?2044
Research & Development
January 8th -- Dr. Cedrick Wormack announced that a smaller Engineering Section ship module had been built, allowing more efficient designs particularly of smaller-end vessels. The lab was re-allocated to Palmer’s work on increasing mining output.
Feb. 16th – Dr. Sanko Matar’s team produced results detailing the possibility of engines with an additional 25% power, up to 150% possible now with new techniques. Dr. Cedrick Wormacktakes the space and begins research into larger fuel storage tanks.
April 20 – Magazine Ejection System research completed by Dr. Harlan Welle and his team. The space is transferred to the Very Large Fuel Storage module project.
Earth
January 28th -- The top-secret shipyard was completed, named the Wartsila A/B & O/Y. I’m assuming that was merely an attempt to confuse. It has a capacity for only 1000 tons, and begins expansion immediately to allow for a reasonably-sized ship should something be
required.
April 1 – Voliva Carrier Company founded(commercial shipping line). Civilians are coming out of the woodwork in a clear vote of confidence for the expansion efforts, but as yet there is really nothing for them to do so it’s a bit premature.
May – Just under a year after the mining outpost was founded, Machholz has surpassed Comas Sola as the largest off-world venture with 10+ mines operational.
July 27th – A 10th research lab is completed on earth. The Jump Point Theory team gets a fourth complex to use, the most that has been devoted to any one project since Trans-Newtonian Technology nearly two decades ago. Revised estimates indicate a final report can be accelerated a few months, due now in January of 2046.
Early August – With over two dozen in place, mine transfers to Machholz are cut off prematurely, in an effort to preserve some to spread out to the other useful comets.
August 29 – The FT Hercules is completed at the Tod & MacGregor Shipyards, the second and for now final in the Fletcher II class. Cmdr. Jung Besler, who has commanded the ST Vega for nearly eight years, is assigned as the best available experienced CO.
It has also been determined that a significant flaw exists in the Hercules and Venus as currently constituted. Namely, they are very short of fuel storage with the Venus having to refuel monthly. A new design, unoriginally dubbed the Fletcher II-x, will have one less cargo handling system –
only one is needed to achieve loading within two days, a perfectly reasonable timeframe – and increase fuel storage 16 times over to 800,000 litres. The new smaller engineering spaces will also be made use of to save on maintenance supply space. The resulting ship is just a hair larger,
actually requires 12 less crew(105 compared to 117), loses less than 2% of it’s speed and has a range of over 33b km, effectively putting the entirety of the system within it’s range.
The Venus is the first to undergo the refitting process, which will be set to begin next year.
Commissioned Officers
Mar. 12th – Karabishi Juishao increases Administration rating to 5, allowing her to supervise effectively even more labs than don’t exist and therefore aren’t available for her use.
Later in March -- LTC Alex Rossi commissioned
Fleet Movement Initiative: 175
Bonuses: Terraforming 20%, Xenology 15%, Logistics 10%
Personality Traits: Disciplined, Dynamic, and Honest
Mid-December – Having turned to politics to increase his standing, LtC Roger Wilco now has considerable backing(political reliability 15%).
Sol Survey Efforts
Eight bodies remain now, three asteroids, Sedna, and the four comets. No new deposits were discovered this year, with eight more ground surveys bringing the total to 48 completed, 14 remaining on that front.
Mining Report
Off-world operations are significant enough now that it’s worth presenting an annual report on the state of things. Each location will list the number of mines and type(standard or automated), the total yield, efficiency(minerals per mine per year), and the amount of corundium since that’s the most critical need right now.
Earth(249 standard/17 automated) – 8.44kt annual yield, 24t efficiency, 0 corundium
Machholz(0S/27.6A) – 1.92 kt yield, 63t eff, 213 corundium
Comas Sola(0S/10.2A) – 696t yield, 65t eff, 75 corundium
Venus(0S/6A) – 177t yield, 24t efficiency, 7 corundium
Schaumasse(0S/1.8A) – 80t yield, 36t efficiency, 22 corundium
Reinmuth(0S/1.8A) – 101t yield, 47t efficiency, 0 corundium
From this it is clear that getting mines off of Earth and Venus as much as possible and to higher-efficiency mining outposts will continue to be a productive endeavor. New mine conversions can be queued up now at a little over four per year, and Earth still has 20 in the pipeline to be converted at this point, a year and a half worth.
The top untapped known sources, in terms of mining efficiency(min. 50t) are:
Swift-Tuttle(71t, 4.36kt corundium) – A long-period comet that won’t be within reasonable range for decades.
Wolf-Harrington(67t, 6.49kt corundium) – Previously overlooked because it lacks duranium, but this was probably short-sighted. Wolf-Harrington is in position to be exploited immediately(280m km, well inside the asteroid belt) and will be added to the short-period comet list along with Comas Sola and Machholz.
Crommelin(66t, 3.18kt corundium) – This incoming comet will be exploited in the next few years.
Neujmin(59t, 1.42kt corundium) – Incoming on a similar vector and distance to Crommelin, it will be exploited as well. Both are about 1.6b km out at this point.
Borrelly(58t, 0 corundium)
Van Biesbroeck(55t, 0 corundium) – We’ll keep an eye on this pair, but for now are focusing soley on corundium sources.
Herschel-Rigolet(54t, 9.88kt corundium) – Another long-period comet that can’t be reached efficiently.
Halley’s Comet(51t, 0 corundium) – Very long-range, and has only neutronium out of the big three.
