Ok, here goes, my first major change regarding my original ideas towards the NH universe: there's a lot more activity in Space than I previously thought.
A LOT.
A LOT.
I imagine that although big cities like Port Armstrong on the moon, and Ophir Station on Mars will not be very common, there will be some human presence in most things all the way to, and including, Jupiter's orbit.
Reasons why this is possible:
Reasons why this is possible:
- Fusion power - at some point during the War, we cracked laser-initiated fusion. We can now power a city with a pond-full of water rich in Helium3/Deuterium mix. Spaceships with Fusion drives can accelerate/decelerate continuously at just below 0.1 G
- Nanotech: within reason, you can disassemble an object and re-use its component elements. Life support has been enhanced by a factor of 10
- Food: The Development of the AlgSoy hybrid makes it possible to generate calories, proteins and vitamins by using little more than recycled waste. According to some smaller colonies, you won't die, you'll just wish you were dead.
- War: The technology developed in the War made space vessels safe, common, boring, almost. Longest travel time at the moment with Fusion Drives (4th gen) is just over a month from Earth to Callisto (shortest possible distance, orbital paths will vary).
- Money: There's a lot of expensive stuff out there, these days, Helium3 mines, exotic transition metals, long-chained molecular oddities in dead comets. All you have to do is go there, and pray no one has found it first.
So, Space is busy. But there's also A LOT of it.
A number of stations in Earth's orbit act as docks, linking big ships to passengers and cargo, ferried from the planets. In New Hades, it all goes through the McKinley Rocheford Spaceport, at the north-east end of the Factory district, bordering a bit of the Scraplands. Here, spaceplanes of all sizes shuttle people and things up into orbit, and bring much more down. Its a brand new world, and everyone wants a piece of it.
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