Exploration

Space is an infinite expanse of limitless diversity. As societies venture ever outward, they encounter new obstacles and anomalies to research and investigate. Materials never before seen, geological anomalies that defy initial explanation, lifeforms utilizing unknown methods of metabolism, orbital dynamics once thought too unstable to exist, planets once bountiful and temperate now scorched to the rock or frozen to the core.

Exploratory starships on the civil periphery are the forefront of humanity’s expansion into space. Every planetary system is unique, with unknown resources of unknown properties distributed across unknown orbits, and for the purposes of colonization this information is essential. Far too complicated a process to automate, teams of scientists spend their years aboard spacecraft or on distant worlds, collecting and analyzing information and data to be compiled and used for a variety of purposes.

Exploration Focus

Expeditions to explore space may focus on some or all of these areas:

• Prospect all spaceborne objects, from planets to asteroid fields to oort clouds, determining not just the distribution of materials but the properties of the materials themselves, which may include previously unknown variants.

• Chart orbital maps to provide positional data of orbiting bodies for any given point in time, for usage such as optimal orbital trajectories and ideal station positions.

• Search for life amongst all planetary bodies. Microscopic alien organisms have been found with footholds in surprising locations; such lifeforms are often protected by law as well as feared for contaminability.

• Analyze and interpolate cyclic patterns such as planetary seasons and star variability, ensuring there are not hazardous cycles that could be missed on a short-term survey.