Problem: In the Foundation every skip that was space related gave the Foundation its own unique space assets. For example the destroyer that landed in Jupiter's Great Red Spot described a "BARRIER Array" around Jupiter. No where else is this mentioned in any other article. Usually you will just see "the anomaly was detected by deep space assets." What a cop out. The Authority can do better.
Solution: The Authority must standardize its extra-terrestrial assets. Areas, probes, satalites, arrays. Standardize all the things. This will provide a much more consistent and immersive reading experience for readers. It will also help writers by making the process for invoking and creating Authority space assests easier.
LAUNCH AREAS:
Launch areas are required to put anything into orbit. For this purpose a select few areas will be the Authority's space ports. All areas that are space ports, regardless of the method used to reach orbit (rockets, portals, anomalies, etc.) must be three digits long and the first digit must being with a nine. For example Area-901.
Suggested areas:
Area-909:
Area-909 is anchored in the Pacific Ocean near minor underwater volcanic activity. Launches are covered up by citing volcanic activity. The Area consists of four FSPO (Floating Storage Production and offloading) ships. Two of these are anchored parrallel to each other to facilitate booster recyling and preperation. The first recycles the booster and the second attatches a payload and preps it for launch. This section of the Area is called "Booster Proccessing." The third FSPO is outfitted to generate rocketfuel from water by seperating Oxygen and Hydrogen. This section is called the "Fuel Depot" The fourth stores redundant rockets and is used to house personnel. This section is called "Facilities." Power is provided by an underwater geothermal generator.Launches are coordinated from control ship RPCS Belanak. The Area also maintains a variety of ship and aircraft to facilitate personnel transport between FSPOs and for rocket recovery. These include but are not limited to boats, helicopers, sea launch planes, and drones.
Rockets launched by Area-909 are waterlaunched. If you are unfirmiliar with the concept search Aquarious rocket. Basically, you drop it in the water and launch it from the ocean. Two types of rockets are launched. One is a small launch vehicle comparable to a SpaceX Falcon 9. The second is a super-heavy lift rocket. Search Sea Dragon rocket and thats the idea. Upon re-entry they deploy parachutes and land in the ocean. Ships from Area-909 collect the rocket for recycling on site.
Area-908:
Area-908 is located in the Philipines on [REDACTED] island. Same stuff as Area-909 but on land. Still sea launched rockets. Still some boats to recover the rockets. To increace efficency some rockets launched from Area-909 will land near Area-908. Some launches from 908 will land at 909.
Site-901 (previously Site-Stella-01):
Site-901 is located on Kiribati Island and facilitates several methods of reaching orbit. The most prominent of these is the prototype mass driver. The driver is capable of lifting raw materials and small satalites into orbit more efficiently than any other method currenly in use. The site also makes use of several single stage to orbit rockets. These rockets are water-launched and are of a similar design to those used by Area-909 and 908. This site is where rocket testing and devlopment is done. All rockets currently in use by the Authority were devolped at Site-901.
ORBITAL ASSETS:
Orbital areas and sites must be suffixed with the letter "o" and a number indicating the stelar body it is orbiting. Planets are numbered 1-8, inner to outer. The sun would be zero. So if the area is orbiting Mars it will be Area-o4-Numbers. What about moons? Moons are numbered in decreasing size and are placed after the planet number. So lets say the area is in orbit of Saturn's moon Enceladus, which is the sixth largest moon of Saturn. That area would be called Area-o6-6-Numbers. What if you are orbiting the sun, not a plant? Then it would just be Area-o-Numbers. This leave some ambiguity being that you can orbit the sun from here or from pluto. I reccommend adding the area's distance from the sun in AU somewhere in the document, but this system does not specify distance from the sun.
This system also applies to satalites, probes, and space telescopes. Satalite orbiting mercury? SAT-o1-Numbers. Probe going to Neptune? SAT-o8-Numbers-EN (EN meaning en route).
What if you are orbiting an extra-solar body? Then you would do Area-o[Stelar body's name]-numbers. Orbiting Alpha Centauri? Your area would be called Area-o-Alpha Centauri-Numbers. This also works for solar bodies that aren't planets. So if you want something around Pluto it would be Area-o-Pluto-Numbers.
If you have an array of satalites, then do [NAME OF ARRAY] Array-o3-1.This theoretical array orbits earth. This means that if you want a standard surveilince array to be sent to every plant then you could have the same name and just change "o" number. So that BARRIER array from the beginning of this document would be BARRIER Array-o5-1. If you wanted the same array around Venus then you would do BARRIER Array-o2-1.
What if the asset is ON the stelar body? Then replace the "o" system with the name of the stelar body. So a base on earth's moon would be called Area-Luna-Numbers.
Suggested Orbital Areas:
Area-Luna-2:
Constructed by the now abandoned Area-Luna-1, this is the largest of the Authority's manned extra-terrestrial outposts. It is located on the dark side of the moon. The site gets its power from three nuclear reactors. This is where most extra-terestrial operations are coordinated from. The Area has a small shipyard where new probes, stallites, arrays, and array carreirs are designed, built, and tested.
Area-o1-1:
This orbital installation orbits Mercury. It operates a growing mining operation on the planet. Mining is done by drones. The area gets its power from solar panels. Once materials are proccessed they are sent to Area-o2-1.
Area-o2-1:
This area will be the largest shipyard the Authority has. Still under construction, it will be able to produce large manned ships and stations for long term expeditions. The atmosphere of Venus is ideal for making fuel and air for crewed ships.
Suggested Orbital Arrays:
GAURDIAN Array-o-2:
At 0.15AU from the sun, this array consists of 28 satalites with high gain telescopes and sunshields. Their telescopes provide a complete, near realtime view of the solar system. This provides an early warning system for object entering the solar system and approaching Earth.
ATLAS Array-o3-5:
This array provides an accurate view of the Earth 24/7 with high power cameras. This can't see through bad weather like clouds, or through buildings.
SPACE SHIPS:
Space ships are operated by the Authority Extra-terrestrial Defense Force. Therefore if you want a spaceship called George, that ship would be named AEDFS George. The AEDF is headquarted at Area-Luna-2.
ANOMALIES/RPCs:
These stay the same. If RPC-XXX is on mars, its still RPC-XXX. If you want to build a site around it, that site would be OL-Site-Mars-XXX.
HARP guns and you:
Project HARP (High Altitude Research Project) operated during the 70s. This project used giant cannons to get things sub-orbital. Sadly the project was cancelled… but not really. The Authority saw a need for anti-satalite weaponry and decided to aquire the project. Giant cannons derrived from HARP, now called HARP guns, are installed at several sites around the globe. The HARP network provides coverage of the entire nights sky, and if anything anomalous gets withing low earth orbit, the HARP network is used to deflect or destroy incoming threats.
Authors note:
Suggestions are just that, suggestions. These are not requied to be cannon, but the proposed Sites and Areas outline a realistic and future proof foundation for space realated articles.
Space lazers and you:
Space weapons are cool, and everyone wants a Deathstar, but space based weapons present a huge problem for creative writing. If the Authority has access to orbital weapons then it really limits the gravity of conflicts. Why get worried about a Gamma class breach, or a sea monster eating up New York when you can just nuke it from orbit.I recommend that the Authority has limited or no access to space weaopns, at least around Earth. If it is nessecary for your article for the Authority to have nukes in space then I won't stop you. However I urge you to not make it mega over powered. Or, after using space nukes, the system is damaged or destroyed so that it needs repairs or can't be used again.
Manned space ships and you:
There really isn't a reason to have manned missions for most things. An unmanned probe can do the job fine without clunky life support and radiation shielding. You can still have the same crew reactions and drama by having them all in the same control room at Area-Luna-2. I'm not saying never use a manned ship, its just that drone ships are a bit more reasonable.Let me know about any concerns or changes that you think should be made. The faster standards are adopted the less backtracking we will need to do.
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