The Pillar of Hope

The Pillar of Hope was a deep-space transport vessel sent from Earth heading towards Perillel during the early Space-Age era. The Hope was one of seven ships of its class to be sent into the stars and was the only one to be lost. It's last transmission was in 2068.

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Construction

Due to the sheer size of the pillar-class vessels, they needed to be constructed already in orbit above Earth, which presented unique challenges. One of the first difficulties was moving material from Earth to the construction zone. Engineers addressed the issue by placing the zone in geostationary orbit, which allowed cargo rockets to be launched at almost any time weather permitted. Welders used cold welding to defeat the difficulty of radiating heat in space. The ships core was a hydrogen fusion-reactor and took up as much space as a small warehouse. The reactor was installed early on so workers and engineers could take advantage of its energy production.

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Projected Course

The Hope was planned to chart a course around the center of the Milky Way's central supermassive black hole, but navigational data was limited to only a few thousand light-years, after which astrophysicists aboard the craft would be woken in order to collect new data and continue plotting their course. Because of the difficulty of changing velocity near lightspeed, calculations had to be extremely precise, and so the Hope had built in radio telescopes in order to capture its own galactic map autonomously as it travelled.

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Theories

Due to the nature of its last transmission, most historians suspect the Hope suffered multiple mechanical failures and forced the captain to make the difficult decision to put the ship in hibernation. In this state, without any maneuverability, the Hope likely drifted into a celestial body and destroyed. However, despite extensive searching along it's last known trajectory, no remnants of the Hope have been found. This has led to the theory that perhaps the captain had enough power to place the ship in orbit around an unknown body where it could remain to this day.

/incoming transmission - ID: Transport Vessel The Pillar of Hope

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"This is the Pillar of Hope, Captain Deyvon Husk speaking. We were awoken by the computer and alerted of a failed reaction in engine three. Engineers are currently investigating. Based on our current location this message will take 14 years to travel to Earth. I will provide a follow-up report after the diagnostic is complete." /end of transmission

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-The last transmission from The Pillar of Hope

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