Scientific name for Earth's star, The Sun. Many scientists and historians prefer
using the name Sol to "The Sun", to avoid confusion, as some people
refer to their local star as the sun. During
colonisation efforts were focused on finding habitable worlds
around Sol-like stars.
The star system containing the star
Sol (The Sun). The Solar System is always
capitalised when written and the word "The" is often stressed when it is spoken. Some colonists incorrectly use
the term "solar system" instead of using the term
"star system", however it is technically incorrect to refer
to any star system except the one containing
Earth as a solar system.
Slang term used by a few colonists for the local star system (more common on planets with little commerce with other
star systems, as traders tend to laugh openly at people who make this
error). It is technically incorrect to refer to any star system
(except the one containing Earth) as a solar system.
A main sequence star, that is similar to Earth's star
Sol (The Sun).
Sol has a
spectral classification of G2V and is
not very variable. Stars that are close enough to this, can have
Earth-like planet in orbit around them. The area where an
Earth-like planet can exist is called the
habitable zone. The distance from the star to the inner and
outer edges of the zone depend on the luminosity of the star.
A vehicle used for travel through space. Small, short range, spaceships are used for travel to and from
spacestations, and larger spaceships. They are called
shuttles, if they are based on a ground installation or a
spacestation; or called
dropships, if they are carried inside a
starship. A starship is a
spaceship that can travel between one star system and another. The
first starships were limited by the speed of light and only made one way
trips. On sleeper vessels the passengers were kept asleep in
cryo-chambers.
Wormhole technology has brought us
starships that can travel so fast that interstellar commerce is possible. A
communications network between the colonies uses robotic communication
starships, known as ponies. Another
two small spaceships are the lifeboat and
lifepod, which are designed for use only in emergencies, and can not travel
long distances. The lifeboat is able to land (but not take off), but the
lifepod has less movement ability and can only dock with another spaceship or
spacestation. Other types of ships are usually just called
"spaceships" by the public, however space crews, especially military ones, call a certain type of ship a
systemship. A
systemship is a medium range spaceship that can travel throughout one
star system, most are as large as a
starship, and some even carry
dropships (none of them have a
wormdrive as this would make them a
starship).
[Source: A Short History of Mankind]
A manned base in outer space. Although self sufficient spacestations (with farming areas, as well as factories) can be
built, spacestations are usually supplied by shuttles from a nearby
Earth-like colony. Before
wormhole technology was developed,
artificial gravity was not possible and a station had to
rotate if its inhabitants wanted a downward force. Some stations are built away from the colony supplying them (usually
at a gravitationally stable point called a
Lagrangian point). Other stations are built in a low orbit
around a colony they serve. Low orbit spacestions are often used as a hub for interstellar commerce.
Starships, visiting these
star systems, that try to use their own
dropships to land on a planet without an inspection from the customs
officials on the spacestation are usually breaking local laws.
System for categorising most stars based on the characteristics of the light they give off. The
spectral type is listed followed by the
luminosity class. The main
spectral types are:
O = Blue-White 40,000-25,000 °K
B = Blue-White 25,000-11,000 °K
A = White 11,000-7500 °K
F = Yellow-White 7,500-6,000 °K
G = Yellow 7,500-6,000 °K
K = Orange 5,000-3,500 °K
M = Orange-Red 3,500-3,000 °K
spectral types can be further divided by adding a number after the
letter. A G5 star is midway between G0 and K0 and a G9.5 star is midway between a G9 star and a K0 star. The
luminosity classes are:
Ia = Supergiants of higher luminosity
Ib = Supergiants of lower luminosity
II = Bright giants
III = Normal giants
IV = Subgiants
V = Main-sequence stars (dwarfs)
VI = Subdwarfs
A star midway between two classes will have both separated by a hyphen. A star between a dwarf and subdwarf has a
luminosity class of V-VI. Further information can be
provided by adding a lower case letter as a suffix. Examples include:
e = Emission lines
m = Metallic lines
n = Broad lines due to rotation
nn = As above
p = Peculiar spectrum
The Morgan-Keenan system covers the 95% of stars that have normal chemical composition. For the 5% of stars that do not
have a normal chemical composition special systems are used. C-stars are carbon stars, S-stars and MS stars are similar
to giant M stars but with extra chemicals & stars with a D prefix are white dwarfs. Some scientists list white dwarfs as
a separate luminosity class (VII), instead of, or as
well as, using the D prefix.
Type of forcefield that protects one person from handheld weapons and
low energy weapons and also provides limited protection from high energy physical and energy weapons. Like all other
personal forcefields it can not be worn at the same time as a
second forcefield and must be calibrated to fit around the wearer
before it can be used. If the device takes 6 hits without being recalibrated, the forcefield collapses, knocking out the
user and ending all protection against weapons until a technician recalibrates it again (during a collapse the last shot
can still sometimes get through the forcefield with enough energy to
cause injury or death). Because the energy given off by a standard 6-hit forcefield can sometimes be used to detect the
wearer a duel purpose version, the
stealth 6-hit, was developed.
See also anti-gas,
anti-gas 6-hit,
anti-NBC,
anti-NBC 6-hit,
anti-vac &
anti-vac 6-hit.
[Source: A Layman's Guide to Wormhole Technology]
Hereditary monarchy, with elected parliament. The original colonists of Pegasus
(Iota Pegasi) chose for their government to be a hereditary monarch
(the current leader of the
Royal House of Cavendish) advised by an
elected parliament (called the
House of Representatives). Together, the two
are called The Star Kingdom of Pegasus. After developing
wormhole technology and building
starships, the people of Pegasus
contacted local colonies. Colonies were given a choice. Those who became subjects of the
Kingdom and swore loyalty to the crown to got full representation in
parliament, full access to technology and trading rights. Those who wanted to remain independent were given no
assistance. Because most planets joined, the SKOP is now a large collection of
technologically advanced and economically integrated planets. Several Kingdom
worlds have separatists and guerrilla movements and this has kept the
Royal Armed Forces busy. They are the best experienced
and equipped military personnel amongst the colonies. In 232 AI (2448 AD) The
Free Worlds Collective, which had been rapidly
expanding, reached the borders of The Kingdom. The Star Kingdom of Pegasus is
one of the seven major power blocs.
[Source: A Short History of Mankind]
Interstellar communications company, based in the Tau Ceti system. StarCom
was set up to produce a system wide network similar to what on Earth had been
called the Internet. This network, also called StarCom, had to be able to cope with the delays caused by the speed of
light over interplanetary distances. StarCom developed software that analyses what sort of documents are most likely to
be used by off-worlders. These documents are then copied and transmitted to other planets or moons where they are stored
locally on StarCom's storage servers. In 156 AI (2370 AD)
Tau Ceti joined the
Eridani Republic, and StarCom adapted their technology to
work with Pony Network's interstellar communications drones. The
main improvements to StarCom since its expansion into an interstellar network have been working out compression
techniques to reduce the amount of data transferred between worlds. Originally the
Pony Network (and therefore StarCom) was confined to the worlds of
the Republic, but both now stretch across most of inhabited space. In 303
AI (2519 AD) Norman Porter, a fanatical Noan
worshiper, hacked into StarCom and uploaded a virus that searched for documents about the
Eden (DM-41 1288)
star system and changed the name
"Eden" to "The False Eden". Hundreds of files were corrupted
and StarCom lost a large amount of data when the virus went rogue.
[Source: InfoDump Database: StarCom -
InfoDump Database: Noans]
Long range spaceship used for travel from one
star system to another. The first starships were robotic probes that
travelled to nearby extrasolar planets (that were believed to be Earth-like)
to look for life. During the colonisation, manned starships were
designed to make a one way voyage from The Solar System to a
star system with at least one
Earth-like planet: most used
cryo-chambers to keep the passengers in
cold-sleep for the time the trip took (anything between 137 and 180
years). With the advent of wormhole technology
starship travel became much faster as a wormdrive can jump between points
in space faster than light can make the same journey. Commercial starship travel between inhabited worlds became viable
as "speed" was now only limited by the distance a drive could jump and how fast the drive could cycle and make
another jump. A communication network between colonies was later set up using high speed robotic starships (the slang
name for one of these robot communication-starship is a pony).
[Source: A Short History of Mankind]
Forcefield technician term for the original type of forcefield
which was developed to hold an artificial wormhole open while a
starship travels from one side to the other. It has now been improved and
also protects a starship and its occupants from physical and energy weapons
and cosmic rays and high speed particles. They are now also built into large
spaceships (known to space crews as
systemships) where they only protect the ship and crew, as the ship has
no wormdrive.
[Source: A Layman's Guide to Wormhole Technology]
One of four Durchmusterung star catalogues. Originally the
names of stars listed in the Sudentliche Durchmusterung consisted of the letters SD,
followed by a plus or minus and the declination (as viewed from a telescope on
Earth). After a space a second number was listed. The four
Durchmusterungs have now been combined into one, and the
letters SD have been replaced by DM.
Star at the centre of The Solar System (The
star system containing Earth).
The Sun is always capitalised when written and the word "The" is often stressed when it is spoken. Many
scientists and historians prefer using the name Sol to "The Sun", to avoid
confusion, as some people refer to their local star as the sun.
[Source: A Short History of Mankind]
Slang term used by a few colonists for the local star (more common in
star systems with a single star, especially when colonists have named
their planet after their star's correct name). It is technically incorrect to refer to any star (except
Sol) as a sun.
Electrical technology. Superconductors have almost no electrical resistance. Room temperature superconductors were a
prerequisite to the development of fusion power.
[Source: A Short History of Mankind]
Space crew term for a medium range spaceship that can travel throughout
one star system (laymen usually just call a systemship a
spaceship, but space crews, especially navy crews, need to distinguish
this type of spaceship from others). Systemships can be as large as a
starship, use
starship forcefields (for their
non-wormhole purposes) and may even carry
dropships (none have
wormdrives - this ability would make the ship a
starship). In the period between
colonisation and the first
starship using wormdrives,
all spaceships that could leave orbit were systemships, but since that
time most systemships have been replaced with starships. Poorer colonies,
especially independent worlds sometimes still use
systemships because they are much cheaper to build. The
Free Worlds Collective is said to use
systemships in less trusted star systems so that local navy crews are
unable to leave the Collective and defect. Some of the
power blocs with more advanced militaries have modified the design of a
starship, replacing the
wormdrives with extra
contra-grav thrusters and weapons to create advanced
defence systemships. When closer to a planet, than the distance at which a
starship can use its
wormdrive, these advanced systemships can both out-accelerate and outgun
all opponents of equal size.
