Space Race
From Acw
Contents |
The Moon Landings (1947 - 1990)
- In 1963 the Russians landed the Soyuz III Lunar Module landed on the Moon, and Yuri Gagarin became the first man on the moon.
- In 1972 the Germans constructed a Moon Base on Luna.
- in 1990 the Germans launched a Mars explorer from the Moon, and established a Mars base in 1997.
A Base On Mars (1990 - 2038)
- The Russians did not develop their Moon programme, choosing instead to shoot for Mars. They established the small Mars Colony Voskhod, where the Treaty of Voskhod was signed in 2006.
- In 2006 under the Treaty of Voskhod, Grossdeutschland and the USSR agreed to co-operate on the terraforming and joint protection of Mars from external powers.
- In 2011 large scale terraforming begins on Mars with the German and Russian fleets detonating nuclear weapons at the poles. The resulting detonations melt water and carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Simulataneously, the first Great Mirror moves into position over the northern pole. Meanwhile on the surface largescale factories produce CFCs and PFCs.
- In 2014 the first microbial lifeforms are released across the globe, genetically designed to help build an atmosphere.
- In 2015 the first of seventeen asteroids is sent into the martian atmosphere. These gas rich asteroids largely burn up in the atmosphere serving to add volume to the thin martian atmosphere.
- In 2023 terraforming of Mars completes sufficiently to allow a man to breath the atmosphere unaided for short periods of time.
- In 2027 most released species have begun to adapt to life on their new home.
- In 2030 both Russian and German nations begin large scale population relocation to Mars. The expected lifespan of these colonists settles in the mid thirties as many difficulties are encountered. Despite this, many are willing to seek a new better life on Mars rather than face the ongoing Migration Crisis.
- In the 2050s and 60s, Britain constructed experimental arcology housings on Phobos and Diemos, using technology that was later copied by the Germans on Luna and Arminius, to make othewrwise barren moons livable with enough supplies from offworld.
The Asteroid Belt and The Moons of the gas giants (2038 - 2118)
- In 2038 the British lay claim to Ceres, at 1000km across, the largest asteriod in the belt.
- By 2045 all space faring nations have established outposts on at least one asteroid
- By 2060 the four major powers have large shipyards in the asteroid belt
- The mining of the Moons of Saturn from Titan began in 2093, with all four major power building outposts on the large moon to mine the smaler satellites.
- Ganymede was the first American extra-terrestrial posession, annexed in 2104, and is used as a research base only.
- The rate of moon colonisation began to slow in the 2110s and 2120s due to the Migration Crises on Earth, and it was in these decades that Germany gave Io and Europa to Italy.
Extrasolar excursions (2118 to present day)
Ark Ships
The Migration Crises of the 2120s and the success of the Nazi-Soviet terraforming efforts on Mars forced policymakers to seriously begin thinking about colonising the rest of the Solar System. Pickings were relatively slim after Mars, with only a few of the gas giant moons being available for terraforming or colonisation. Thus, the Ark Ship was created.
These were giant hulls, assembled in orbit, designed to carry generations of human, plant and animal life over hundreds of years and hundreds of light-years, at between 86 and 92% the speed of light, to their eventual destinations. They possessed artificial gravity in tthat they rotated in flight, the better to keep their occupants alive and healthy. All major space powers constructed at least one of these behemoths and launched them toward distant solar systmes, complete with everything they'd need to survive on their own in the depths of space, adn construct a new world when they arrived at their new solar systems. These were desperate measures for desperate times, and would never have been attempted had these policymakers not realised what the Russians had up their sleeves.
- In 2127 the UISA opened the age of the Ark Ships by sending the Liberty to New Iowa in the Griffin system.
- In 2134 the British ship Arthur towards Hydra, and its sister ship the Boadicea to Griffin.
No Ark Ship successfully maintained contact with its Home World, and as yet none have reached their destinations. The Arthur's last communication was recieved in 2140, well before the first FTL ship was ready, and the Boadicea was not heard from after 2136. The Boadicea's last radio broadcast was garbled and indistinct, and heavy radiationw as assumed to have interfered with the transmission. A small FTL ship was dispatched to the last known whereabouts of both ships in 2146 (as soon as the Krasnikov Generators could be spared), but nothing was found.
The tragedy of the Ark Ships is one of the worst policy mistakes in the history of Space Exploration.
The Age of Faster than Light travel
Two years before the British launched their desperate colonists in the Arthur and the Boadicea toward almost certain doom, a small team of Russian scientists from the Research Bureau of the Commissariat of Space Exploration (later to become the Commissariat of Extrasolar Exploration) were observing a large device mounted on the side of an asteroid they had towed out past Pluto. From a safe distance, caused the device, a primitive Krasnikov generator, to produce the first controlled wormhole. Due to the size of the gravity fields even at this extreme of the Solar System, the wormhole was only three millimeters in diameter and spanned only five meters, and collapsed after thirty seconds, seriously damaging the generator. Despite this, the test was decisive. After two hundred years of speculation and twenty years of unsuccessful attempts, FTL travel was finally here.
The first tests were conducted in extreme secrecy, the Russians not wishing to divert their enemies' attentions and finances from their frantic Ark Ship building programs. Only three years later after an incredible and unprecedented crash research program, they were not so circumspect, and demonstrated in front of amazed journalists as they sent the first unmanned probe was sent through a wormhole to the Hydra system.
- In 2138 the Russians are the first to produce a functional manned faster than light ship.
- In 2141 the Germans produce their first faster than light ship.
- By 2142 all major space faring nations have acquired FTL technology and begin construction of FTL capable colonist ships.
- In 2142 George VII dies and Victoria II ascends to the throne at the age of 21. She fast-tracks the construction of her father's FTL colony ship, and launches it in 2143 for Hydra.
- in 2144 the USSR sent the first armed FTL ship, the Alexander Nevsky, to the Chimera System to claim the planet that would become known as New Ukraine.
- In 2147 the UISA sent the then-largest FTL ship, the USSS Essex, to colonise New Iowa.
- In 2149 the Germans sent a small FTL ship to New Iowa in the Griffin system.
- In 2151 the Alexander Nevsky saw off the German colony ship Seevogel. The Seevogel limped to the second habitable planet in the system, which was to become New Rhineland.
- In 2151, the Battle of New Ukraine cemented the status quo in the Chimera system.
- In 2152 the USSR won the Battle of New Ukraine.
- In 2190 The SS Wissenschaftkorps under the leadership of Generalleutnant-Doktor der Waffen-SS Hans Reichman finally cracked the last few elements of the DNA double helix.
- In 2199 the Treaty of New Iowa was signed banning all custom-built genetic code.
- In 2227 Victoria II dies, succeeded by George VIII.
- IN 2232 the Treaty of Io was revised banning any form of Gene weapon.
- In 2347, the Sixth Republic of France announces its entry into the cosmos, by unveiling the colony of Cousteau, 5,600 meters beneath the waves of Callisto.
