The race to Alpha Centauri

When the human race reaches out to set foot on a new home planet, who will be the first, why will they succeed and what will they find?

Humanity will be changed but will it be for the better?

Old truths will die, new ideas will rise and prevail.

Palette

Yes

No

Focuses

Legacies

(Start) The Age of Space - First Colony Ships Depart

The construction of the Starship Shackelton

In what way is the Shackelton flawed?

Meeting of the project’s steering committee in Denford’s office

The engine design is fit for interplanetary travel, but not fit to reach Alpha Centauri

Starship Shackelton launches against all odds, on time, but with major flaws under captain Aaron Abbott.

Explosion of the Shackelton and death of its crew after they have left the solar system. Ten survivors in an escape pod. Denford isn’t alive to hear the news.

What hope of rescue do the survivors have?

Hope of resuce: To be picked up by the Anderson Expedition.

The birth of the Anderson Expedition - hatched in secret, untraditional approach.

How did Katrina Anderson come up with the idea for the Joy Anderson Engine?

From an old drawing in Patrick’s workshop

Katrina Anderson (37) receives the Nobel Prize for her development of the Joy Anderson Engine. The first engine to reach another solar system with the crew alive.

Babette Drey is chosen as the Captain of the “Hope beyond Jupiter”

Miscalculations Lead to detour

Babette Drey founds the colony of Phorus in her final days.

Schism in the Diaspora - Age of Multiple Colonies

Engine and exhaust weaponization triggers arms-race.

How did Babette Drey’s grandchild accidentially kill the Colony of Phorus with a modified Joy Anderson Engine?

Misheard the engineer and put the overloaded Joy Anderson Engine on Full Speed Ahead and created the Joy Anderson Planetbuster.

Age of space hulks

The development of complete hydroponic “space-lungs”.

The silent death of the “Decisive Victory”‘s crew on the return from Proxima Centauri 5

What does the crew of xenobiologists discover as they open up the “Decisive Victory” and walk among the “sleeping” crew?

Green space mucus virus material coming out of the crew’s corpses as soon as they are de-frozen

The Cryosleep exovirus mutates on Earth and kills all mammals except humans on the Five Colonies

Creation of huge farms for genetically engineered insects

Hungry homeless masses storm the insect farms, but get infected by the original virus.

How do Crook, Cringe, and Cranny escape the farm alive, even though the virus killed all their plundering friends?

Quick thinking on Crook’s part - Crook and Cranny disinfect themselves they think, but Cringe is contaminated.

The Death of Planet Earth (end)

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