Sol
From Archives
Template by: TA Lucas Title: Sol Author: TA Lucas Editor: Sarantus/ilKhan Ozy
- 297, AJJAJON, ODER, 2—SOLNET BROADCAST—MARS LOCAL NEWS CHANNEL 3912
- Mike Smith was temporarily suspended from the University of Neopolis pending the investigation of missing nanites from the school’s science lab. What turned out to be a harmless prank could have been much, much worse. Now here’s Jackson with the story:
- ”The first of his roommates to awaken was Sam. It started with a light scratching under his covers, and then more determined movements until he finally sat up in bed. “What is that”, his voice echoed through the room. He reached for the lamp, but Jose had already beaten him to it.
- The light came on.
- “Ahhhhhh!”, both men screamed. A solid grey mass that had covered Sam’s body from the waist down was working its way up his body. He jumped to his feet, kicking and screaming and brushing his legs, but nothing could slow their march up the body.
- By this time everyone in the room was awake. Sam and Jose were dancing about the room, arms flailing and grasping for an unseen foe, and Erok was writhing under his sheets. Mike’s heart pounded within his chest—partly out of fear for his friends, and partly out of the excitement of seeing them get what they deserved. He didn’t want to seem unaffected by this mysterious invader, so he let out a few screams of his own, and flailed his arms and legs beneath his blankets.
- A few moments later all was silent. Sam sat in the far corner of the room, his shorts twisted and his hair a mess. Erok lay on the floor beside his bed still scratching at his legs; Jose stood in the center of the room staring at the large wet spot that had formed on the front of his pajama pants. For the longest time, nobody said anything and eventually all the guys made it back to their beds.
- “University officials say they won’t expel Mike, but they don’t want the incident to go undisciplined, and he will receive a time off.
- The weather is up next. Low solar activity is expected for the Sol System this next kilocycle, and Sun spots are the lowest in gigacycles—stay tuned for your local forecast.”
Contents |
Description
Sol is the home star to the Human race, and is the focal point of their civilization. It is a G type main sequence star and is about half-way through its life span. It is a fairly calm star…except for its 11 year sun-spot cycle which occasionally wreaks havoc on unshielded electrical systems.
Location: Sol is located in the Local Bubble in the Orion’s Arm of the Milky Way galaxy. It orbits about 26,000 light years from the core (about ¾ the way out). It’s located in sector V16 of RabiKi’s coordinate map.
Star Info
Mass: 1.99 x 10^30
Diameter: 1990000
Mean density: 1.41 gm/cm^3
Escape velocity 617500 m/s
Rotational period: 25.38 Earth days
Orbital period: 240 million years
Distance from core: 26000 LY
Spectral type: G2V
Absolute magnitude: 4.83m
Travel
The Sol system has five large slip gates that connect it with the rest of Human space. To protect Mars, their home world, there are no direct gates from Sol to the other species' gates, but the Human gate system connects with Esoi, Lightfirean, Avani, Armark, and Outlander's Alliance gates. The gates are the arteries that carry the life-giving communication, people, and supplies to the system, and are therefore heavily guarded. There is both a military training facility and shipyard located close to the gates. In the unlikely event of an attack, the base is brought to full alert, and the gates are closed to protect the human home world. Gates connect to Sol:
Planets/Dwarf Planets/Habited moons
Mercury:
Mercury is both the first and the smallest planet in the Sol system. It lies close to the star and well out of the habital zone and is therefore void of life. The surface temperatures of the planet are extremely high, but range from -180 C to 430 C. Ice exists in the deep craters towards the poles. The planet was fully mapped in 2011 of the Information Age. During the Solar Age mining stations were set up in the Polar Regions to excavate iron for starship production, but several large deposits of gold and rhodium were discovered. The planet has sat relatively untouched since. There are currently communication relays on Mercury…just like every other planet in the system.
Venus:
Venus, the second planet of the Sol system, is close to Earth in size, density, and composition, but is not a very hospitable place. It was fully mapped in 1990 of the Information age. As the human race began to look for potential replacements for its dying Earth, Venus was considered for a terraforming project. Several massive attempts were made to change the atmosphere and lower planet temperature. In 2130 the atmosphere was seeded with nano-particles designed to trap the carbon dioxide and drop it to the surface. The process ended up not being feasible, although they were able to drop the overall planet temperature by 15 degrees. In 2151 a few private companies who did not want the Venerian colonization proposition to die built Arcadia, a floating city. The city grew and prospered, but the idea never fully caught on. The majority of humans wanted a solid foundation for their new civilization, so Mars was chosen for the official new home for humanity. Since that time several more floating cities have been added…all boasting of their lavished get-a-ways, luxuries, and many indulgences.
Earth:
The human race got its start on Earth, the third planet of the system. They grew quickly, industrializing each continent as they expanded. As their cities grew, they took little thought as to how they were affecting their planet, and by the time they realized they were poisoning their world, it was too late. The humans had wasted most of their natural resources, and trashed just about everything that could have been trashed. By the end of the Information Age, they began looking to other places in the Solar System to expand.
Earth was declared unfit for human life, and therefore has no government of its own, but is governed by the Luna establishment. In the 50 plus years since humans have left, Earth has started to recover, and wild-life has thrived. Some still use the planet as a place to hide, those that are brave, and those that are desperate. In recent years the Lunar state has petitioned Mars for help in managing the organized crime and gang population that has increased planet-side. Police raids are not uncommon, but don’t seem that helpful either.
Luna:
Earth's moon is home to several large cities…mostly designed around the starship factories built during the First Expansion Age. Ptolemy, the capital of the Luna settlement, was built first, and is comprised of hundreds of thousands of independent interlocking habitat modules. Since there is no seismic activity, much of the city has expanded beneath the surface. Miles and miles of homes, businesses, and factories are buried underground.
The first inhabitants of the moon came late in the Information age. Many astronomy and science fans bought up large quantities of lunar soil from the Lunar Embassy; an organization thought by many to be a fake. But their faith in this organization was confirmed when the governments of the earth honored their legal purchases of property. Some made the journey, but others sold their land and made huge profits.
The moon also has a Habitat Defense System (HDS) in place to protect against rogue asteroids. Most can be deflected years in advance, but sometimes more drastic measures are needed, and they’ll break out the big guns.
Mars:
Mars is the new seat for humanity. All aspects of the planet were thought out well before humans started moving. The location of cities and their layout, mass subterranean transportation, renewable power sources, etc. The humans have created the perfect planet…well at least on the surface. The old schisms of politics, religion, and race still exist.
The once brown planet has been changed…deep blue seas, and vast green forests now cover its surface. About 1/3 of the planet is now covered in water, and there are two large continents, and several large islands. The Valles Marineris is now one of the deepest watering holes on the planet, and a prized vacation spot.
Ceres:
Ceres is the smallest dwarf planet in the Sol system. One significant event for Ceres came in 2109 when an unmanned probe was sent to investigate the potential of microbial life in the water-ice that existed beneath the crust. Nothing of interest was discovered.
Jupiter:
Jupiter is the 5th planet from the star, the largest, and probably the most studied. A number of unmanned crafts have been sent to investigate this behemoth down through the centuries. Early probes like Voyager, Galileo, and New Horizons took detailed images and measurements as they orbited or passed by the planet. In 2091 Big Red was sent into Jupiter's large red spot to calculate wind speeds and determine composition of gasses.
In 2083 Europa Deep Dig (EDD) landed on Europa and sent an ice boring machine through the ice into the oceans beneath. The waters were full of interesting life. Microbes, single and multi-celled creatures, and larger complex life-forms had developed outside of the Earth system. The initial response was one of shock. A few small animal rights groups formed under the premise of 'No Contamination of Foreign Life', and tried to stop further investigation, but humanity’s thirst for the unknown drove exploration deeper. About 5 years later a new base was built on Europa to study these new creatures. This spurred a massive search for life; humans sent out probes to every star within 10 light years of the Sol system.
Saturn:
The second of the four gas giants to orbit Sol is Saturn. It is made mostly of hydrogen, some helium, and has a small rocky core. One feature that has held the attention of many visitors to the Sol system is the rings of Saturn. It’s a fairly common practice for ship pilots to swing by the gas giant on their way out of the system, and you’ll often see passengers glued to their windows as they go by.
One other notable feature of the Saturn system is the moon Titan. In 2202 four large batches of spiders—tiny mechanical scouts—were released into its atmosphere. After a few months of crawling, the spiders had given scientists a very detailed map of the surface and sub-surface. This unobtrusive method has been streamlined, and is still used in planet mapping. Titan is home to several averaged sized colonies. Starov station was built on Titan in 3109as a temporary housing facility for those who worked in the ring fields, but has grown into a large facility that gives miners a place to eat, sleep, and socialize. Saturn’s rings now provide most of the metals needed for new starship production.
Uranus & Neptune:
There’s not a lot to say about Uranus and Neptune. They are the last of the gas giants, and therefore some of the largest and most massive in the Sol system, and both are very cold, and have high wind speeds. Uranus is odd in that its axis is tilted about 90 degrees from that of other planets.
Other Messier Objects
Kuiper belt:
Pluto and its moon Charon are two of the first objects identified to orbit in the Kuiper belt. Pluto was originally classified as a planet, but early in the Information Age it was declared a dwarf planet. Since then, thousands of Pluto sized objects have been identified orbiting in the outer regions. Haumea, Makemake, Eris are a few more of the named Kuiper belt objects.
Asteroid belt:
The main asteroid belt lies just beyond the orbit of Mars. This area of space is filled with particles ranging in size from grains of sand to rocks the size of mountains. There are a few mining facilities located within the belt and positioned to take advantage of the occasional flyby asteroid. A fair amount of the metals needed for starship production come from this area. It’s cheaper and easier than bringing supplies from a planet’s surface.
Due to its dangers and close proximity to Mars, you’ll often see adrenalin junkies trying to execute the Saxton Run through the field in their personal crafts . In the 3520’s Mike Saxton went a quarter million miles in and back, without a navigational computer, in just under four hours. The chance of actually hitting an asteroid is slim, but the thrill still exists.
Abandoned asteroid station:
This is an abandoned space station built into a 16 kilometer wide asteroid that was found orbiting Sol just beyond Mars on the inner side of the asteroid belt. The station was created by some unknown alien species. It is currently in orbit around Mars, and is one of the most visited museums in the Sol system. The station led to the reverse engineering of FTL drives and several other technologies the Humans found useful. The creators of the station are believed to be an old extinct race, but it is still uncertain where they came from, or where they’ve gone.
Major Centers
Ptolemy:
Ptolemy is located on Earth’s moon Luna. It is built mostly from interlocking habitat modules and underground tunnels and buildings. It was named after Ptolemaeus, the crater where it was founded. The first buildings were built in the center of this large crater with the plans to eventually expand to the edges, but growth was phenomenal and the city spilled over into the two adjoining craters: Alphonsus and Arzachel. Ptolemy is the capital of Luna, and is its largest city at about 515 sq km.
Neapolis is the “New City” of Mars…or at least it was when it was named. As Humans began to plan their great escape from their dying planet, they started designs on a new city, a grand city, the perfect city….Neapolis. Architects from all the major countries of Earth came together to contribute. Everything from highways to power plants to sub terrain transportation to the perfect balance of city zones was laid out in advance. Lots of data were fed into super computers and a number of scenarios played out. They tweaked and adjusted variables until a plan emerged.
What was deemed the “New City” is in fact the oldest city on the planet. It is located between the south western point of the Valles Marineris and Lake Torem, and by no means should be considered old…it is probably the most advanced city in the Human expanse.
Major Races
Human:
The Humans are the only native intelligent species in the Sol system. Down through the years the humans have been a multi-party government…ranging from two to five different parties. There are currently only two factions with any authority: the Terran Union and Solarian League. Both groups are fractured, and hold their own, but the Terran Union has been the ruling faction for the past 25 years.
One of the Humans greatest strengths and weakness is their curiosity. They need to know. This drive has fueled their expansion throughout the Bubble, and has also led to a very powerful intelligence agency.
They've just recently began to develop as a species. When humans discovered them in 2333, they had just developed atmospheric flight and nuclear fission. They are still only a single planet government, but now have a strong military presence in the Centauri and Sol systems, and live in a variety of worlds spread across the Bubble.
There are several large Centaurian settlements on Mars and Luna. The Centaurians are widely accepted in Human culture. There is one large rogue movement within the Centaurian species called the Centaurian Underground. This terrorist group is openly opposed to any dealings with the Humans, and claim responsibility for a number attacks.
Time Line
1990 – Planet Venus fully mapped.
2011 – Planet Mercury fully mapped.
2078 – City of Ptolemy was founded.
2083 – Europa Deep Dig sent to study the moon, and vast life was found.
2091 – Science craft Big Red was sent into Jupiter’s big red spot.
2109 – Investigation of dwarf planet Ceres.
2130 – Venerian atmosphere seeded to reduce planet temps.
2151 – The floating city of Arcadia was built.
2200 – Mars fully mapped with experimental spider technology.
2202 – Moon Titan fully mapped with spider technology.
2720 – City of Neopolis was founded.
2873 – Lunar war of independence.
3017 – First colonization team sent to Mars (500,000 people).
3321 – Second colonization team sent to Mars (1,000,000 people).
3378 – Third colonization team sent to Mars (1,000,000 people).
3415 – Start of Human mass exodus from Earth for the colonization of Mars.
3480 – Starov station was built.
