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Grizzled Veteran
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STATE OF SPACE, 2057
I. Imperial Holdings
IA. Populated Colonies
Earth(973.2m, 322 CF, 253 CI, 50 OF, 10 FF, 75 REF, 18 RL, 2 AC, 6.8k MF)
Luna(36.11m)
Mars(9.58m)
Titan(5.09m)
Venus(approx. 90k)
Mars has only grown by a half-million in the last four years, Titan by 200k. Luna kept growing for a bit(up almost 7m) but has stalled now as well. The civilian shipping halt has left Earth just continuing to grow. Our homeworld is up more than 77m, with total human population now at 1.024b(up 9.1%).
IB. Outposts
Earth(77 SM, 1 AM, 11.4 eff, 1.84 kt yield) – uridium set to deplete in 3.1 years
Titan(25 AM, 6 eff, 243t)
Venus(7 AM, 24 eff., 233t)
Stephan-Oterma(28 AM, 40 eff., 1.75 kt)
Machholz(27.6 AM, 56 eff., 2.41 kt) – duranium(2.8 yrs)
Comas Sola(25 AM, 58 eff, 2.09 kt) – neutronium(4.6 yrs)
Schaumasse(21.8 AM, 36 eff, 942 t)
Triton(21 AM, 30 eff, 756 t)
Crommelin(20.4 AM, 59 eff, 1.73 kt) – corundium(7.2 yrs)
Wolf-Harrington(13.8 AM, 60 eff, 994 t) – vendarite(9.1 yrs)
Prokne(10 AM, 10 eff, 138 t)
Van Biesbroeck(10 AM, 55 eff, 726 t)
Neujmin(9.8 AM, 49 eff, 576 t)
Borrelly(9.8 AM, 58 eff, 851 t)
Faye(4 AM, 48 eff, 240 t)
Reinmuth(1.8 AM, 47 eff, 101 t) – duranium(7.1 yrs)
Sedna(5 CMC, 16 eff, 1.06 kt)
Total Production: 16.68 kt annual yield, a 5.8% increase or almost a full kiloton per year. The total amount will eventually fall as the comets deplete – the most important thing is keeping the key minerals coming in.
Earth has just over half the mines it did four years ago, and has now been reduced to a relatively minor contributor. The expected depletion times have actually been increased due to the rapid rate of conversion and shipping of mines off-world(at least, until the switch to maintenance facility work last year). It won’t be long until more mines have to be built and the economic focus switches from converting standard to automated to actually adding new mines.
A few minor minerals on comets were depleted, but nothing worth noting. That will change in the coming years, but losing Machholz’s duranium won’t hurt as much with the growth on Triton and Schaumasse that was achieved.
IC. Mineral Stockpiles and Production
Tier A: Uridium(45 kt), gallicite(31 kt), and vendarite(29 kt) are joined by tritanium this time(24 kt)
Tier B: Mercassium(27 kt), corbomite(18 kt), and boronide(19 kt) remain as before. Boronide is seeing more use as a primary component of the fuel tanks used on ships for the navy, but as of yet the stockpile continues to grow.
Tier C: Corundium(1.87 kt) is growing rapidly with the temporary, recent decline in mine conversion; sorium(12.1 kt) is growing as well and will grow a lot more as the Saturn harvesting operation picks up steam.
Tier D: Neutronium(5.99 kt) and duranium(5.35 kt) supplies have never been better, but continuing to grow them is essential. There still isn’t enough for a significant economic expansion.
ID. Income
Taxes: 24.16M
Export Tariffs: 115k
Trade Good Tariffs: 115k
Tourism Fees: 80k
Total: 24.47M
Taxes on civilian shipping don’t bring in a tenth of what they did four years ago. As a result, though direct citizen tax income rose by over two million credits, total income actually shrunk by 3.7 million, over a 13% decline. The good news, I suppose, is that it can’t fall much further – and still dwarfs spending. Just over one million credits comes from the colonies – over 90% is from Earth.
IE. Expenses
Installation Construction: 4.16M
Research: 3.51M
Shipbuilding: 1.82M
Mineral Purchases: 1.25M
GU Maintenance: 134k
GU Training: 83k
Shipyard Modifications: 61k
Maintenance Facilities: 10k
Total: 11.02M
For the first time, there is cause to be just the slightest bit concerned about the financial side. SPACE still made more than twice what it spent, but with the decline in income and a spending rise of almost 22%, there is definitely a need to ensure that trend does not continue indefinitely.
II. SHIPYARDS
IIA. Commerical Yards
Tod & MacGregor(1 slipway, 36.5kt capacity)
P&A Group(2 slipways, 20kt capacity)
** Building 2x Perry-class fuel harvesters
Vickers-Armstrong(2 slipways, 10kt capacity)
** Building 2x Lexington II-class shuttle transports
IIB. Naval Yards
Wartsila A/B & O/Y(1 slipway, 10kt capacity)
** Building Pioneer-class jump scout
III. INDUSTRIAL ACTIVITY
IIIA. Earth
** Maintenance Facility Expansion(50%) – to 10kt, expected to finish in early December
** Research Lab(25%) – one per two years or so at the current rate
** Mine Conversions(10%) – about 3 per year
** Ground Force Training Facility(4%) – 2065
** Naval Shipyard(4%) – spring/summer 2061
** Mass Driver(4%) – summer 2058
** Commercial Shipyard(3%) – 2059/2060
** A new run of infrastructure for the 2% initiative typically siphons off 2% production for 8-10 months.
IV. Research Projects
** Jump Gate Construction(Shannon Patteson) – January 8
** Fuel Consumption Efficiency(Santo Makar) – January 13
** Plasma Carronade(Brandon Grimmett) – March 12
** Ground Unit Strength(Cedrick Wormack) – March/April
** Alpha Shields(Edward Groat) – June
** High-Powered Microwave(Everette Snuggs) – June/July
** Shield Regeneration(Clint Wyche) – Summer 2058
** Railgun Velocity(Ignacio Bavaro) – Summer 2058
** Microwave Focusing(Mike Manaya) – Summer 2058
** Gauss Cannon Velocity(Harlan Welle) – Late 2058
** Figher Production(Curtis Gloster) – Late 2058/Early 2059
** Gauss Cannon Firing Rate(Karabishi Juishao) – Late 2058/Early 2059
** Research Rate(Deacon Palmer, only project with multiple labs(3)) – Winter/Spring 2059
** Railgun(Eva Vadnais) – Winter/Spring 2059
** Thermal Sensor Sensitivity(Julio Kuchler) – 2060/2061
** Turret Tracking Speed(Joe Tycho) – 2061
The research teams haven’t been heard from that much the last couple years, but this shows why. There’s a number of projects due to complete in the next few months, and several more next year.
V. Active Naval Assets
GSV Coontz(1, 2.25kt, 32 crew, 1377 km/s, 130k, gravitational survey)
GEV Essex Iix(2, 2.2kt, 35 crew, 1136 km/s, 60k, geological survey)
FT Fletcher II-xe(7, 36.2kt, 100 crew, 518 km/s, 700k, freighter)
ST Lexington II(8, 1.8kt, 20 crew, 1388 km/s, 30k, transport shuttle)
JS North Carolina(1, 19.2kt, 133 crew, 520 km/s, 250k, large jump ship)
FH Perry(4, 18.95 kt, 98 crew, 263 km/s, 350k, fuel harvester)
JSC Pioneer(2, 10kt, 240 crew, 1000 km/s, 600k, jump scout)
TT Portland(2, 4.3kt, 35 crew, 581 km/s, 60k, troop transport)
CS Spruance-b(1, 20kt, 110 crew, 501 km/s, 250k, colony ship)
Total: 28 vessels(nearly doubled from 17!), 426.7kt, 2.1k crew, 8.61m liters fuel
Available Crew: 71.9k(+ 6.8k)
Nine current ship classes(we had only six before). It’s getting a bit crowded. Overall, the navy basically doubled in the last four years. We’re at about 32.5m liters and holding steady, but that number doesn’t seem quite as huge as it used to.
VI. Active Army Assets
** Low-Tech Armour Division(5)
** Low-Tech Infantry Division(10)
** Garrision Battalion(6)
Total Active-Duty Soldiers: 780,000(4% increase)
VII. Civilian Shipping Corporations
Voliva Carrier Company(26 ships, 310k annual income)
Jensrud Transport & Trading(16)
Everton Shipping & Logistics(4)
Presnar Freight(4)
Forbius Carrier Limited(1)
Oullet Shipping(1)
Tolles Transport & Logistics(3)
55 total, just up from 52 four years ago, but Voliva is the only active one left. They effectively have a monopoly on the virtually non-existent industry, which generates just 5% of the income it did in our last report. Voliva has more cash on hand(516k) than the others combined. Meanwhile, 350,000 colonists sit in colony ships with nowhere to go. What a mess the corporations have created.
VIII. SPACE Leadership Prospectus
** Naval Officers: 33 of 72 assigned(45.8%)
** Ground Forces Officers: 21 of 33(63.6%)
** Civilian Administrators: 18 of 26(69.2%)
** Scientists: 16 of 28(57.1%)
Overall: 88 of 159(55.3%) – up a full 10% from 45 last report
19 new positions were created, while the overall number of leaders remains exactly the same as it was before. The outlook is declining for researchers as more focused and expensive projects lie ahead, but for the other three branches it definitely appears that growth opportunities will continue to be strong. SPACE continues to need more than a few good men and women to keep the wheels moving, and early dismissals are unquestionably on the decline.
IX. Terraforming Review
After reviewing the situation, there’s less to say about this than I expected. But first, a bit of a OOC primer on how terraforming works. I’ll try not to make it too long/dense, its one of those things that is far easier to wrap my head around than to explain cogently. There’s four basic factors to a planet’s suitability for colonization: gravity, breathable atmosphere, temperature, and atmospheric pressure. Searching for colony prospects, we must first satisfy the zero-tolerance conditions. That is, a body must be:
** Terrestrial. I.e., not a gas giant or super jovian, since obviously those we can’t land on.
** Somewhat close to Earth’s size, although there’s a wide range. Asteroids aren’t big enough, and the largest terrestrials are too big to fit the gravity requirement.
Basically, anything that fits the gravity range and has a hard surface to land and build on can be colonized, technically. It may well not be practical, however, and usually isn’t. As an extreme example, Luytens 726-8 B I has a surface temperature of over 2330 celcius. That’s five times further from our habitable range as Mercury or Venus, and Venus is four times easier to colonize. Not gonna happen.
The next things to look for then, are temperature and an atmosphere that is both breathable(reasonable range of oxygen is tolerated, no dangerous gases like neon or methane) and within a suitable pressure range. A body with no atmosphere would take almost 300 years at current tech levels for a singe installation to terraform, by adding an atmosphere thick enough(about a third of Earth’s is required). Temperature is a function both of the type/pressure of atmosphere and distance from the primary star, so that’s only partly changeable.
Ok, so a couple of examples that we know. Mars has only slightly less gravity than earth, and while it is too cold that issue(1.6 colony cost) is slightly less of a hindrance than not having a breathable atmosphere(2.0). The problem is it has almost no atmosphere, so making the atmosphere breathable both in terms of sufficient oxygen and the right percentage of it would take about 270 years(again for one installation). This thicker atmosphere would also warm the planet up some, improving the temperature issue as more heat is trapped. In the case of Mars if we put a lot of effort into it and built, say, 20 or so terraforming ships/installations then inside of a generation you would have an improved planet, and eventually the capacity for one that does not require any infrastructure at all. It isn’t out of the question that we might eventually do something like this, though certainly it’s not a priority right now.
Venus, on the other hand, has 25 times the atmospheric pressure of Earth. That would need to be changed, and would take those same 20 terraformers more than 4,000 years to do so. Not gonna happen. Luna is similar to Mars because it has no atmosphere.
All of this leads to the conclusion that any place we would wish to terraform, particularly outside of Sol, has to have resources beckoning us there and then also be in a reasonable range of practicality. There are a number of moon-like objects out there(no resources, no atmosphere, reasonable otherwhise), but also little reason to put that kind of massive effort in.
The one distinct exception that we have found is Sirius-A II. Now of course we haven’t found significant resources in the system, so unless a further scan revealed more we still wouldn’t wish to do it, but the planet has an atmosphere almost half as thick as Earth’s, 20% oxygen. It needs about 25% more oxygen than what it has to be enough for breathability, something that could be accomplished within 17 years by a single installation or faster by a few more. Temperature(64 celcius) would still be an issue. This could be reduced but not eliminated(it’s just too close to the star) by gradually removing some nitrogen and making the atmosphere somewhat thinner. In all, eventually Sirius-A II could eventually become a planet with somewhat less than 1.0 colony cost. Some infrastructure still required, but a relatively small amount. Any significant local duranium source might allow it to eventually produce it’s own infrastructure, etc.
Bottom line: terraforming isn't a near-future priority, but the advance of science in many fields is expected to make it both more viable and more necessary as our holdings grow.
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