The Constellation
Originating from the old solar dreams and signed to be given life during the Great Oil Crisis, the Constellation is a brother of Strategic Defense Programme, utilizing same launch hardware and ground infrastructure - albeit for a different end.
Measuring 11km by 6km, the city-sized solar farms hang in geostationary orbit, transmitting power to the ground via microwaves, with large rectenna fields receiving and converting it to usable electricity.
But how did it come to this? How did those new stars in the sky, that we can see each night, come to be?
As the Crown Jewels of Channel Frenemies (industrial fast nuclear powerplant) or the widespread hybrid power implementation in cars, or even the Mobile Offshore Bases, we should thank the Great Oil Crisis for it, triggered by the revolution in Ērān, that set most of the Middle East on fire and crippled the oil exports from it for a long time.
Due to that, the strategic energy autarky initatives bloomed across the First World like mushrooms.
Channel Fremenies (and, to an extent, UAP as well) chose nuclear power as a lasting solution.
To a degree, it very much is. A properly built nuclear infrastructure, with fuel reprocessing and closed fuel cycle, can last a long time while keeping the lights on.
But there were more problems. Not all states could be trusted with closed nuclear cycle park, or it couldn't be built there due to internal fears.
At the same time, there were voices at that, rather than furthering PACER fusion line (another part of UAP energy autarky programme), we should harness a fusion reactor in the sky.
And, due to the certain President's desire to build an anti-ballistic shield, a plan was hatched to justify expenses towards it as a dual-use for an energy autarky programme as well, that would call for constructing several large, self-sustaining orbital powerplants that could provide meaningful gigawatts.
As the Strategic Defense Programme was signed in law, so was the Constellation Project.
To be able to build the orbital infrastructure to build those powerplants, a massive launch capability was needed.
This was answered by the Th-02S Star Raker - a creation of Thayer International, a massive spaceplane, powered by both turboramjets and rocket engines, that could take off from an airport, lift 100 tons to orbit, then return and repeat. For crew rotations, however, a much more modest HOTOL spaceplane from Albion was taken.
The staging platforms, overseen and commanded by the Gunslinger space station (shared with Strategic Defense Network), were built first, where Star Rakers could unload their cargos.
Aboard those platforms, specialized machines worked day and night, converting raw resources and solar cell blankets, delivered by Star Rakers, into massive solar panels - first to power themselves and their own production capabilities, then to start building the actual solar powerplants.
By the 2012, the project is a little less than halfway through... but even now, the shine of finished powerplants in the sky is something to behold at night, as is the power they beam down to Earth.
Measuring 11km by 6km, the city-sized solar farms hang in geostationary orbit, transmitting power to the ground via microwaves, with large rectenna fields receiving and converting it to usable electricity.
But how did it come to this? How did those new stars in the sky, that we can see each night, come to be?
As the Crown Jewels of Channel Frenemies (industrial fast nuclear powerplant) or the widespread hybrid power implementation in cars, or even the Mobile Offshore Bases, we should thank the Great Oil Crisis for it, triggered by the revolution in Ērān, that set most of the Middle East on fire and crippled the oil exports from it for a long time.
Due to that, the strategic energy autarky initatives bloomed across the First World like mushrooms.
Channel Fremenies (and, to an extent, UAP as well) chose nuclear power as a lasting solution.
To a degree, it very much is. A properly built nuclear infrastructure, with fuel reprocessing and closed fuel cycle, can last a long time while keeping the lights on.
But there were more problems. Not all states could be trusted with closed nuclear cycle park, or it couldn't be built there due to internal fears.
At the same time, there were voices at that, rather than furthering PACER fusion line (another part of UAP energy autarky programme), we should harness a fusion reactor in the sky.
And, due to the certain President's desire to build an anti-ballistic shield, a plan was hatched to justify expenses towards it as a dual-use for an energy autarky programme as well, that would call for constructing several large, self-sustaining orbital powerplants that could provide meaningful gigawatts.
As the Strategic Defense Programme was signed in law, so was the Constellation Project.
To be able to build the orbital infrastructure to build those powerplants, a massive launch capability was needed.
This was answered by the Th-02S Star Raker - a creation of Thayer International, a massive spaceplane, powered by both turboramjets and rocket engines, that could take off from an airport, lift 100 tons to orbit, then return and repeat. For crew rotations, however, a much more modest HOTOL spaceplane from Albion was taken.
The staging platforms, overseen and commanded by the Gunslinger space station (shared with Strategic Defense Network), were built first, where Star Rakers could unload their cargos.
Aboard those platforms, specialized machines worked day and night, converting raw resources and solar cell blankets, delivered by Star Rakers, into massive solar panels - first to power themselves and their own production capabilities, then to start building the actual solar powerplants.
By the 2012, the project is a little less than halfway through... but even now, the shine of finished powerplants in the sky is something to behold at night, as is the power they beam down to Earth.