- Posting Speed
- Multiple posts per day
- 1-3 posts per day
- One post per day
- Writing Levels
- Intermediate
- Preferred Character Gender
- Primarily Prefer Female
- Genres
- Pretty much everything.
-
It is Space Age Year 127(CE/AD 2084), March 14th, near midnight by ISA (International Space Agency) time. As the deep-space colonization vessel "Geniess", a "Rock IIa" class ship, follows a trajectory for aerobraking trough Jupiter's atmosphere to decelerate enough to enter a orbit around Europa, where the ship is to establish a permanent manned base, one of the two fusion reactors that provide power for the ship's engines suffers a critical malfunction and explodes seconds later, causing a chain of explosions and destruction, destroying the ship's engines and the other fusion reactor. With only navigational rocket thrusters of low power left to propel the ship and with the explosion vastly changing the trajectory of the vessel the crew struggles to send the ship on a crash landing course with one of Jupiter's moons, but without much success, the ship is headed straight for the largest planet in the Solar System and nothing can be done to stop it from falling into the gas giant's atmosphere.
Hours later the crew is preparing to emit the "Final Goodbye" package to the Europa Automated Relay Satellite (EARS, an automated satellite orbiting Europa, part of the Solar System Satellite Relay Network (SOLRENE)) which will transmit the prerecorded goodbye messages of the crew and base-setup personnel back to Earth. With hard feelings the crew can only watch as the clouds of Jupiter's atmosphere slowly fill their screens and windows. A hour later the ship is nearing the tropopause area of Jupiter's atmosphere when the ship's surface radar gave a positive feedback, suggesting that there was something hard bellow them. Quickly the crew analyzed the data and detected a massive structure suspended in the water cloud layer of Jupiter's troposphere and close enough to their trajectory to land upon. With nothing to lose the crew decided to land on it, hopping that the structure will be able to withstand the impact of the "Geniess". Some two hours later the "Geniess" crash-landed on the structure, taking only minor damage from the landing. Now what path will that have fallen to this mysterious structure on the starship "Geniess" follow and where will it lead them? -
The RP would focus on the members of Europa Base Establishment Mission (EBEM), on the crew that was in charge of getting "Geniess" to Europa, the various experts in charge of establishing the base, from space architecture experts to xenobiologist (in case of life under Europa's icy mantle) and the ten civilians (non-ISA) that volunteered and were lottery-selected to participate in the "Colonization Feasibility Project" as they explore the strange structure the "Geniess" crashed on.
There will be certain limits on the number of each type of characters, be it experts from many fields of from the would-be base personnel, over the navigators, engineers and others in charge of getting the "Geniess" to Europa's orbit or the lottery-chosen civilian volunteers.
There will be up to:
200 various experts that were supposed to make up the base personnel of Europa Surface Base 1 (EUR-SB1).
41 members of the "Geniess" crew -
8 navigators/pilots,
4 aeroponics experts,
4 safety officers (in charge of minor maintenance, regular checks of the landing section and keeping public order, armed with stun guns),
8 communication and computer technology experts,
4 medical experts with at least a PhD,
4 crew coordinators (in charge of making sure the crew stays sane, motivated and working, usually psychologists),
4 scientists (different tasks).
I play the mission commander, tough if you PM me (after OOC creation) a really good CS for a mission commander you can get the position.
22 engineers (at least three died in the event leading to "Geniess" falling into Jupiter), of which
10-12 fusion power plant experts,
6-8 are engine experts and
2-4 are fission power plant experts (in charge of the command section fission power plant).
10 civilians, older then 18 and from any profession. I will allow one or two (two is a long stretch) characters of 16/17 years of age that used faked IDs to enter the volunteer lottery. Character sheets of that kind would be PM to me and evaluated based on quality, with one or two good characters being accepted.
The setting of the RP is "soft" science fiction with elements of "hard" science fiction (particularly human technology in the RP is leaning towards "hard" science fiction). -
Space Age Year (SAY)
Using the year of the first successful launch of an artificial satellite, the "Sputnik 1", 1957 CE/AD, as a starting point for Earth year calendar. To calculate Space Age years into CE/AD just add 1957 to the number of space age years.
ISA - International Space Agency
Established in SAY 102 (2059 AD/CE) to provide a central authority for all space-related matters by the United Nations. Its most notable departments are the International Earth Oribital And Sub-orbital Command (ORBITCOMM), the International Space Exploration And Colonization Agency (ISECA), the International Space Object Impact Prevention Center (ISOIP Center), the International Space Effects Research Agency (ISERA) and the United Nations Special Situations Space Section (UN SPECS SPACE).
ISA Time Zone
GTM-5. Eastern Time Zone (USA).
"Rock II" Class Deep-Space Colonization Vessel
Basic Information
Second Generation Deep-Space Colonization Vessel
Length:
142.74 m
(468.31 feet)
Width:
45.12 m
(148.03 feet)
Height:
39.37 m
(129.17 feet)
Weight:
320 kT
100 kT command & landing section
50 kT cargo
170 kT engine section
Crew:
57-65
37-41 command module crew, 20-25 engineers
Maximal cargo capacity:
50 kT
Maximal passenger capacity:
209 people
"Long Sleep" Pod Capacity:
200 people
Destination travel:
Moon ~ 2 days 12 hours (usually Earth-Moon-Earth crafts are used for missions to Moon)
Venus ~ 120-150 days
Mercury ~300-350 days
Mars ~290-320 days
Sun ("Safe Orbit") ~350 days
Jupiter ~ 540-600 days
Saturn ~ 700-780 days, 630-690 days using a gravitation slingshot from Jupiter
Uranus ~ 900-1000 days, 810-920 with gravitation slingshots
Neptune ~1200-1400 days, 1100-1250 with gravitation slingshots
The "Rock II" class is the second UN-ordered deep-space colonization vessel class, with the main differences between it and the earlier "Rock I" being the increased cargo capacity, the introduction of "Long Sleep" Pods with twice as much passenger capacity, a three-part structure with independent landing, command and engine sections to allow re-usability and increased safety, four times the airlocks and generally improved on-board equipment. The first ship of the class the ISASV "Obsidian" was launched in SAY 111. The class was improved, the improved version officially designated "Rock IIa" class, with the major improvements being a emergency landing ability for the whole ship (before the engine compartment would need to be forsaken to crash-land safely) and improved on-board systems was launched ten years later in 121 SAY under the name "Geniess", with most of the old "Rock II" vessels upgraded to "IIa" standard by March 127 SAY with only a handful oldest "II" ships scrapped.
There are rumors that the "Rock IIa", specifically the first four vessels of the class "Geniess", "Marble", "Aplite" and "Gabbro", were equipped with prototype military systems including a: point defense systems for destroying micrometeorites or smaller meteorites that might threaten the ship, hull build out of materials that would be used for a possible military space vessel and improved resistance of the hull to impacts, state of the art docking and airlock facilities and a internal system of remote-operated stun-gun equipped turrets to test the latest technology in remote-operated turrets. It is believed that most of those advances come from the UNTF , the United Nations Task Force, the last standing and existing army of Earth, small in size (some half a million men and women for 8.21 billion humans in the Solar System) and mainly in charge of policing crimes outside of Earth's atmosphere and deploying to help police with riots or armed criminal organizations.
The class has a simple design made out the frontal section which is made out of the command and landing part and the rear section which contains the engines and the fusion reactors that fuel them.
The landing part is attached inside the command part, joined together with airlocks to allow the two parts to detach when the landing section is to make planet-fall. Each of the parts contributes to the success of the design.
The command part, officially Re-usable Non-Entry Deep-Space Command Section (RUNECOMM), is the center of activity of the vessel, consisting of rooms (two bunks per room) for 64 people and a small private room for the mission commander, the navigation room, the safety shelter (from radiation), the cafeteria, the communication room, the hangar (for a orbital exit and re-entry spacecraft), the storage rooms (some 500 tons of cargo, mostly living supplies for the crew), the areoponics rooms, the fission generator that powers the front section, the water storage (500 tons of water), the research labs (five small labs of different purposes), the probe launching room, from which probes can be launched to find the best landing places or to simply explore a world and in the end many various other facilities needed for prolonged human life in space (like training or medical facilities).
The landing part, officially the Surface Base Setup Section (SUBASE), is composed of three parts mainly, layered into a disk-like shape. The upper layer contains storage of living needs, like food and water for up to 200 people in one month duration together with areoponics and water filtration systems. The central layer houses the "Long Sleep" pods and the humans in them as well as any mission-needed impact-sensitive equipment. The last layer (usually) hosts the initial materials needed for construction of the initial base and it's facilities, note that in case of establishing floating atmospheric bases this is usually filled with deflated balloons filled with liquid helium and chemicals that instantly vaporize the helium by using an altitude detonator set before hand (usually set before mission start, but there were two instances in which the detonation altitude need to be changed during the mission) using the same altimeters that are used for deciding the moment of firing retro-rockets and opening parachutes during surface landings. The section is of modular build and can be adapted for landing or floating (for example in the higher atmosphere of Venus or gas giants) on/in any planet.
The last part of the ship is the engine section, officially the Fusion Powered Engines Section (FUPES) which is mostly made out of the two fusion power plants, four main engines and eight secondary engines that propel the ship forward and fuel to supply all of those.
The ship rotates along it's length axis, allowing for centrifugal force to replicate up to 0.2 G in the ship. Most of the command section is located in this 0.2 G area, except for the connection to the engine and landing sections. Most of the "Long Sleep" pods in the landing section are located in the 0.15-0.1 G area of the ship. Rotation is stopped when doing maneuvers but is reinstated after entering a cruise or orbit.
When ISASV "Obsidian" launched the it was described by the ISA director at that time as "The pinnacle of human science and engineering, put together to facilitate a fast, affordable and massive colonization of the Solar System. Following in the footsteps of "Rock I" and "Transit", which allowed for permanent Lunar bases, multiple space stations around the inter planets and a interplanetary communication network to be established, I believe that together with "Transit II", this vessel will allow humans to settle on Mars and the Jovian moons inside the next few decades, and after the completion of the next generation of the "Transit" class family take humankind to the rest of the outer planets of the solar system."Just like any other probe, craft or vessel with trans-lunar traveling ability, all "Rock II" ships are under the command of the International Space Exploration And Colonization Agency (ISECA).
Fusion Power
The first commercial fusion power plant was completed in SAY 83 (CE/AD 2040). Today it is first source of electrical energy production on Earth, with renewable energy and fission being the second and third. They are also the power source for larger engines of various ISA deep-space vessels like the "Rock II".
"Final Goodbye"
Officially the "Before Mission Prepared Failure Record" is the ISA's standard procedure introduced a year after the founding of ISA, under the procedure any manned vessel under the command of ISA that is leaving beyond Moon's orbit is required to carry a data package containing prerecorded messages of all mission members and civilians on the vessels in which they say their final goodbyes to their loved ones. In case of imminent mission failure for any reason, the crew is instructed to forward the package back to Earth trough the Solar System Satellite Relay Network (SOLRENE). In case the mission failure happens in a way that disallows the crew to broadcast the message, the package is automatically sent after a code, show in the code input window, is not imputed inside 24 hours.
Europa Automated Relay Satellite (EARS)
The newest and most advanced Automated Relay Satellite in Jovian space, set there by a "Seeder III" class Long-Range Satellite Deployment Rocket in SAY 125 in preparation for EBEM. One of ten ARSs that orbit Jupiter or one of it's satellites and allow for space vessels, manned or nor, to transmit much more data then a single communication device could handle back to Earth. Part of the SOLRENE.
Solar System Satellite Relay Network (SOLRENE)
A constantly expanded and modernized network of Automated Relay Satellites (ARSs) that orbit various space bodies or linger in L points, used to provide a high-capacity communication towards and from all the planets (and their assorted natural satellites) in the solar system. Currently there are over a hundred satellites, mostly around Earth, Moon and Mars with only Jupiter having a two digit number of satellites in the outer solar system.
Europa Base Establishment Mission (EBEM)
Planned in SAY 122, launched in Mid September SAY 126, with the plan to reach Europa in late March/early April SAY 127, with the goal of establishing a permanent base of 120 personnel and ten civilians on Europa, primary to conduct research into what lies bellow the thick ice of the planet and to refine said ice into hydrogen and oxygen, for various uses. Details of the mission were protected by Class Two Secrecy Protocol of the IAS to prevent terrorist actions against the mission, until launch and mission plans are now being reveled each week corresponding to the progress of the ship selected to carry the mission ISASV "Geniess".
"Colonization Feasibility Project"
Officially Large-Scale, Long-Term Deep-Space Habitation Feasibility Project, is a project aimed to collect data on civilian responses to living in closed habitats and space stations using a system of lottery selected volunteers from the civilian population. Currently eighteen missions are involved into it, the most significant being the Mars Surface Habitation Project (which is closely cooperating with the Mars Terraformation Project) which has a pure civilian habitat with 234 people living it and had the first instance of birth on another planet (total civilian population on Mars is 357 people)
"Long Sleep"
Officially "Low Temperature Liquid Water Hibernation" is the result of the breakthroughs in various sciences which allows for feasible hibernation at temperatures between 8 and 2 degrees Celsius (46 and 35 °F) and lengths of up to twelve years (test proven, up to ~140-200 years by theory). By slowing down the human metabolism using various methods it drastically reduces the aging process, down to only half of the usual rate. Due to the low activity of the body, nutrients and water can be given directly trough blood, much less oxygen is used and there is little to no production of urea and feces, all leading to "Long Sleep" being the best solution for increasing the passenger capacity of space colonization vessels and thous the speed at which colonization of space can be done. The lessons learned from "Long Sleep" will also allow for further developments in human hibernation technology, one of the three things that are considered a must for interstellar colonization/travel.
Short History of ISASV "Geniess"
Launched in 121 SAY as the first of the "Rock IIa" class vessels. It received it's first mission in December that year which was the establishment of the seventh floating base (VEN-AB7) in the upper clouds of Venus and bringing an additional re-entry, multiple-use orbital craft to the planet. It took a little under a year for it to complete the mission and return to Earth. Before proceeding to the Europa Base Establishment Mission it completed a supply trip to Ceres Base Complex (Ceres is a dwarf planet in the asteroid belt and a major transit point between the internal and outer Solar System) to bring equipment that the facility is unable to produce on it's own, primary high tech or organic molecule based equipment. -
Most of the ideas were first well checked with Wikipedia before being incorporated into the outline of the RP. Some are completely reliant upon my own knowledge of the matter and have not been checked with Wikipedia and might not be completely in sync with the "hard" science fiction feel that I wanted to give to "Geniess" and it's Earth.
I apologize for any possible mistakes in the text since I use an auto-spell checker and have only skimmed trough most of the text. If you notice any mistakes fell free to notify me about them. Images that relate to the RP's Introduction ("The Fall") would be appreciated.
I am expecting posts, be it "count me in"/"I will be joining" or questions.
If you like the idea spread the word around!
I hope you come in flocks so I can make the RP grand and with lots of people.
[/hr]If you like the idea spread the word around!
I hope you come in flocks so I can make the RP grand and with lots of people.
