Aphrodite class mission spacecraft

Background

In 2001, the Earth was still recovering from the Eugenics Wars. While interplanetary travel was still possible with the handful of DY-100s present, there was no “deep space” support structure, nor any capacity for rescue, other than another DY-100, far and few between.

The conglomerate that made up Dinyan-Yoyodyne had collapsed, but some important subsidiaries had survived, often propped up by their host countries or collaborative partners. In the United States, NASA sought to develop and maintain a space support network to build on the Great Khanate’s promise of the immense interplanetary economy, but was limited by the construction capacity of its domestic commercial partners. Orbital shuttles and post-Apollo capsules had no chance to provide the type of support necessary for any of these future outposts. In order to start building the network, it had to wrangle its contractors into building a long-term hull with the capacity to getting itself to station.

The key was the ion drive. NASA contracted South Korean-based Yoyodyne Propulsion Systems (YPS) to continue producing their proprietary ion thrust engine. One engine mounted on a reinforced pre-Khanate style hull, comprised of five inhabited modules and totaling 680 metric tons, enabled the craft to achieve a sustained maximum thrust of 0.015 c. NASA built 22 of these vessels, over a fifteen-year period, to serve first as units for non-orbital static tests and then as exploratory vessels that would transition to support waystations at the selected locations. The four inhabited modules provided far more life support—including oxygen, stored foodstuffs, medical, power, and other sundries—than necessary for the two-person vessel crew, but this was a reflection on its secondary mission as a waystation. The fifth unnumbered module located at the bow housed the docking ports for the ship’s two work pods (or landers for asteroid or Venus surface missions), each of which also served as the transfer lock for the tri-monthly supply vessels. The module itself had extensive maintenance capacity for the assigned auxiliaries.

The first static tests conducted were to prove the viability of maintaining a position in Earth’s LaGrange points, the areas of gravitational equilibrium between Earth and Luna or Sol that allow a vessel (or other future asset) to maintain a constant and precise distance from a planetary body without concern for atmospheric interference nor altitude reburns. Six of the first ten Aphrodite vessels (all which were named for outstanding gravitational physicists of the time) transited to and took station at the more dependable points, collecting continual sensor readings of positional delta change, to best determine the viability of the future construction of long-term stations. Additional vessels were routed to Venus and the Main belt for exploration and the establishment of waypoints for future vessels (Mars was excluded for safety concerns regarding the Augments, a “boogeyman” that would persist for almost a decade).

Starting in 2018, the Aphrodite series was gradually transitioned over to the control of the International Space Agency (ISA), an organization overseen by the New United Nations with a mandate to act as a conduit for peaceful and cooperative international space activities by the major space nations of Earth. (NASA was beginning to focus on grander national goals.) The ship/stations would be repositioned as directed over the next 3 decades, but were often outpaced by the second generation of interplanetary vessels that started arriving on the local scene in the 2020s and 2030s. The Aphrodites, however, were still viable and capable ships, so ISA had no problem selling them to tertiary commercial concerns that ranged from asteroidal miners and cryogenic laboratories to the extremely solitary lone billionaires. The extant records of the pre-World War III period record the last known position of an Aphrodite still in orbit of Venus in 2047.

Ship Registry

Clicking on the arrows will allow the sorting of the table.

Blueprints/Orthos

Livery Gallery

Port profile perspectives, with NASA and ISA livery

Author: RevancheRM

Illustrator: Adrasil

Original Inspiration: TNG

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