Appendix
The Future History of Ross 248
As the famous baseball player Yogi Berra purportedly said, “It’s tough to make predictions, especially about the future.” In this anthology we make our own predictions of a possible fictional future, one that has the human species moving outward from our home star to establish new homes on planets circling a nearby star. In some circles, this is called science fiction. Below is a summary of this future history as it plays out in the stories of The Ross 248 Project.
SOL SYSTEM TIMELINE
2072 AD
Numerous settlements are located on Earth’s moon and become rich and powerful and even semi-independent of Earth as they serve as the gateway to the rest of the solar system.
2093
The first stable, sentient AI is created in a small town in Tennessee. It is feared and many want it to be shut down but it is found to be far too useful and interesting. It is oddly dependent on humans and seems to enjoy interacting with them. Eventually it is allowed to create more sentient AIs.
2110
A large settlement is established on Ceres but the humans suffer from lack of gravity and poor radiation shielding. Many die.
2144
The humans at Ceres have genetically modified themselves to cope with very low gravity and high radiation fields. They have become a second type of humanity, and they are known as Cerites. But they are no longer able to function in gravity higher than 0.1g. They expand to establish numerous settlements on other asteroids.
2151
There are several thousand sentient AIs working throughout the solar system. They are considered semi-property. They establish a sentient AI network using quantum fields and a complex machine language that is impossible for humans to decrypt. They use this network to communicate with each other and prevent exploitation of sentient AIs.
2160
The Space Patrol is established via the Treaty of Luna City to prevent armed conflict between the nations of Earth and the ever-increasing number of independent space settlements. The new Space Patrol combines the space forces of various factions and becomes an independent organization dedicated to the idea of keeping space free from war and to deal with any other threats that could threaten humanity. It’s motto from the start is “Preserve and Protect, at Any Cost.”
2194
Hiroaki Ito invents the Ito device, for safely storing large quantities of energy and antimatter. This is a key technology allowing for faster and safer interplanetary travel. The Ito family becomes very rich.
2210
The growing demand for antimatter results in numerous antimatter production facilities, all of which are seized by the Space Patrol to prevent the proliferation of antimatter weapons. The Space Patrol uses the antimatter to underwrite a new system-wide currency: the credit.
2210 to 2300
Age of space settlements. Expeditions continually leave from Luna to establish semi-independent space settlements on Mercury, Venus, and slowly the moons of the gas giants.
2260
Sentient AIs buy Pluto and its moons from a Cerite Consortium.
2290
Sentient AIs have a thriving business at Pluto providing medical and cryogenic storage for humans.
2366
Crisis at Pluto. 34-of-Kristie dies fighting for sentient AI rights.
2367
Sentient AIs are recognized as sentient beings with rights equivalent to humans. They agree to build an aversion to harming humans into their core architecture. This is known as the 2367 Agreement and is mostly followed.
2440
The founding of the Ross 248 Project. Earth.
2473
The starship Ceres’ Chariot, built at Ceres and crewed by 1000 Cerites and 100 sentient AIs, leaves for the Ross 248 system. The journey is 110 years.
2476
The starship Copernicus is constructed at Earth’s moon. It departs with 1000 humans and 150 sentient AIs for the Ross 248 system. The journey takes 110 years.
2478
The starship Guardian E (a Space Patrol starship, heavily armed) has been constructed at Earth’s moon. It departs with 750 normal humans, 330 Cerites, and 250 sentient AIs. Most, but not all, are members of the Space Patrol. Its journey takes 105 years.
2479
The starship 34-of-Kristie is constructed at a Cerite shipyard under contract for SAIN. It then travels to Pluto where it takes on antimatter, supplies, cargo, and a crew of sentient AIs and then leaves for Ross 248. Its journey takes 110 years.
ROSS 248 SYSTEM TIMELINE
Note: At Ross 248 years are measured in Earth years after arrival (AA instead of AD). Ceres’ Chariot arrived in the year 2583 AD (also known as 0 AA).
0 AA
Ceres’ Chariot enters orbit around Liber (the moon of Ross 248h, Alexa’s World) and starts to build a settlement on the surface of the moon, similar to other settlements built by Cerites, to be known as Toe Hold. Also, a communication station is built at the 248h/Liber L5 point to maintain a strong communication link with Sol System. This station is known as Hermes Station.
0.1 AA
The Space Patrol ship (Guardian E) goes into orbit around Ross 248e (Eden). Stealth sensor platforms are scattered throughout the Ross 248 system looking for any indication of alien activity or artifacts; they also keep a close eye on the Cerites at Liber. There is life on Eden but no sign of intelligent life or technology. Research teams are sent down to the surface but there are causalities interacting with the native life. The alien life on Eden seems to have been engineered.
1.5 AA
The first flare. The star Ross 248 has been a peaceful dim red star that suddenly produces a very damaging solar flare that hits Liber and Ceres’ Chariot. Of the 4000 Cerites that arrived on Ceres’ Chariot, 1300 died due to the flare. Many sentient AIs also died. The Guardian E leaves Eden and travels to assist the Cerites at Liber. Slowly construction resumes.
3.1 AA
The starship Copernicus arrives in orbit around Liber. It was diverted from Eden by the Space Patrol. Its crew assists the Cerites with their construction efforts.
4.5 AA
Alexa Prandus, a young woman on Copernicus, discovers the alien installation of Ross 248h, that becomes known as Alexa’s Oddity, and the planet is then named after her: Alexa’s World.
9.4 AA
The starship 34-of-Kristie enters orbit around Liber. It is crewed entirely by sentient AIs with the captain being 5-of-Chandra. It carries industrial equipment vital to building industry on Liber. The Cerites are searching the Kuiper Belt for asteroids and comets and returning them for processing. The colonists confront two major problems. Their supplies of He-3 (used to power fusion energy generators) and antimatter (used to power spaceship drive engines) are running low.
15.7 AA
The Space Patrol starts construction of a solar array and antimatter production facility at the star/Planet d L1 point. Thus the array will always be between the star and Ross 248d.
19.5 AA
The antimatter shortage comes to an end as production starts at the array.
25.3 AA
Cloud cities are established Ross 248 b and c (the two hottest and most innermost planets). The cloud cities harvest He-3 from the planet’s atmosphere. The He-3 crisis comes to an end.
37 AA
The normal human population on the Copernicus exceeds its limits. A portion of Toe Hold is built to house excess humans using a rotating structure to provide the needed gravity. This section is soon known as “the Primate Quarter.”
39 AA
The population at Toe Hold reaches 4100 Cerites and 2100 normal humans. Toe Hold is expanding.
55 AA
The sea-going ship Dawn Promise is lowered to the ocean surface on Ross 248d and begins to explore the world to evaluate its potential to be terraformed. The world is named Poseidon’s World.
61 AA
The decision to terraform Poseidon’s World is made. A second large research ship is lowered to the surface of Poseidon’s World.
73 AA
The decision is made to build space settlements on Ross 248f, named Nordheim. This planet has enough gravity to allow normal humans to thrive without the need for rotating structures. Construction begins.
83 AA
An attempt is made to sterilize Eden by rogue elements at Toe Hold. The Space Patrol barely manages to foil the attempt and save Eden.
92 AA
A prototype floating city (named Atlantis) is lowered to the surface of Poseidon’s World to accelerate research into terraforming the planet.
96 AA
An obstacle to terraforming Poseidon’s World is lack of micronutrients. This is addressed by constructing mass drivers on Nordheim that fire a continual stream of projectiles at Poseidon’s World that burst in the atmosphere and rain down the needed nutrients.
99 AA
The sentient AIs claim Ross 248g, known as Frigus, with the intent to create a Pluto-type world run by sentient AIs to provide medical, cryogenic and virtual reality services to humans and Cerites.
105 AA
The first settlers from Toe Hold move into a new settlement on Nordheim named New Hope City.
250 AA
The array between Ross 248 and Poseidon’s World begins to use some of its vast energy resources to beam light to Poseidon, simulating Earth’s light spectrum. Algae begins to flourish in the ocean at Poseidon.
350 AA
The light received at Poseidon is near identical to that received on Earth. Projectiles of micronutrients from Nordheim continue. The atmosphere of Poseidon is now 3% oxygen. Marine life is starting to be introduced in some quantity. Additional floating cities are regularly being lowered to Poseidon’s ocean.
480 AA
Poseidon’s atmosphere reaches 7% oxygen.
530 AA
Large marine mammals are introduced to Poseidon’s ocean.
560 AA
The starship Ellis Island arrives at Nordheim from Earth, the first such event in over 500 years.
700 AA
The human population at Ross 248 numbers over 133 million normal humans and almost 41 million Cerites.
708 AA
Poseidon’s World is now Earth-normal with 20% oxygen and pressure similar to higher elevations on Earth.
710 AA
The Anticol movement is finally crushed. Alexa’s Oddity, long ignored begins stirring.
The Planets of Ross 248
Ross 248 is an actual, small (M6V red dwarf) star located 10.3 light-years (LY) from Earth in the constellation Andromeda. It has no detected companions but it could have a system of planets similar to Trappist-1. Based on current exoplanet detection techniques, it is unlikely that this assumption can be proved false within the next few decades. Ross 248 is fairly close to our solar system, relatively speaking, allowing for a journey of 100 years at 0.1c. It is interesting to note that Voyager 2 will pass within 1.7 light-years of Ross 248 in about 40,000 years.
Our fictional Ross 248 system is loosely based on the very real Trappist-1 system of planets but tweaked so as not to be an exact copy. We assume that there are a few stray asteroids beyond the last planet and a thin Kuiper Belt and Oort Cloud beyond that. Ross 248 is a very small system. If it were superimposed on ours, then its seven planets and their accompanying asteroids would fit nicely within the orbit of Mercury.
The Starships of Ross 248
Interstellar travel is challenging from many perspectives but first and foremost is the problem of propulsion, which can really be simplified to a matter of energy. For example, let’s take a metric tonne (1000 kg) of anything (spaceship, lead, water, whatever) and accelerate it to 0.1c (a tenth the speed of light). Assuming it can be accelerated with one hundred percent efficiency, which is impossible, then its resulting kinetic energy, energy associated with its motion, is 107 megatonnes (Mt). For comparison, the largest nuclear explosion ever recorded was the Tsar Bomba exploded in 1961 by the former USSR. It had a yield of around 58 Mt. That’s a whopping amount of energy.
Since the starships in the Ross 248 universe don’t have faster-than-light drives, they are required to keep several thousand humans healthy and sane for around a century while they make the trip to Ross 248 from our solar system. Rough estimates are that the Copernicus would mass 2.8 million tonnes as it begins its journey. The other starships are assumed to be in the same weight class. At 0.1c, the Copernicus would have a kinetic energy of approximately 5.2 million Tsar Bombas. To decelerate at the destination, you’d need that amount of energy again. This is clearly a big problem.
Antimatter is often cited as the answer to achieve such energies. In the case of the Copernicus, you would need 14,000 metric tonnes of antimatter interactions to get up to speed (7000 tonnes of antimatter reacting with 7000 tonnes of normal matter) and the equivalent amount to slow down. Since nature won’t allow us to do anything with one hundred percent efficiency and any efficiency losses will mostly be manifest as waste heat, the ship will need radiators, big radiators, which leads to more mass being added to the ship, which then requires more antimatter to accelerate the extra mass, and so on. All this without considering how one would store over 7000 metric tonnes of antimatter for a hundred years…Good luck.
Without invoking science fictional star drives, we decided to use the most efficient propulsion system we can conceive within the known laws of physics, antimatter propulsion, and couple it with an extremely hypothetical but not necessarily impossible Alcubierre warp bubble. It is in the engineering of all this that we invoke our science fictional MacGuffins—the actual methods used to produce, store, and use antimatter. One is the Ito device, which can store antimatter safely for long periods of time. The second is a variant of the Alcubierre [0,225);//8 warp bubble. Once the bubble is created, it can be used to generate a negative energy density that will add negative mass to the starship inside the bubble. We assume physical laws prevent the total mass from going to zero, but it can be reduced. This reduction in the mass of the starship, to an outside observer, does not affect space time inside the bubble, but the conservation of momentum then requires that its velocity increase to conserve momentum.
Our starships use antimatter engines to boost their velocity (in our case to 0.0001c after ten years of thrusting). This antimatter engine produces a lot of waste heat, some of which is converted into electricity and fed into the Alcubierre drive. Though they can store tremendous amounts of energy, they require about ten years to energize. At that point, the antimatter engines are shut off and stored inside the starship. The massive radiators are also stored inside the ship. When the Alcubierre drive is activated, always an exciting and somewhat uncertain event, a warp bubble is created and flooded with negative energy. This reduces the mass (to an outside observer) by a factor of 1000, while increasing the starship’s velocity by a factor of 1000 or to something around 0.1c. The warp bubble protects the starship from collisions with dust and small particles but obscures visibility, making communication and precise navigation near impossible; but since they are unable to affect their course during this phase, the difficulty in navigation is not significant.
The starship flies blind at this speed for about ninety years. Once established, the warp bubble requires only a small energy input to maintain itself but possesses tremendous amounts of energy. “Popping the bubble,” as it is referred to by the crew, is an exciting event. The crew then spends weeks repairing the ship and dumping unnecessary mass, such as the now useless coil. It locates itself relative to its target, redeploys the antimatter engine, and spends the next ten years decelerating. Total time for the trip (0.1c is too slow for relativistic effects to kick in) is about 110 years. This is a long time, but keep in mind that humans at this point have a life span of around two hundred years.
Space is not a hospitable environment for Earth based life and it will be trying to kill our voyagers from the moment they leave home. The dangers are numerous and include the vacuum of space, radiation, and lack of any material resources. The absence of gravity results in numerous health issues including loss of bone strength, loss of muscle strength, redistribution of body fluids, vertigo, and perhaps, in the long term, even blindness for some.
The environment aboard a ship, filled with air and the other necessities of life, can keep the vacuum and emptiness of space at bay. Mass can be used as radiation shielding. Spinning the ship to provide acceleration can be used to mimic the effects of gravity to help the crew maintain their muscles and bones. Unfortunately, nearly all these mitigations will add mass, lots of mass, to the ship, making the propulsion problem more difficult.
Human psychology is another matter entirely. We don’t have any historical analogs for a worldship in which everyone must get along for a century with no way to leave and the ever-present threat of impending death just outside the ship. How would the voyagers govern themselves? What rules would they enact to ensure the safety of the crew and how much would these rules limit their personal liberty? We don’t know, but at least the crew and passengers of the Copernicus, and other starships, aren’t generation ships.
Taking these concerns into account, the habitation portion of Copernicus, our hypothetical starship, looks something like the diagram below. The best way to visualize this is to take a cylinder and a sphere of equal radius, cut the sphere in half and glue each half to opposite ends of the cylinder.
The gray sections of the ship are pressurized, and the cylinder is spun to simulate the effects of gravity. The Copernicus spins at a rate of two revolutions per minute to provide 0.98g at the lowest deck and 0.9g in the principal living area. The hold is in vacuum and is used to store equipment, protecting it from micrometeorite and most radiation damage. During the cruise phase, the Ito devices, antimatter engines, and radiators are stored here. It is here where smaller spaceships and shuttles are maintained and even constructed after arrival. It also serves as the “shuttle bay” for the starship with shuttles and small spaceships coming and going through the hold doors. Note that the hold is sometimes referred to as the “hole” by the crew.
Footnotes
48) Physicist Miguel Alcubierre theorized that it might be possible to contract space in front of a spaceship and expand the space behind it, allowing the ship to cross vast distances (which have been conveniently shortened) in a shorter amount of time. The math works, but it requires something called negative mass—which is purely speculative and may not exist. Still, serious papers are examining this theoretical technology.