some time away, which gives Earth a breathing space while the six nations find a new home for humanity.