Daedalus (ship)

This page is about the ship class. For the game, see Daedalus.

The Daedalus is a special transport ship used by Wormhole Engineers, the purpose of which is to expand the inhabited universe. Daedalus ships embark from a human-inhabited region of space with a microwormhole and arrive in a new star system, usually containing natural resources or a planet suitable for colonization. Upon arrival crew members will be awoken from stasis and sometimes land on the planet, if any. They then expand the opening of the wormhole allowing for near-instantaneous travel between the ship's origin and its destination. Due to the speeds at which the ship travels, any crew members on board will age unusually slowly, and the wormhole's destination will experience time after its origin does.

Development

As the purpose of a Daedalus ship is bridging the long gap between stars, each ship carries one end of a stabilized microwormhole. The ship itself is built in a spheroid-like shape and accommodates a large negamass core. These cores must be handled with special precaution during development not only because of their wild reaction with normal matter, but because these dense cores actively repel light waves, causing themselves to look smaller than they really are. This core gravitationally accelerates the ship in the intended direction by residing in either the aft or front of the ship. At neutral acceleration either at rest or at its maximum safe speed, the core resides in the center of the ship. Gravity as experienced by any member of the crew is in the direction of this core. Daedalus ships are kept extremely light, as the energetic requirements increase quickly with additional mass. Most improvements to the ship over time have been focused on the forward hull, which must sustain small mass impacts such as vacuum fluctuations at relativistic speeds, and any collisions that autopilot software is unable to avoid.

Use

It takes a Daedalus ship 1 year to reach its top speed of 2.8×10^8 m/s at which it experiences time more slowly than most human inhabitants of the universe. This top speed is the minimum safe adaptive speed for avoiding relativistic collisions with minor space debris. On board residents experience 4.40 m/s^2 of acceleration when accelerating, or 45% of earth gravity. Since any additional mass increases the size of the negamass core and therefore greatly increases the cost of the ship, crews size is kept to a minimum and crewmembers are usually kept in stasis for most of their trip to save on food and energy. During travel, only information can be exchanged with mission control through the wormhole due to its prohibitively small size. Partway through the journey, the ship shifts its negative mass core from the front of the ship to the back using a powerful electromagnetic burst. After arriving at their destination the core is set to the neutral positions, the onboard engineers land and isolate the wormhole from the destination atmosphere if necessary, and stabilize the wormhole to allow for human travel across the wormhole's mouth. Time dilations of on-board time pieces are recorded for use in future astrometrical calculations from the destination site, even though residents of the destination will likely use Earth Relative Time (ERT) initially in day-to-day activities. A few planets with larger populations eventually use their own time system more frequently than ERT although it remains important for interstellar communication, travel, and business.

List of Daedalus Missions

Daedalus 1: 2050-2056

The first Daedalus mission was to Alpha Centauri, our sun's nearest neighboring star. It was here that the first extrasolar living space was created: the Alpha Centauri International Space Station (ACISS). While no longer in commission today, we still use the same wormhole used on the ACISS. The enduring legacy of the original space station in coordination with the Sirius Station is the astronomical data recorded that, in tandem with observations on Earth, furthered the understanding of our stellar neighborhood by explaining paradoxical phenomenon, refining the explanations of observed stellar behaviors, and even discovering new planets undetectable from Earth. Temporary residents of the ACISS use local time almost exclusively due to its relevance in astronomical calculations.

Daedalus 2: 2094-2104

Establishing the observatory Sirius Station improved the triangulation established at Alpha Centauri. It allowed the detection of habitable planets in the Epsilon Indi (Bellona) and Epsilon Eridani (Janus) systems. Both would go on to become important economic centers, Bellona due to its ease of communication and transportation to Sol and later Fomalhaut, and Janus due to its function as a hub in the systems beyond Sirius.

Daedalus 3: 2112-2125

Main Article: Bellona.

Epsilon Indi

Daedalus 4: 2147-2156

Main Article: Janus.

Epsilon Eridani was one of the first systems found to host a nearby mid-sized planet within its habitable zone. A Daedalus expedition was planned after a high probability of liquid water was assessed on the Earth-like planet. Upon arriving in the system, the planet exceeded everyone's wildest predictions: the planet had native life in an oxygenated atmosphere. Named Janus , it would soon become the heart of the systems beyond Sirius, being the seat of the Eridani Trust and subsequently the Sirius Military Consulate.

Daedalus 5: 2150-Present

Main Article: The Traveler.

Daedalus 5 is the longest running voyage, and the only one still in transit. Periodic status pings are still received through the Daedalus 5 wormhole in the mosque of The Traveler to this day, though they get further apart as the craft accelerates.

Daedalus 6: 2198-2205

Tau Ceti

Daedalus 7: 2207-2219

Ross 128

Daedalus 8: 2207-2212

Fomalhaut failure. Only Daedalus to be launched the same year as its predecessor.

Daedalus 9: 2220-2227

Main Article: Gaia.

The trip to 40 Eridani was funded and owned by the established Eridani Trust. Observed from other systems to be within the star's habitable range, the discovered planet exceeded all expectations by being the first planet supporting an abundant local ecosystem with analogous plant life. The planet was named Gaia due to its vibrant life. The Eridani Trust claimed ownership of the planet, and profited immensely from its new forms of life. The trust headquarters were planned to be moved to Gaia when the Sirius Conflict started. Gaia became an important fighting ground in the Sirius Conflict, ultimately being acquired by the Sirius Military Consulate after the war.

Daedalus 10: 2244-2259

Gaining support for a second mission to Fomalhaut was far more difficult. The expense of the Daedalus craft was a significant loss, but after 20 years there was enough support to be gathered for a second voyage. This craft successfully reached its destination and the colony of Fomalhaut was established, soon anticipated to be as profitable as Tau Ceti. Fomalhaut has the largest time dilation from its neighbor within the inhabited universe, experiencing time 6.6 years after Epsilon Indi does.

Daedalus 11: 2299-2305

Kapteyn

Daedalus 12: 2306-2315

Main Article: Sirius Conflict.

Daedalus 13: 2315-2321

Main Article: Daedalus.

The Proserpina settlement was in its infancy when the Sirius Conflict broke out. Its wormhole to Janus was destroyed early on in the fighting, and although the Sirius Military Consulate enjoyed a healthy amount of support on the settlement, it decided not to expend resources reintegrating the settlement until after the conflict was resolved, a grueling 4 years later. The decision not to repair the passage was both strategic and economic, but lost goodwill for the Consulate due to the ties that populations on Janus and Gaia had to those on the settlement.

The crew of Daedalus 13 included Alexia, James the pilot, Ilias and his wife Ayda, and Devon of the Sirius Military Consulate.