The Grand Solar Rush - Asteroid colony management quest

[Ramble]

Yay, we got good rolls and managed to succeed!

Eek, now we have yet another research project to eat up time - and now superpowers will be putting pressure on us to come up with results.

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As long as we don't have a full scale shooting war sending stray kinetic rounds and missile shots into our back yard, or worse onto our people, I don't much care. We can spend the resources keeping the research project running. I'd prefer that over patching up combat damage.

In any case, I'm wondering if they'd prefer groundside complexes or stations. We can accommodate both, but I'd prefer if we could put them on separate stations in orbit just so they don't have any ideas about owning any of our clay.

Oh, and while I'm sure we can shoulder the infrastructure maintenance costs, payroll comes from earth.

 

[TimEd]

Sucky responsibilities though.

Let's just hope they bankroll us enough to make this all worthwhile. We need secirities against sabotage/espionage ASAP.

 

[Rockeye]

I can't believe that worked.

 

[carterhall]

That was an exciting bit of writing!

 

[inbred martian]

well honestly didnt think that would work but nice that it did. Also really hope we can receive some priority dock space and industry on loans to set up a little pdf navy and defense satalite ring or 2 around the anomaly. After all we need to stop enterprising 'rouge' scientist ships from getting that sweet sweet data

 

[Tatbee]

Damn those rolls were close.
I was expecting us to have to make further concessions, just to make this work.

We're going to need to use that boon to build a Klondike research station, asap.
But what should we call it?
- Dawson?
- Harper and Ladue? (one orbital, one groundside?)

 

[trooperist]

Congrats. We prevented interplanetary war in exchange for massive expectations and responsibilities and the attention of the superpowers.

Well we wanted to put Little Klondike on the map, but I'd imagine not like this. At least we prevented WW3, for now.

 

[Amilia]

Ahhh, that was tense.

Honestly, what's up with the Americans? It's like they forgot M.A.D was a thing that existed.

That president really worries me, having such wardogs in charge is what led to the world wars. Hopefully they don't get reelected so we can deal with someone more reasonable.

 

[Traveller76]

Question Time:
1. How far away is the PLANSF/Chinese from us?

2. Also, how secret is this summit/discussion?

3. Could we use our 'Neutral' location to attract more independent investors and trade from non-Triad members?

 

[hYGP]

Alright, good, we don't die on the spot. Now we get to enjoy the !!FUN!! of being the channel for state secrets and espionage targets for everyone involved (while hopefully getting big superpower funbux fingers crossed)

Hopefully, we can put a few of those frigates the US and the EU are oh-so-generously providing to "safeguard" us to use as a first ablative layer against PLSF munitions, or, you know, the Martians, the Lunarians, the out-and-out spacers, actual genuine aliens, you know, the works.

 

[Tatbee]

In order to defend the anomaly, the EU and US may decide to occupy nearby asteroids.
There are 2 small asteroids on the Local Map, closest to the anomaly, that might become military outposts.

Though speaking of asteroids, we might want to expand at some point.
@Karf how much Money would it cost to buy another asteroid?

 

[Nevill]

"Admiral, you told me you're a patriot."

"I am."

"Surely you can then believe in your own scientist to pull ahead when presented with the same data."

A silence descends as everybody seems focused on the grimacing face of John Burke.

Click to shrink...

A solid argument. We should use it on our patients once the hospital is up and running. "Aren't you a patriot? Surely you can believe to pull through when given the same treatment!" And if they still don't, well, does their country really need unpatriotic citizens?

 

[thefoolswriter]

Ahhh, that was tense.

Honestly, what's up with the Americans? It's like they forgot M.A.D was a thing that existed.

That president really worries me, having such wardogs in charge is what led to the world wars. Hopefully they don't get reelected so we can deal with someone more reasonable.

Click to shrink...

M.A.D breaks down when you have control of space and a colaney on it

 

[Amilia]

M.A.D breaks down when you have control of space and a colaney on it

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But neither has total control of space, both have battleships and losing a battle can mean being bombarded from orbit. And 99% of colonies are not self sufficient so M.A.D should still apply.

Even with space colonies, a war between superpowers would destroy Earth to the point it would resemble Fallout. This should be more of a corcern to these people.

 

[Profectus]

DC was a little higher than I expected but I'm glad it worked out.

 

[Karf]

Question Time:
1. How far away is the PLANSF/Chinese from us?

2. Also, how secret is this summit/discussion?

3. Could we use our 'Neutral' location to attract more independent investors and trade from non-Triad members?

Click to shrink...

China is on Earth? I'm not sure I understand the question. Prismdust was originally on the border of Chinese space, but no outposts there have made any large waves, nor do you know of any military presence there.

Not very secret, considering you were approached by the United Nations. That means that everybody worth mentioning is at least aware of it happening. The 'why' has so far been a carefully kept secret, but you lack the foresight to tell if it'll stay that way or if it means that everybody knows anyways and is just putting up a polite facade.

I'm sure you can find both up- and downsides to your unique circumstance, often in the same fact, depending on who's interpreting.

In order to defend the anomaly, the EU and US may decide to occupy nearby asteroids.
There are 2 small asteroids on the Local Map, closest to the anomaly, that might become military outposts.

Though speaking of asteroids, we might want to expand at some point.
@Karf how much Money would it cost to buy another asteroid?

Click to shrink...

Buy from whom? Your current wealth comes largely from minerals you extract and process, and the asteroid is nowhere near depleted (nor will it ever be for the purposes of a reasonable timeframe for this quest). You could maybe negotiate to fund an expedition somewhere as an investor, but that's a business deal, not an expansion per se. If the idea is to 'hide' from an angry superpower, you'd be better off just going to another, already established station/back to Earth (although the story will not go in that direction).

 

[Tatbee]

Buy from whom?

Click to shrink...

I was under the impression there was some sort of international colonial authority, to register claims of asteroids.
And I assumed a claim would cost money.
From this quote:

"Captain Rousseau, we've received a transmission regarding your targeted landing site. Not sure how to put it, so I'll just say it. A William O'Rielly has contacted us through the mapping probe's tight-beam, claiming the asteroid in the name of 'Little Klondike', a colony of some two hundred people."

The speaker left a pause to let you digest that nugget for a moment before continuing, "We've checked all the records on Earth, Mars and Luna – there's no trace of such a colony registered anywhere."

She paused the message, taking a deep breath and rubbing her temples, 'Who in their right mind would just decide to take a prime asteroid for themselves? There are proper channels for this type of thing!' Pressing play again, she let the rest of the message play out.

"The EU mission remains active. The asteroid is now considered our land and as such, your orders to establish a colony haven't changed. While the EC doesn't condone violence against natives, it's still subject to our laws now. It'll be your job to enforce those laws, including but not limited to using force against anyone resisting lawful authority. We trust that you'll successfully solve the situation in the best manner possible. Gibraltar out."

Click to shrink...

Is that not the case?

 

[Logos01]

Just caught up. One thing I have to say: both nations had best be contributing funds towards this research. That and they're obviously going to both want a vetting process for the researchers involved.

But hey; gravity manipulation has a lot of potential utility. One example I like to use because it seems so non-obvious: improved rocketry. The standard rocket equations have a theoretical maximum for any given fuel and exhaust funnel arrangement, but those maximums cannot be reached practically due to heat transfer and reaction mass congestion and turbulence.

One thing that can work extremely well to improve how close to the theoretical maximum a hot exhaust rocket can get is if you had a way to have an "afterburner" effect on the exhaust mass. Even a very weak antigravity effector installed at the base of a conventional rocket exhaust funnel would let you burn hotter and with a far more streamlined exhaust stream, meaning that you not only get the increased acceleration from antigravity expelling the plasma, but you also get an increase from the ability to get closer to theoretical maximums. Even a 0.1g antigravity field would have drastic improvements on the total usable delta-V from the same quantity of reaction mass. Plus, your funnel would have lower wear and tear.

You can obviously do the same thing with cold gas reaction jets for the same reasons, which is again a pretty big deal.

And then of course there's what you can do with gravity wave lensing. By using more than one gravity/antigravity emitter you can shape gravity wave propagation to create lensing effects as seen in the experiments that proved the theory of relativity. This could be used, amongst other things, to dramatically improve the range of wireless communications by simple dint of refocusing the transmission beam several kilometers away from the emitter. Doesn't affect the light lag time, but it does affect directional transmission quality. (Same for directional signal/optical detection; you're basically creating arbitrarily large lenses at near arbitrarily large distances.)

There's also gravitic sensor tech you can do when you can guarantee a baseline for gravity intensity that can better detect gravity waves, which today is done with extremely sensitive laser emitter/receivers to detect changes in the density of mass in known objects.

Point being; gravity tech is a hell of a lot more than just "gravity plating" and "hovering via antigravity".

 

[Ramble]

I wonder if we should submit an application to the UN. Unless that's a strictly earth thing.

 

[Karf]

I was under the impression there was some sort of international colonial authority, to register claims of asteroids.
And I assumed a claim would cost money.
From this quote:

Is that not the case?

Click to shrink...

When you first started, there was free space, aka the sectors didn't exist on paper. Now they do, so you'd be applying to a government with plans, detailed mission reports, expected profits, letter of motivation, etc. It's not really buying so much as winning a grant. Most are split between the three superpowers, but other nations/governments hold a sizeable minority, nothing's unclaimed in the Inner Belt. Does it cost money? Absolutely. Will the EU be granting you their asteroids? Try it and find out.

The aforementioned registries hold things like docking data, radio signature, tax records and yes, ownership exchange history, but it's not really international (sort of). The records are somewhat public: think assigning car licence plates - I've no idea if I could find out which numbers have been assigned in say... Indonesia, but I imagine the local authorities know, and avoid having duplicates. Maybe there is some international law for licence plates, but I do know that even within Europe the designs differ by country.

CLAIM: A public grant by your original governing body, looking to populate new ventures with friendly governors.

You filled out the application forms, you presented your case and you shook the right hands and probably just got lucky that your application was on top of the pile. Ultimately what matters is that you now have a deed to give you some legitimacy in relations, a preset trade route and some guarantee of political backing should you need it. Of course it also comes at the cost of your independence if some bureaucrat decides to force your hand, a really poor margin on said trade contract and a general expectation that you'll fall in line when the motherland comes calling.

Click to shrink...

 

[Ramble]

When you first started, there was free space, aka the sectors didn't exist on paper. Now they do, so you'd be applying to a government with plans, detailed mission reports, expected profits, letter of motivation, etc. It's not really buying so much as winning a grant. Most are split between the three superpowers, but other nations/governments hold a sizeable minority, nothing's unclaimed in the Inner Belt. Does it cost money? Absolutely. Will the EU be granting you their asteroids? Try it and find out.

The aforementioned registries hold things like docking data, radio signature, tax records and yes, ownership exchange history, but it's not really international (sort of). The records are somewhat public: think assigning car licence plates - I've no idea if I could find out which numbers have been assigned in say... Indonesia, but I imagine the local authorities know, and avoid having duplicates. Maybe there is some international law for licence plates, but I do know that even within Europe the designs differ by country.

Click to shrink...

Do we have our own sector? Because we might need something like that in order to make this whole research project thing work out.
Also is it possible to apply to the UN or do we need more people first?

 

[Profectus]

we should aim for aerogel production in the near future just to ensure we have the patent over it.

 

[Amilia]

That's not going to be so simple since I imagine we will have to spend at least one research action for the forseeable future into the anomaly.

We are back into full action economy hell.

 

[Tatbee]

we should aim for aerogel production in the near future just to ensure we have the patent over it.

Click to shrink...

I agree, aerogel needs patenting asap.

If it can occur "naturally" on Little Klondike, it may also be on other asteroids, or maybe even the anomaly.
The longer we wait, the more likely it is someone else will discover it.

That's not going to be so simple since I imagine we will have to spend at least one research action for the forseeable future into the anomaly.

We are back into full action economy hell.

Click to shrink...

For the first turn at least, we should have 2 research actions available.

As we simply can't conduct any anomaly research, not without building a research station first.

 

[Amilia]

For the first turn at least, we should have 2 research actions available.

Click to shrink...

Which we will need for mineral surveys, since our mines are almost at full employment, and the solar wind proyect since becoming self sufficient is more crucial than ever with the super-powers going for the red buttons.

We have never had spare actions so far, and getting a patent is a secondary priority over our growth.