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Chapter 2: The New Dawn(2101-2250)

2.0: Society

In the beginning of the 22^nd century, a company from America developed breakthroughs in plasma thruster technology.  A company from the continent of Europe by the name of Germany improved on the American´s original design and produced drives that were cheaper than plasma thrusters, albeit slower.   These drives were perfect for cheap, reliable bulk carriers that would be used to ferry ore from the Asteroid Belt and outer worlds to Earth.  The return trips would carry grain and other bulk chemicals. Spacecraft that were large enough were beginning to be fitted with rotating ¨Gravity Wheels¨ to simulate gravity for longer voyages between worlds.  These new concepts for space travel helped to open the solar system for exploration and development.  Now, ships could reach the outer planets exponentially easier.   The ships that were assigned to further explore Earth's main satellite, The Moon (now called Luna), could reach it in a matter of a few hours.  The Moon was thoroughly explored with ease and more development in personal space equipment.  Sufficient quantities of He-3 were discovered there, and mining operations went underway.  Trips to Mars proved to be interesting enough to warrant colonization.  The asteroid belt was explored, and rich mineral deposits of various types of industrial metals and compounds were discovered.  Trips to the Kuiper region beyond Neptune led to mineral deposits as well.

By the end of the 22^nd century, ships could carry the fuel to make prolonged rocket burns from source to destination.  This ability, like today, reduced the necessity of gravity wheels.  The g-effect from the thruster burn (usually at 1g) meant that ships could simply use decks that were perpendicular to the length of the hull.  The propulsion advancements in this century made spacecraft construction exponentially easier and cheaper than ever before.

By the middle of the 23^rd century, extra-Earth construction projects multiplied.  Space stations were now being constructed on a massive scale around Earth's L-4 and L-5 points.  Breakthroughs in medical technology allowed the production of special calcium-enriching formulas that could be added to any foodstuffs to counter the effects of too weak a gravity field.  The Moon was colonized with a combination of domed areas and underground complexes.  The first Mars colony was founded early on.  The asteroid belt was populated soon after.  With these new colonies over the next 50 years, humanity was now a true space faring people.

2.0.1: The Promised Land Movement

Humanity has had its elements of opposition for any facet of society.  Space travel was no exception.  There was opposition to this factor of human development that grew as the technology for space travel developed.  Many religious organizations rejected space travel on grounds that it was trespassing upon "God's Holy Ground."  Some merely felt that Earth's needs - whatever they were - needed to be solved before humanity should delve in the frivolous activity of exploring space.  Most of these people had good intentions; they really felt they were doing their best for humanity.  There are others, however, who have less than idealistic ambitions to control the populations of the planet.  Pockets of anti-space groups started popping out of many nations.  These groups steadily increased in number as time went on.  Their numbers increased exponentially towards the middle of the 23^rd century - when space travel and habitation were becoming commonplace.  Their influence was beginning to be felt in governments.  Many politicians were sympathetic to these views.  In the 2140's, most of the smaller groups became absorbed into the organization called "The True People of the Promised Land."  The Promised Land Movement spread across to every nation by the beginning of the 2250's.

2.1: Technology

The main powerplants began with fission reactors.  Fusion reactors slowly started replacing the atom-splitters, but not entirely.  Fission reactors are still used for cheap power plants for ships and installations.  Their main use after fusion power, however, is toward inexpensive means for spacecraft power.

The new plasma drives gave humanity the key to the solar system.  Humans had the freedom to travel to any location in the system in a very reasonable amount of time.  Because of the ability to constantly accelerate to their destinations (by thrusting/retro-thrusting), gravity wheels on ships began to be exclusively used on ships which expected extended periods of non-acceleration (EXAMPLE: scientific ships surveying planets from orbit).

The other new breakthrough for material development was the invention of crystallized iron.  Iron, whose molecular composition was aligned to near precision that allowed the material to become extremely resilient to damage from micrometeors.  Its protection from weaponry also became apparent.

Medical technology starts seeing new techniques.  Lasers become small but powerful enough to be used as hand instruments.  As mentioned above, new medical techniques help thwart the low-gravity syndromes that troubled many earlier space flights.  Cloning experiments start proving more viable, but full body cloning is not yet implemented.  Genetic engineering introduces enhanced muscle and nerve replacement.  These are used to improve the lives of people suffering muscular or nerve disorders.  Radiation poisoning is also dealt with using cellular replacement technology.  Frivolous genetic enhancements were mostly banned around the planet and her off-world colonies.  Underground groups were experimenting with "improving humanity."  Most experiments failed.  Horribly.  The remains usually died, but some survived long enough to escape or extract revenge upon the ones responsible.  A few experiments showed merit.  These peoples were to form the first of the Earth-based TransHumans that populate known space.