NationStates Jolt Archive

GANN Center: ~ Despite the war in the Gibraltar Straits on the minds of many at home, the Ascendancy announced today that they have begun the foundation for the StarLadder Project, Code Named: Infinity Tower.

The foundation groundbreaking ceremony, attended by Lady Isarra Kerensky, set the first stage of a five stage project, expected to take over 25 NS 'years' minimum.

The tower will be the first part of a three part porject, also initiated by the launch of three Tourman Dropships slated for cargo construction of the space station, unnamed as yet, to eventually connect to the Infinity Tower.

They also state that a StarDock will be the teriary focus of the Project, allowing for large scale warship projects slated for StarFleet duty alone, verses the High-Mobile vessel porject that runs in both Terran Surface Seas and eventual space duties.

The departments of Eduacation, Science, and the Military are helping to fund the project, which also hopes to use this new station as a footprint to colonize the Moon and beyond.

Sources indicate on a related front that the internal discussion on a UN resolution for the full exploration of the Sol System is at this time dead in the Senatoria, due to the worry over, overextended wording, as well as expectation of any participating nations aiding in allied funding of what would be a massive eneavor.

The goverment at this time is committed to focusing efforts on the Infinity Project at this time.

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*Archonia StarPort..*

Almost on cue (in fact a coordinated event), the news event sets off the Overlord-C Dropships Emerald, Iron Wing, and Rubicon for the first preassembled portions of the SpaceStation that will orbit dead above the StarPort, where a small La Grange point was determined, some 82 miles above.

Meanwhile, an army of ferrocrete unit haulers begin to literally 'pour' into the Base, where despite the -3 degree Faraheint temps, an army of waiting construction-suit workers await, already helping remove tons of earth for the base foundation, all this at the northwest corner of the base.

The roar of the Dropships are drowned out by the closer rummble of the haulers. The worker issued earmuffs with comm nods however do their job efficently in snuffing out the noise..

..the cold however is making trouble for many a suit heater. (...burrrrr...)

*Eleven NS years later*

The StarLadder was beginning to tower into the sky, now even relatively easy to see from the Palace Tree. But now came the first of the tests as the tower reached 20 status aeronautical kilometers high.

The first Graviton Null Field units were ready to activate, which would begin to rise from the foundation and reach at 3 kilometer elevations to help 'remove' the effects of gravity from the stress the 10 kilometer wide base was beginning to feel.

The Ladder itself was a funnel shape as it rose from the Foundation, where a series of buildings were nearly completed, their interiors almost like that of a pure computer center.

Still, the mounds of fiber-cables and fero-titanium cables attested to the still 'far' from complete structure. The rising tube constricted to a point of 1.3 kilometers across, with 8 mangeto-lift unit mini-tubes, seperated by coils of more magento cables, ones that would govern the direction of the lifts with a set of magnetic fields, aided by the zero-friction magneto-rails that were super-cooled to -30 degrees with several micro-tubules, the entire structure made to withstand both the cold and magnetic field effects. This all would allow the lifts to move at high speed, as well as not even have contact with the rails, removing friction and wear.

The attaching SpaceStation was now anchored upon the La Grange point chosen. The station though had to be kept in place by a number of thruster arrays, as more of the station began to grow more and more, aided by the 'core' that was bought a few years back. The StarDock being added a short distance away, was also taking shape.

Still, the project was about a year behind schedule due to the simply 'gravity' of the situation.

Already, the final date was pushed back by three NS years.