| From: | Jeffrey Mach <mach@****.CALTECH.EDU> |
|---|---|
| Subject: | Re: Brave New World |
| Date: | Mon, 2 Mar 1998 17:38:41 -0800 |
> >>>>>[It is a puzzling situation isn't it Binder? I mean, there are
> resources and other essential items out there, ores and precious metals
> on hte moon, on Mars, on the moons of Jupiter and Saturn, liberally
> littering the asteroid fields, yet as far as I am aware, nothing is
> being done to gain access. Most disconcerting.
Actually, is this more a matter of your opinion or is it part of any
sourcebook? AFAIK, FASA has said next to nothing about space, other than
the mention of ballistic flights and the existance of Zurich Oribital.
And even with something as important as ZO, I don't remember seeing much
of anything. Since they have one orbital station, I don't know if your
statement can be made with such surity regarding other space development.
On the other hand, I can't have any of my characters stand out to refute
your statement since, again, I lack a source to support my claims.
I fear that FASA may be tight lipped about doing a space sourcebook for
the same reason that they don't do a heavy military weapons sourcebook.
They aren't very relevant to the game or the genre. (Better known as they
don't want--shout it with me--"Shadowrunners...in...SPAAAAAAACE!" [all due
apologies to Mr. Henson and Oz]) If people are running a game were their
runners are hijacking space shuttles, or singing "Fly me to the moon"
whilst and at the same time flying to the moon, they are probably well
outside the realm that FASA was originally writing for.
Which is not to say that knowledge about space operations would be so
secrative that people wouldn't know that there exists, say an Orbital
Science Station Olympus (science my butt) run by Ares where it is rumored
that they are testing the first or latest generation of space-based
weapons systems (oh...yeah!) and other little nasties (making ebola look
like a bad cold) where, at worst, they can jettison the experiment at a
most unfriendly reentry vector (ultimate hot foot short of the sun). I
mean (subliminal messages aside), who's to say that such a thing does (aw
please?) or doesn't (big meanies =( ) exist other than FASA. Then again,
our gaming "world" isn't completely anchored to FASA's interpretation, so
barring definative word, maybe we can work out what ShadowTk's level of
space technology would be. Of course if said final word comes out a lot
of ideas would vanish in a puff of retroactive continuity or could be
voted to be kept.
I don't see any major space colonies (at say the L5 or L7 Lagrange points)
yet. Such mega-massive construction projects are probably still quite a
ways into the future of SR, they would require a massive off-earth
construction base, most likely on the moon. And these would precede
something like an orbital elevator. But not even a tiny moonbase research
station? That I think would be quite resonable, with stays similar to
that like Antarctica or that projected for Freedom. You go there to run
your experiments, and then they put you on the next rocket home. If
anything to establish something like the interferometric telescope array
(on the drawing board now that would make Hubble look like a pair of opera
glasses) as well as do research on materials etc. for building an eventual
moon colony. I don't think ZO is the only thing up there, with probably
nearly all of the Big 8 footing the bill to have at least one space
station of their own, and probably renting space (for some exorbitant fee)
to a collection of smaller corporations wanting to do zero-G research or
manufacturing.
Opinions?
--My two yen
Jeff
