Earth (Stellar Civilizations)/Workspace

This page is intended to serve as a workspace for the joint subproject of Earth and Humanity as developed by Fizzyflapjack and NickPro in the Stellar Civilizations galaxy.

Suggestion list

Timeline

• 21st century
  • World War III/Second Cold War: Probably not a full-scale conflict compared to the 1st and 2nd World Wars, rather a series of concurrent proxy conflicts between allies of the US and China. Interesting areas of conflict would be in the Middle East (Iran-Saudi Arabia?), the Chinese seas (South China Sea, Senkaku Islands?), and Pacific Rim (Alaska, Hawaii, and the US West Coast?). Ultimately, the conflict would end in a stalemate between the US and China, and lead to a highly competitive space race to expand over as much of the Sol system as possible.
  • Post-war economic crisis: In the late 21st century, following the War, the world is undergoing a period of economic crisis as increasing natural resource demands contribute to the further degradation of environmental quality on Earth. Rising expectations of quality of life further desires to expand economically despite unprecedented levels of environmental decay. Space exploration and mineral extraction become the leading sources of the Earth's resource input due to a necessity to not destroy any more ecologies planetside. American, Chinese, and Russian space agencies lead the charge by heavily subsidizing exoplanetary commerce and related research. The EU, Japan, and India also have a presence, though it is not as heavy as that of the three major powers.
• 22nd century
  • By the beginning of the 2100s, the Big Three have established semi-permanent research operations on Mars and mining development on Luna is beginning to take shape. Exoplanetary commerce has expanded into a multi-trillion dollar enterprise made of many different and competing shipbuilders and mining corporations (varying too by level: exploration, transportation, extraction, refinement). A Third Cold War in outer space begins to show clear signs of developing as the Big Three make competing claims over portions of Inner Sol bodies (asteroids, Mars, Luna).
  • By the mid 22nd century, the Big Three are becoming increasingly militarized in their exoplanetary endeavours, and as a result, large increases in development in outer space transportation, habitation, and weaponization are coming faster and more common. Despite the increasingly bellicose nature of the Big Three towards one another, the six major outer space powers agree to the construction of a common space station in Earth orbit to serve as a unified hub of resource exchanges, Sol system traffic control and monitoring, and international matters of jurisprudence.
  • Sometime in the mid-late 22nd century, hostile sentiments between Russia and the US lead to open warfare after a Russian remote defence installation on Mars shoots down an American-flagged tourist liner in low Mars orbit. Despite Russian claims that the attack on the tourist liner was caused by an unknown source, the large loss of life triggers widespread calls for retribution from inside more hawkish US political circles. The US soon after official declares war on Russia, and for the first time in human history naval battles occur in outer space.
  • A year into the war, Russian intelligences officers provide evidence to US officials that the tourist liner shooting was caused by Chinese hackers, and both the US and Russia agree to a truce on the neutral island of Cyprus. The loss of life and military power between the two means that China alone is the clear dominant space power, and due to the widespread revival of anti-war sentiment in both the American and Russian public, the two governments agree to wage warfare against the Chinese in a more covert manner.
  • Chinese operatives uncover information of the Russian-American joint effort against them after the catastrophic destruction of a major Chinese military drydock on Luna. China declares open war on both Russia and America, with both of the latter claiming that the drydock incident had nothing to do with them and that the Chinese were using the incident as a false flag. Nonetheless, the combined Russian-American forces publicly claim that self defense requires cooperation between the two. After only two years of fighting, which mostly takes place on Luna and on Earth, the Russian-American forces soundly defeat the Chinese.
  • In order to avoid further outer space conflict due to its extraordinarily high resource costs, the successful Russian-American coalition forces agree to merge into a single exoplanetary naval force. The space force consists of a naval component and a marine component. RAKAMO (from Российско-Американская Космическая Армия Мирового Освобождения / PAKAMO) dedicates itself to insuring a continued peace for human outer space development. The Exoplanetary Declaration of Joint Security is ratified by a majority of UN member states, despite opposition from China, which then leaves the body and attempts to rebuild its outer space forces in secret. Widespread international economic sanctions cripple the Chinese economy upon the discovery of this however, and as a result India and Japan overtake China to become the leading Asian economic powers in outer space.
  • By the end of the 22nd century, humanity is now fully engaged in mining operations on Luna, Mars, and in the Asteroid Belt. Permanent settlements of civilians are also beginning to take hold on these bodies.
• 23rd century
  • Sometime in the 2220s, a major breakthrough in engine technology allows human spacecraft to travel at nearly 20% the speed of light, accelerating human expansion into the Outer Sol system and leading to the development of the first human habitats on the moons of Jupiter and Saturn (namely Europa, Ganymede, and Titan). The notion of a first mission to the system of Alpha Centauri is floated among the Big Five space powers, as the travel time would now only take approximately 25 years.
  • The Aeneas Initiative, an independent organization backed by several major exoplanetary corporations, announces its plan to send a manned mission to the Alpha Centauri system by 2232. After a two year delay, the project goes underway on 2234, and in 2258, the vessel arrives in Alpha Centauri. The first colony, also called Alpha, was founded the same year on the planet Alpha Centauri B II. The planet had a hostile climate with weak gravity, fierce winds and great daily variations, but nevertheless the planet did harbor life (although far from intelligent) and the colony was successfully founded.
  • In 2262, four years later, when the message was received on Earth, the entire humanity was aware of the discovery of extraterrestial life, which transitioned the human science to the new, truly galactic stage. Humanity has officially become a spacefaring race, one of the twenty-nine of such in the current Milky Way
  • Sometime in the 2270s, the TBD research academy announced the creation of a new type of engine, which was capable of deforming the very structure of space-time continuum and thus accelerating to a speed of 308 000 km/s (1.028 c), which is the first engine ever to reach a superluminal velocity. Although the discovery was questioned by many other scientists, it did successfully travel the distance between the spaceport of Luna and the research station on Neptune and back to Luna in 8 hours 7 minutes, which was 11 minutes ahead of light speed. This was the Astra-1, humanity's first hyperdrive.