Earth Two The name by which Gliese 876 d is officially known. The surface temperature at the equator is 325 K (125ºF) and far too hot for human habitation. The only human settlement, Phaeton Base, is in the north polar region, where temperatures are no hotter than the equatorial regions of Earth. Datum air pressure is 18.43 psi, but there is no oxygen in the atmosphere. To date, the only water discovered is deep beneath the surface, and no signs of life have been found.
Element 115 A superheavy synthetic element used to power the Serpo engine. Under intense antiproton bombardment, the strong nuclear force of the Element 115 nucleus is amplified, resulting in a local distortion of the spacetime continuum.
The Face on Mars The name given a rock formation in the Cydonia region on Mars. In 1976, the Viking 1 orbiter took a series of photographs of the Martian surface. In image #35A72, scientists spotted a mesa 1.2 miles long which appeared to resemble a humanoid face. Initially dismissed as a “trick of light and shadow”, a second photograph, image #70A13, with a different sun-angle, only heightened the likeness. It was considered sufficiently puzzling to choose Cydonia as the landing site for the Ares 9 mission. Many of the photographs taken by Major Bradley Elliott on the Martian surface remain classified.
Fermi’s Paradox Named for the physicist Enrico Fermi, who first postulated it in an informal discussion in 1950, the Paradox hypothesises a contradiction between the probability of the existence of alien civilisations and the lack of evidence that such civilisations exist.
Flyby-Landing Excursion Module (FLEM) Proposed in 1966 by RR Titus of United Aircraft Research Laboratories as a means of getting a manned spacecraft to Mars quickly and cheaply. It was based in part on the flyby missions proposed by the Planetary Joint Action Group, which included members from NASA and NASA planning contractor, Bellcomm. Planetary JAG plans focused primarily on a flyby mission using a free-return trajectory, but Titus calculated that a piloted MM could separate from the flyby spacecraft during the Mars voyage and change course to intersect the planet. A separation 60 days out from Mars would result in a 16-day stay on the Martian surface, or a separation 30 days out would give a 9-day stay on the surface. The MM would then launch, pursue the flyby spacecraft and rendezvous. Titus proposed that a nuclear-thermal rocket weighing as little as 130 tons, with a 5-ton lander, could make the trip. In the event, since research on nuclear rockets had been abandoned, the Ares spacecraft was forced to use existing chemical rockets, and the final design weighed in at 200 tons, with a 16-ton Mars Module.
Gliese 876 A red dwarf star in the constellation of Aquarius located some 15.3 light years from Earth, and formerly known as Ross 780. In 1983, an exploratory mission to the star by the interstellar spacecraft Robert H Goddard discovered four planets: three Jupiters and a Super-Earth. Since the Super-Earth orbited within the star’s habitable zone, it was deemed a suitable location for a scientific station, and the following year a series of prefabricated modules were flown to the exoplanet and parachuted to its surface.
James E Webb The second interstellar spacecraft built by the USA, and named for the second administrator of NASA, 1961 to 1968, who was seen as the chief architect of the Apollo programme. It uses the Near-Earth Asteroid 3908 Nyx as its anchoring mass, and made its first interstellar flight in 1988 to Barnard’s Star.
L5 Space Telescope With the Hubble Space Telescope, launched in late 1986, approaching the end of its usefulness, it was decided its successor should be located at the L5 point alongside Space Station Freedom. Not only would this make it easier to maintain, but also greatly improve its ability to see many more and much older stars and galaxies. Development began in 1993, and the first elements were launched in mid-1998. The telescope, informally known as the L5T, officially went online in early 1999.
Phaeton Base Earth’s only extrasolar colony, a scientific station on Gliese 876 d, with a population of eighty scientists and support staff. The base comprises a dozen buildings linked by all-weather corridors, a buried nuclear power plant, a launchpad and a rocket assembly building. The base was named for the son of sun god Helios, who drove his father’s chariot and nearly burned the Earth — a reference to Gliese 876 d’s red-lit landscape. The first buildings of Phaeton Base were parachuted from orbit in April 1984, and it has been continually inhabited since that date.
Project Serpo The codename for a secret programme, based at the S4 facility at Area 51, Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada, which investigated the photographs of the alien disc and its writings, known as the Cydonia Codex, brought back from Mars by Major Bradley E Elliott. Once the writing system had been deciphered, project scientists discovered they had instructions explaining how to manipulate bubbles of quantum spacetime. A working model, powered by antimatter and element 115, was quickly constructed. The complete disappearance of the prototype from its remote underground testing site, as well as a substantial quantity of rock and soil, revealed the true nature of the device: a faster than light engine. Further honing of the theories involved revealed the need for an anchoring mass of at least five gigatonnes. The FTL engine was nicknamed the “Serpo” after the project.
Quantum Superposition A fundamental principle of quantum mechanics which holds that a physical system, an electron for example, exists in all its theoretically possible states simultaneously. When measured, however, it only gives a result corresponding to one of those possible configurations.
Robert H Goddard The first interstellar spacecraft built by the US, and named for the American rocket pioneer, 1882 to 1945. The Robert H Goddard uses as its anchoring mass the asteroid 1862 Apollo, and performed its first flight in 1984 to Proxima Centauri.
S4 Also known as Sector-4, S4 is a facility at Area 51, located near Papoose Lake, a dry lake bed, some 10 miles from Groom Lake. All details regarding S4 are classified.
Schrödinger’s Cat A thought experiment designed to illustrate what Austrian physicist Erwin Schrödinger saw as a problem with the Copenhagen Interpretation of quantum mechanics. It supposes a cat in a sealed chamber with a radioactive substance and a vial of poison. The radioactive substances has an equal chance of emitting a particle within a set period of time. If a particle is emitted, it triggers a device which releases the poison and so kills the cat. Due to quantum superposition — in this case applied erroneously to the macro level — the cat exists both dead and alive… until it is observed, ie, the sealed chamber is open. The act of observation causes the wave function to collapse and renders the cat either dead or alive, but no longer both.
Serpo The faster than light engine which allows the Robert H Goddard, James E Webb and Thomas O Paine to travel interstellar distances in short time periods. The first working model was used on the Near-Earth Asteroid 1862 Apollo which thus became the first human interstellar spacecraft, the Robert H Goddard. The Serpo creates a sealed bubble of quantum spacetime about the anchoring mass, and then accelerates the spacetime bubble to speeds greater than the speed of light. Since light within the bubble does not exceed c, general relativity and causality is not violated.
Skylab After the departure of the Ares 9 mission for Mars in November 1979, NASA decided to keep what had originally been the flyby spacecraft simulator and was now known as the OWS. It was renamed “Skylab” and from 1980 onwards was kept continually manned. In late 1982, Skylab was boosted to L5 by a S-IVB, ostensibly to improve the usefulness of its recently-fitted space telescope and to act as a base of operations for a mission to a Near-Earth Asteroid. Skylab remained in operation while Space Station Freedom was being built, and it was not until 1988 that the real reason for its move to L5 was admitted.