Deep Beyond

Future History

2020-2050: The New Frontier

In 2020, the United States and China were well on their way to returning to the moon in a quiet race. In both cases they were using technologies little different from those that had brough the Apollo astronauts to the Moon fifty years previously. However in the high atmosphere of Earth was an ever-increasing number of commercial launch vehicles based on innovative designs and new technologies. They remained barely capable of reaching the International Space Station, but they still pointed a way forward. Other advances were doing their own part in opening up the 'Final Frontier', ever so slowly.

Even as the first manned ships were landing on the Moon for the first time in half a century, agencies and companies across the globe were making paradigm shifts in launch vehicles. Materiels science, technical advancement and precision manufacturing was rapidly ushering in the age of truly reusable surface-to-orbit transport. By 2030 crude molecular manufacturing enabled the construction of skyhooks, rapidly reducing reducing the costs to reach orbit, and by 2035 both commercial and prestige projects on the Moon, in near-Earth asteroids and even on Mars had begun. The two biggest of these were the Martian colonies, coloquially known as Red America and Rust China. Like the era of European colonization centuries before, both nations jockeyed for primacy out of national pride. Alongside the immense sums of money spent to set up colonies there between 2035 and 2050, private groups and even individuals came as well, setting up simple dwellings in the Martian landscape, a breed of techno-pioneers.

The US and China were not the only big national players at this time; Russia had token Mars colony, primarily for scientific purposes, but they focussed their efforts on the Moon. Transit times were orders of magnitude lower and for the Russians who lacked the lavish budget of China or America, it was simply cheaper. The European Union ignored large bodies entirely, with its flagship colony at 3753 Cruithne, a near-Earth asteroid. The ample resources at Cruithne allowed the EU to rapidly construct an O'Neil Cylinder, the first of its kind.

2051-2057: Prelude to Chaos

As the symbolic milestone of 2050 passed, Earth's flagging ecosystem and ever more limited resources began to provide a stark contrast to the optimism outside of Earth's gravity well. A new militarism began to prevail on Earth even as technologies like orbital launch lasers made travel to Mars or other colony sites increasingly easy. Continued global warming and decreased soil productivity had raised food issues for Earth's ten billion and orbital resources were trickling in at a rate wholely insufficient to support the demands of nations from America to China to India to Brazil. The internalization of production due to transport prices and effective universal fabrication technology frayed many of the trade links that kept the world together, allowing regionalism and ideologies to trump mutualism. It also did not escape military notice that the orbital launch lasers could prove to be incredibly effective weapons. It would merely take one 'misaimed' beam to inflict catastrophic damage on a city.

Then, in late 2057, harsh words turned to violence, as a local dispute spiralled out of control.

2057-2071: The Cold Snap

With shocking speed, the world erupted into a spasm of nuclear violence, with missiles falling on cities, instantly turning them into infernoes. Even the reduced arsenals of 2057 and various anti-missile systems could not stop them all, and the immediate death toll was in the tens of millions. Over a hundred megatons of irradiated smoke was launched into the stratosphere, blanketing the world in nuclear winter. Crops failed all across the world and the resulting death toll became truly staggering.

The survivors - and there were many - were out for vengeance against any they saw as responsible, and for the next decade war raged across the globe even as agriculture failed and the bodies continued to pile up. The initial waves of modern equipment were attrited or simply worn out and with production sites continued targets for low-yield tactical nuclear weapons, battlefield technology was continually ground down, getting simpler and simpler by the year. This could not last forever of course, and by 2071 the insanity and vengeance had finally given way to a numb acceptance and slowly the patchwork of overlapping conflicts ceased.

2072-2092: Reconstruction

New grudges remained, but the weary survivors of Earth spent the next two decades putting their shattered world back into some semblance of civilization. The technologies of 2057 were gone, either destroyed, lost in the chaos or simply worn out. What had survived was simple and robust, more in common with the 20th century than the 21st. New borders were drawn as well, as entire nations had amalgamated, been conquered or ceased to exist.

This period also saw the return of regular contact with the colonies. Having survived generally untouched, the destruction of military satellites in Earth orbit had resulted in a cascade of destruction that for decades had surrounded the Earth in a vast cloud of shattered satellites. This hazard slowly ebbed as they rained out, burning up in atmosphere. The colonies has prospered - almost - in the intervening years, watching in stunned horror as Earth convulsed in violence. By dint of concentrating their energies and hard pragmatism, they'd managed to struggle through. Where Earth had suffered immense losses, the colonies on the Moon, on Mars, on Cruithne and even on minor bodies had expanded, raising entirely new generations and keeping and even improving on the technologies they possessed. Again, however, a robust and pragmatic approach was taken; life on the frontier was not kind to those who added unnecessary frills.

Resources

Volatiles

Water

Oxygen

Carbon

Silicon

Titanium

Iron

Metals

Transuranics

He3

Products

Fuel

Electronics

Hyperalloys

Field Modulators

Space Structures

Note that all of these can be assembled in orbit, they don't need to go up in one lift.

Habitat

Houses 1,000 colonists

Lift Weight: 2000

Cost (dollar): 750

Cost (resource): 1500 Silicon, 450 Iron, 30 Volatiles, 10 Metals, 10 Electronics

Upkeep: 10 Volatiles, 50 Water, 50 Oxygen, 10 Power

Fusion Plant

Outputs electrical power

Lift Weight: 50

Cost (dollar): 650

Cost (resource): 10 Titanium, 10 Electronics, 10 Hyperalloys, 20 Field Modulators

Upkeep: 1 He3, 10 Manpower

Power Output: 100

Smelter

Converts local ores into Resources

Lift Weight: 250

Cost (dollar): 500

Cost (resource): 30 Carbon, 100 Titanium, 50 Iron, 50 Metals, 10 Electronics

Upkeep: 5 Power, 50 Manpower

Fabricator

Converts Resources into Products

Lift Weight: 250

Cost (dollar): 1250

Cost (resource): 50 Carbon, 50 Titanium, 50 Metals, 100 Electronics

Upkeep: 5 Power, 50 Manpower

Assembler

Constructs finished goods

Lift Weight: 1000

Cost (dollar): 6000

Cost (resource): 200 Carbon, 200 Titanium, 100 Metals, 500 Electronics

Upkeep: 25 Power, 250 Manpower, 5 Carbon

Laboratory

Develops things

Lift Weight: 250

Cost (dollar): 1250

Cost (resource): 50 Carbon, 50 Titanium, 50 Metals, 100 Electronics

Upkeep: 5 Power, 100 Manpower

Hangar

Provides storage and maintenance for spacecraft

Lift Weight: 150

Cost (dollar): 275

Cost (resource): 20 Carbon, 50 Titanium, 50 Iron, 25 Metals, 5 Electronics

Upkeep: 1 Power, 50 Manpower

Spacecraft

Payload values are to Low Earth Orbit and External Orbit respectively.

Single-use rockets

Light Rocket

Payload: 1/0

Cost: 1

30% chance of failure

Medium Rocket

Payload: 25/10

Cost: 100

Heavy Rocket

Payload: 150/60

Cost: 600

Big Dumb Booster

Payload: 500/200

Cost: 1000

Multiple-use launch systems

Shuttles (SSTO)

Payload: 25/10

Fuel to Orbit: 20/35

Lift Weight: 325

Cost (dollar): 1400

Cost (resource): 100 Carbon, 100 Titanium, 20 Metals, 5 Electronics, 100 Hyperalloys

Transit Vehicles

Payload: 25

Fuel to Orbit: N/A

Lift Weight: 60

Cost (dollar): 300

Cost (resource): 25 Titanium, 10 Metals, 5 Electronics, 20 Hyperalloys

Interstellar Craft

Jumpships

Payload: 750

Transuranics per Jump: 10/1

Cost (If you could build it on the ground): 24,000

Cost (resource): 200 Carbon, 200 Titanium, 100 Metals, 50 Electronics, 200 Hyperalloys, 1000 Field Modulators

Orbital Economy

Resource Extraction

Moon

12 Oxygen, 22 Silicon, 10 Iron, 5 Titanium, 1 He3

Mars

10 Oxygen, 5 Water, 20 Silicon, 12 Iron, 3 Metals

Extinct comet

30 Water, 18 Volatiles, 2 He3

C-Type asteroid

25 Volatiles, 15 Carbon, 5 Oxygen, 5 Silicon

S-Type asteroid

25 Titanium, 5 Silicon, 5 Oxygen, 5 Metals

M-Type asteroid

30 Iron, 15 Metals, 5 Transuranics