Human History

(The creatures I'm writing about belong in he same world as the planets cryolith, Behemoth, Cauldron, etc., hopefully for a future mod.  To make things a bit more interesting, I'll try and describe the three species involved from each other's point of view, although the "Human" perspective will be the most basic.  For individual histories, I'll write from the specie's own point of view)

For human "history" I'm only writing about the period after current time, since simply going over human history would be nothing new, and probably kind of boring in short writing like this.

Second Space Race

After the first race to the moon between the U.S. and Russia, space exploration slowed down for about a century.  Unmanned probes continued exploring other planets, Activity continued in Earth orbit, and a few newer programs (China, India, Japan) performed moon landings, but space exploration moved little beyond these activities.  Space research did continue, but largely out of the view of much of the world.

Developments on Earth, however, led to the restarting of the space race in 2065.  Global warming had been an increasing concern throughout the 20th and 21st centuries, and new sources of energy had been constantly developed, while increasing regulations and taxes pushed against fossil fuel use.  Starting around 2020, several events greatly accelerated these processes.  Throughout the 2020s, concentrated solar power became competitive with other sources of electricity over wide areas of the world, and initiatives for dispersed solar power also greatly increased its use.  Around 2030, electric vehicles became competitive with gasoline vehicles, and infrastructure changes followed quickly to support these.  In 2045, rising temperatures pushed most large economies to institute harsh carbon taxes, further encouraging a switch away from fossil fuels.

Most regions of the world adapted well to these adjustments, but oil producing countries did not adapt nearly as well.  The "great oil crash" as it would later be known, led to significant political upheavals in most oil exporting countries, with several countries experiencing large crime increases, highly contested elections, or even government changes.  Most effected were countries along the Persian Gulf, where many countries had been almost totally dependent on oil.  Over time, most of the countries, apart from Iran and Oman, almost completely disintegrated, with extreme violence for several years.

The middle East had always been an area with numerous conflicts, and the disintegration of these countries further aggravated these trends.  As a series of wars and disruptions radiated outward from the oil crash countries, most governments not effected focused heavily on new weapons research and purchases.  Among these new developments was the first successful orbital bombardment technology in 2065, developed by Egypt, but copied soon after by most surrounding countries.

The potential of this weapon frightened most of the previous main space powers.  Worried about being outclassed by these weapons, most governments with existing space programs rapidly increased their size and research budgets, and worked on new launch systems and technology, to avoid loosing out on weapons capabilities.  Out of this research came the technology for better control in space, robotics, new propulsion systems, and, most importantly, cheaper launch technologies.  With the development of the jet assisted Rocket booster in the US, the Airplane launched rocket in Russia, and Spaceplanes in Japan, all soon copied by other space powers, and by other interested groups.

Lunar Colonies

In 2070, following soon after these developments, Space programs and businesses organized a flurry of moon landings to test new technology.  While only 45 people had walked on the moon before this year, almost 38 people visited the moon in 2070 alone, and the number doubled soon into 2071.  The spread of technology, and ability to take advantage of previous knowledge and experience, allowed missions to be prepared and launched much faster than before, allowing this great increase in moon missions.  Lunar explorers collected large amounts of geological information, set of robotic observatories, and set of devices to watch the Earth from a more stable position.

It was not long before permanent human colonies were established on the moon.  The first was a U.S. mining colony, to collect rare minerals that had been recently found on the moon, and could now be mined cost effectively due to cheaper space travel.  The second was a multinational observatory.  Other lunar colonies, for various purposes, soon followed.  At first, lunar colonists only expected to stay a few months, at most, but medical and psychological space research developed techniques to allow far longer stays.  Lunar colonies became permanent residences to many, and the first children were born on such a colony in 2078.

At the time humans arrived in the current system, Earth's moon was highly populated, with representatives from almost all over the globe found somewhere on it.  Lunar colonies had become mostly self sufficient, with only occasional high tech materials or basic materials needing to be imported from another world.

Mars Settlement

At the time the first lunar colonies were being established, plans for journeys to Mars were being dusted off and put into practice.  Because Mars was a more challenging destination than the moon, only well established space programs made the first attempts, and progress was slower than moon exploration.  The first human landing on Mars took place in 2078, followed by three more in 2079.  Landings at this stage involved a 2-4 month stay, and allowed extensive geological knowledge to be gained about the planet.

With lunar colonies fast developing, learning techniques for surviving off world, and Martian landings already involving long stays, it wasn't long before Martian colonies were founded.  The first was started in 2080, and soon after, 5 more were prepared.  Due to the greater distance, Martian colonies were less useful for raw materials, but could support themselves better due to the greater availability of necessary materials on Mars.  Martian colonies supplied minerals to Earth, some food and basic material to lunar colonies, and provided locations for some research stations.  Mars also became known as a destination for political opposition in more repressive regions, or for people in areas with low economic opportunity.

The success of lunar and martian colonies soon spread to just about any country or group that could afford a space program, with most setting up colonies for various purposes.  Mars, at the time of arrival in the new system, was the most populated world outside the earth, with close to 150 million people living there.

Venus

An exception to the general success of Mars colonies was the Russian space program.  While Russia was one of the first countries to achieve a Mars landing, attempts at founding colonies have hit long streaks of bad luck.  The first such attempt was victim to an accident, forcing the crew to turn back before reaching Mars.  The second attempt reached the surface, but machinery malfunctions forced the colonists to return to Earth.  A third attempt failed a year in, and the colonists needed to be rescued by nearby martian settlements.

However, experiments on Venus had led to the development of balloon and flight systems to allow longer lasting probes on Venus.  The Russian space agency was the first to take the balloon concept and use it for manned exploration of Venus.  From a floating probe, Cosmonauts were able to greatly improve data collection and exploration from robotic Venus probes, and discover some unusual details of the planet.

After several of these landings, Russia established permanent balloon colonies over several locations on Venus.  The colonies themselves acted as observatories, and were able to direct some robotic mining of unusual materials on Venus's surface.  Attempts to keep the colony self sufficient also led to the development of new types of crops, able to take advantage of the unique conditions of Venusian colonies.

Although other space faring groups developed plans for Venusian colonies, the difficulty of starting such colonies compared to the costs of lunar and martian settlements meant that only Russia has built any.

Asteroid Mining

Martian settlements led the way to Asteroid and cometary mining projects.  Robotic mining operations supplied some minerals to more populated worlds, and supplied some ice and organic material to lunar colonies.  The three largest asteroids, Ceres, Vesta, and Pallas, were settled permanently, though only by small numbers of people, and direct and supply nearby mining operations.  Life on asteroids is tougher than life on Mars or Earth, as diminished solar power makes farming and energy production difficult, but the rewards are good for those willing ot take the risks.

Callisto

The last of the solar system colonies to be settled before the colonization of this system was the small colonist on Callisto.  Settled in 2093 by American scientists and maintenance personnel , the Callisto colony was originally intended as a long lasting scientific expedition to study Jupiter, and would finance itself by sending various materials to the inner planets and asteroid belt.  However, plans to retrieve the Callisto colonists continually fell through, and the colony itself became a permanent fixture of the moon.

The Callisto colony leads probably the toughest existence of all solar system colonies.  Solar power is thin in Jupiter's orbit, stretching energy budgets to the limit, and the lack of quick transport to the colony from populated areas leads to an isolated existence.  Callisto also lacks easily mined metal deposits, so must rely on the less rewarding ice and organic deposits for trade.  The colony, since its founding, has been the scene of numerous attempts to improve its position, including taking part in Controlled Fusion research, attempts to mine Io or capture the energy of the Io flux current, and other attempts to capture Jupiter's magnetospheric power.

The Titan Project

In the year 2120, the experiments on Callisto finally allowed it to tap large amounts of Jupiter Magnetospheric power.  At the same time, Improvements in solar power also helped the colony expand significantly.  These advances were enough to encourage most colonies to prepare a settlement of the Saturn moon system.  Unlike the Callisto colony, this project would involve people from many different colonies and countries on Earth, in a much more coordinated way.  Colonists traveled to the staging point at Callisto, and than started the journey to Saturn.

While the Jupiter system's radiation belts made settling most moons difficult, the Saturn system is much more hospitable to colonists, and a few tens of thousands joined to form the initial colonies.  The colony ships were also packed with supplies and assorted machinery, spare parts, and other materials needed to prepare colonies.  The original plans were to settle some of the smaller moons of Saturn, organize an economy, and than start settling titan.  The colonies would be a mix of scientific and mining based.

However, while on the way to Saturn, the colonization fleet flew near a strange object.  At it was approached, we determined that the object was not in the path to hit anything.  We recorded the location and path of the object, than continued floating by.  As we did so, the object activated, and all the ships in the colonizing fleet found ourselves disoriented.  Once we counted up all colonists, reoriented the ships, and tried to figure out what had happened, our navigators determined that we did not appear to be in the solar system anymore.  Instead , we appeared to be in a different system, with a similar sun, but vastly different planets, and a different appearance to the sky.  At this point, we had little choice but to find a place to settle, than figure out where we were, and either settle into this new system, or make contact with Earth if possible.

Explanation

The final description of the titan project is based on the Test of Time sci-fi game setup.  The success of some of the colonies is based on current day histories of various space programs (Russian lack of success at Mars is based on the Great Galactic Ghoul idea, the Venusian colonies are based on the Venera probes.  U.S. starting the only outer solar system colony until the titan attempt is based on the fact that most outer solar system work so far has been from the U.S.)