Hermes program (The Inner Council)
The Hermes program was an American-led colonization program that employed two fleets of crafts (constellations) Hermes I and Hermes II. They were launched in 1977 towards the Cronian moon of Titan. The two constellations had over 2500 souls on board. Hermes I's was terminated in 1980 due to the Battle of Achilles. Hermes II is now a museum dedicated to the lives lost around Titan.
Today, Man will voyage through the fridig cosmos in peace, to see the stars and planets beneath our veil.
— Jimmy Carter (1977)
The Hermes program is regarded as the single worst space disaster in world history and has shaped space exploration and colonization efforts permenantly, and it has lead to the widespread awareness and consideration of Microcasm Hysteria.
The cost of the original program was $2.7 trillion, and remains the costliest colonization project in history.
Planning
The Hermes program was first proposed in the 1950s by NASA scientist Kitchit Smith to explore and colonize Titan. It was common belief at the time that Titan has a CO2 atmosphere and is a warm habitable moon. During the 1960s further observations have concluded that Titan is too cold to have a CO2 atmosphere, and is primarily composed of Nitrogen and Methane instead. Under the Prescott administration, the plan was finalized for a 3 constellation colonization fleet to be launched by 1977. By 1963 the effort has been reduced to 2 constellations due to budget costs. Construction of the first vessel, Constitution (later renamed to Red Tide) began on 1966, July 4th. The final ship, Voyager was completed in 1975 and was Hermes I was operational by 1976.
The construction of Hermes I was undertaken by NASA and by Amcoso.The project was internally delayed multiple times, and faced difficulties in regards of public support, government funding and lack of technological maturity. In contrast Hermes II's lone ship, Horizon, was handled by the Department of Defense, Department of Energy and the United States Army Corps of Engineers. During construction, several nuclear warheads were loaded onto Horizon in secrecy, only officially declassified in 2027.
Composition
The Hermes I constellation consisted of 6 ships and 2457 souls onboard. By the end of September, 1980, the Hermes I constallation group has devolved into two antagonistic cliques. The Red Tide led clique shown in red, and the Iron Will led clique shown in blue. The spacecraft Einstein did not belong to either cliques and was presumed neutral.
| Name | Commander | Souls | Specialization |
|---|---|---|---|
| Red Tide | Rodrigo L. Lopez | 752 | Industry & Processing |
| Iron Will | Adam J. Wester | 597 | Agriculture & Cultivation |
| Olympic | Paul McMurphy†
Shane Silvester |
366 | Defense & Mining |
| Newton | Charles Hammington | 255 | Communications |
| Einsten | Otto P. Schmidt | 248 | Scientific Exploration |
| Voyager | Carol Tiffany | 239 | Energy & Storage |
The first captain of the Olympic, Paul McMurphy, was killed in the Olympic coup d'état and replaced with Shane Silvester. Silvester remained the de facto commander as no government recognized the results of the coup and thus did not appoint a successor.
Hermes II comprised of 1 ship and 289 souls onboard. Horizon was not officially given a specialization, it is speculated it's role was a deterrant and fortification of Titan colonization efforts by the United States.
| Name | Commander | Souls | Specialization |
|---|---|---|---|
| Horizon | Emmanuel Jonas | 289 | N/A |
Mission
Colonization of Titan was to be done in two phases. Phase 1 includes the Hermes II spacecraft crew settling around titan in 1980, and establish a temporary and small scale settlement outpost on the nothern pole of Titan. During this phase the crew of the Horizon is to scout out the planet, it's natural resources and exploitability and wait for reinforcements from Hermes I. Declassified documents also show that Horizon was supposed to establish so called "watchtowers"; a series of nuclear missile silos across Kraken mare.Furthermore, the crew planned to release several "Watchstations"; two sets of self-contained nuclear missile platforms around the orbit of Titan.
Meanwhile, Hermes I was to arrive approximately one year later and establish a premenant foothold and stronghold for the United States and it's military. Einstein was to deploy several spy sattelites into Jovian and Cronian orbit for further observation and scientific study on the possibility of Jovian colonization.
| Start of the mission | |
|---|---|
Hermes I was launched August 20th, 1977 from Port Olga at 15:02:00 UTC and was the 7th most viewed event watched live at the time. President Jimmy Carter gave a speech at Port Olga commemorating a new phase of manifest destiny. Several world leaders also spoke, including the Queen of the United Kingdom, Elizabeth II and Australian prime minister Malcolm Fraser. The launch of Hermes I were the first constellation launched that was constructed in space and was a major milestone in the development of space infrastructure. |
Hermes II was launched on September 5th, 1977 from Kennedy Space Port at 13:22:00 UTC. Horizon's launch was closed to the public, however it was broadcasted at a later date. Several officials from the Department of Defense and Energy attended the ceremony. Horizon was considered the first major step in the militarization of space and directly resulted in furthering heightened tensions during Cold War I |
| Encounter with the asteroid belt | |
Hermes I entered the asteroid belt on December 10th, 1977. During this phase of the mission, several minor correction burns were made to avoid micrometeorite impacts. Red Tide fired 2 "Deployer" anti-debris missiles at an unnamed asteroid, result in the total destruction of the body. This action was ordered by NASA to test the viability of anti-asteroid capabilities, their inside composition and to test whether the missiles would be accurate in case of a real emergency. Hermes I spent 315 days in the asteroid belt and exited on October 21st, 1978. The voyage of Hermes I through the belt was without accident |
Hermes II entered the asteroid belt on Decembet 10th, 1977 and overtook Hermes I nine days later due to it's shorter path. On February 17th, 1977, Hermes II lost contact with Kennedy Space Port for 13 days. The cause of the communication malfunction is unknown, however it is suspected to be a micrometeorite impact on it's primary antenna. Hermes II was unable to fix the damage and erected the stowed-away backup antenna, re astablishing communications with Earth. Hermes II spent 272 days in the asteroid belt and exited on September 9th, 1978. |
| Encounter with Jupiter | |
Hermes I encountered Jupiter's moon Callisto on July 8th, 1979 and took several high resolution photographs and topographic measurements. On the next day it flew by Ganymede, Europa and lastly Io. Hermes I's mission to Jupiter was paramount to understanding the history of formation of the gas giant. During it's flyby it discovered several new moons of Jupiter, and the Io Radiation belt, including vulcanism and cryovulcanism on Io and Europa respectively. During it's scientific mission, Olympic experienced a total breakdown of cohesion and increased violence, that culminated in the Olympic coup, ousting commander Paul McMurphy and replacing him with seniour engineer Shane Silvester. The Olympic coup directly lead to the escalation of tension and hostilities between the crafts of Hermes I, and to the formation of Red Tide's and Iron Will's division. |
Hermes II encountered Jupiter on March 5th, 1979 and flew by Io at a distance of less than 20,000km, transmitting detailed information regarding it's surface feature, however Horizon lacked any sofisticated scientific measurement aparatus. Unknown at the time, Horizon passed straight through the radiation belt of Jupiter and due to the inproper shielding of the craft, all crew members recieved carcinogenic amounts of radiation. Over 75% of the crew of the Horizon would develop agressive tumors within their lifetime. During transit, several dozen people, specifically around the outer hulls of the craft, would report radiation poisoning symptoms and were treated for their illness onboard. After it's flyby of Europa, on March 6th the Hermes II flew by Ganymede and Callisto without incident. |
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Encounter with Saturn | |
Hermes I did not arrive to Saturn due to the Battle of Achilles, however Horizon was able to confirm the state of Iron Will and Newton to be intact and potentially functioning. Residual infrared radiation was observed from the Iron Will, however no communication or artificial signifiers were noted. During the encounter, Horizon observed a meteor shower like event on Saturn, coinciding with the collission of the fragments of the Hermes I constellation with the gas giant. Iron Will encountered the Cronian system on August 22nd, 1981 and exited 3 days later. It flew by several of the Cronian moons, including Iapetus, Titan, Enceladus and Rhea As of 2164, this was the first and only direct sighting of the Iron Will, it's continued fate is unknown. |
Hermes II arrived in the Cronian system on November 12th, 1980 and preformed several slingshot manuevers and atmospheric breaking procedures around Titan and Saturn to slow down and be captured into Titanian orbit. On November 14th Horizon circularized above 200km above Titan and sent several shuttles down to the surface, including Opportunity and Spirit towards Kyplic peninsula on the shores of Kraken mare. Horizon was converted into a spaceport and serves as a communication hub between Kyplic outpost and the solar system. |
The Battle of Achilles
On August 13th, 1980, pre-existing tensions between the cliques of Hermes I escalated into hostilities. In the following 3 minutes Red Tide, Olympic, Einstein and Voyager experienced a communication loss event and were annhiliated. Newton was disabled and potentially boarded by Iron Will. The continued survival of Iron Will is heavily contested.
Iron Will's trajectory
After its encounter with Saturn, the Iron Will continued on it's course uninterrupted out of the Solar system, having exceeded the third cosmic velocity during it's Saturn slingshot. Iron Will encountered the Ice giants Uranus and Neptune on January 24th, 1986 and August 25th, 1989 respectively. While direct observation was impossible due to lack of effective tracking technologies, the trajectory of the Iron Will agrees with a free-fall path, and it is suspected that the Iron Will did not attempt to stop it's ejection from the Solar system. It is unknown if this is due to mechanical failiure, of lack of human input; be it deliberate act of escapeism or due to the death of the crew. The current course of Iron Will places it on an encounter course with the star Ross 248 in roughly 40,000 years.
Aftermath
The Hermes program cost an estimated $2.7 Trillion dollars and employed over 2 million workers. In an unprecented motion, the US stopped all space travel for 3 hours, leaving several ships unable to dock and disembark. In 1985, the Buffet report regarding the failiures of the program was publised, and detailed the findings of the investigation made regarding the incident. The 2,300 page document was followed by 18 volumes of corroborating findings and evidence 2 years later, totalling 48,000 pages. The Buffet commission's investigation is estimated to have cost $10 Billion dollars.
The Buffet report found the entirety of the Iron Will responsible for the actions of the Battle of Achilles and absolved all responsibilities laid upon the rest of the crew of the Hermes I constellation. The report's finding and conclusion are highly controversial, however it has remained the position of the US government since 1985.
In its wake, the SANE (Space Accomidation; Not Extremes) convention was signed and ratified by most space-fairing nations, calling for increased screening for mental health issues, and guidelines on humane and healthy accomodation in space. The SANE convention itself is not binding.
Legacy
The program is widely viewed as the greatest space-related failiure in American and World history. Anti-settlement organizations and sentiments grew in the aftermath of the Battle of Achilles and the program itself was criticized for budget cuts, un-mature technology and overambition on part of the US government. The failiure of the Hermes program is widely touted as one of the major reasons for the delayed colonization of the outer Solar system and conservative interest. The incident has drastically changed commercial and military space travel due to the recognition of Microcosm Hysteria, and all space-fairing nations today abide by the Montreal protocol, limiting and prohibiting the use of multiple spacecrafts travelling in close proximity for a prolonged time. The Montreal protocol is touted by critics as unnecessary and limiting space travel, encouraging monopolies and government-owned services.
In popular culture
The Hermes project is commonly featured in entertainment and media, including but not limited to
- The Hermes (1982), a documentary regarding the aftermath of the program and subsequent legistlation towards it
- Messenger of the Gods (1993), a dramatised sci-fi action film starring Arnold Schwarzenegger in the lead role, about a secret alien invasion taking place on board of the Olympic.
- I was reincarnated into another world as an astronomer, with my mother as a wolf and my father as a merchant to defeat the alien demon king?! (2017) made several achronistic references to the program.