Internal Copernicus Datanet

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Copernicus Information Datanet

Information compiled for the use of the Copernicus and her crew from their first steps into a brave new outpost of Earth - and for the use of their descendants, that they may know what we left behind.

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Search results for Earth:

Earth, present geopolitical situation of;



If the late 20th century heralded the dawn of a truly global and technological age of mankind, the 21st was the harbringer of many of the troubles that were to plague it. By the 22nd century and the launching of the Copernicus, none can doubt the power of globalism - power that extends well beyond the globe, with colonies scientific and commercial scattered throughout the Solar System. But it had, as in all of humanity's history, found itself riven by division even as unity seemed possible.

The 21st century may be seen as the end of the Eurocentric, post-colonial age and the beginning of an Asian revival; increasingly China and India played a greater part than Europe or North America in world affairs - the former riven by divides between globalists and nationalists, the latter turning inwards and against its hard fought status as a superpower. As the 22nd century dawned, even the fabled European Union had de facto dissolved, as crises of migration, economics and identity forced the redrawing of borders and the reformation of armed conflict between state actors - the Hungaro-Romanian Border War being the first, but by no means last, manifestation of it. NATO, the alliance that had outlasted the Cold War it was formed to fight, soon fell apart as Russia became another former world power that turned inward.

So the 22nd century seemed set to see the dominance of Asia across the globe; with demography and economics on her side. It was not, alas, to be - for poor governance and political turmoil prevented first China, and then India, Japan and Iran, from asserting any real power projection beyond their local arenas. Africa and South America, long backwaters, also moved on from their formerly less developed state; with the lack of a Third World, resource scarcities became a greater problem. So humanity, hungry for resources, turned skyward for her resources. And from that hunger, came conflict.

The Coalition for the Exploitation of the Inner System, and the International Alliance for the Advancement of Space travel, were not initially - as their names suggest - vehicles for conflict, or indeed aggressive politicking. They were merely two groupings of space agencies, formed to take advantage of advances in rocketry, artificial habitats and extraterrestrial mining that had heralded the new space age. The Coalition found itself primarily formed from the Chinese, Korean, North African, Iranian, North American, pan-European and Brazilian space agencies; the Alliance was formed from the collection of Russian, Japanese, sovereigntist European, South African and Indian agencies. As competition over the Asteroid Belt, Mars and even the Moon heated up, and climate change continued unchecked to cause chaos across the globe, the Coalition and Alliance became ever-more opposed rather than aloof of each other, and their functions moved from the technical to the political, to the stage where by 2136 military and foreign policy functions were increasingly under a unitary umbrella - whether as a consensual confederal model in the case of the Alliance, or a more strict common governance model in the case of the Coalition.

From that initial second space race, colonists, came decades of cold war, and in recent times, a heating up of tensions unseen since the 20th century. From the competing sleeper ships racing out to different systems, to the commercial wars raging in the Kuiper Belt, the lessons of our insatiable appetite for division and competition are ones we hope you need not have to relearn. But know that as well as the lessons learnt from the failure of your ancestors - so too are there lessons of greatness, or enterprise, of courage and of valour to be learnt. Remember these lessons as you further the cause of humanity, good colonists of the Copernicus!

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Search results for Pioneer:

Pioneer, sleeper ship class



The Coalition-Alliance race for the stars has taken a more literal dimension since the advent of reliable, and cheap, cryofreezing in the early 2120s. Previously available only in a medical emergency, and still heavily regulated due to untested effects on the immune system and reported visionary abnormalities in the cerebral cortex in 0.09% of test subjects, it has made the prospect of interstellar travel real and possible, without creation of an Ark type ecosystem as envisaged by the Coalition's Noah Project, and the Alliance's less developed plans for the same.

A Pioneer vessel has a maximum capacity of 15'000 souls in cryosleep; however generally fuel, cargo, and a preference to reinforce fore hull sections in case of debris fields means generally they have been launched with significantly less. The Copernicus is of a standard among the type, crewed by volunteers from a specific subsection of Alliance members, for easier colonial development and cohesion, and built in orbital shipyards in the Jovian sector. Her three main engines are geared for slow acceleration and long journeys, and a smaller but equally important set of thrusters may be found on her hull, for manouvres and landing.

It is worthwhile at this point, to satisfy the curiosity of many colonists, to answer the common concerns regarding the Pioneer class in terms of being a viable vessel for landing on a planet - as opposed to Coalition vessels which are often modular in character, and made for disassembly in orbit and reassembly on the ground. The key impetus for the landfall preference among the Pioneer's designers and crews is the stronger hull and more reliable engines inherent in the unitary style, as opposed to the modular. Safety concerns have been met through rigorous testing. The only true disadvantage of the model is a lack of artificial gravity as found in other classes - cryochambers, and regular exercise once awoken, help deal with this, however.

The essential sequence of a landing on a terrestrial or Mars-esque planet to be found in a system is recommended as follows. First, Magellan-class shuttles are dispatched to scan and scout a landing site for the Pioneer. Second, two of the three ion engines are disengaged, and power diverted to the smaller landing engines, while her landing support struts are attached. Third, the Pioneer is manouvred onto a course for landing on even ground ideally of at least 1 square mile. Fourth, her cargo may then be alighted and the general structures of the hull disassembled, providing shelter and constructions beyond the prefab buildings stored in a standard colonial expedition hull. While in theory there is nothing to stop the reuse of the vessel in space - it is anticipated that structural weakening, engine efficiency and difficulty in reattaining orbit may make this an impossibility even before disassembly.

Concerns at the landfall stage are often heard on Earth - naturally, merely exaggerated by propaganda emanating from Coalition circles, jealous of Alliance technological advances. Be assured that the Pioneer class has undergone rigorous testing and failure rates are at standard acceptable levels for space exploration. However it is recommended for the purposes of safety, and that all crew are able to partake in discussions with their relevant expertise, that cryochambers are not in operation during the landing stage, as the effects on stabilisation equipment may be negative.