Nearly a year since last update, been busy. But now about the major powers in the Cruxis starzone.
The Kingdom of Kiova
The great Kingdom of Kiova started as a republic. It was founded on a somewhat colder world with higher gravity than most, around 1,4 G. It had abundance in metals but scarce in arable land due to high vulcanism and otherwise active planet. So, as the population grew, so grew the pressure to colonize new systems. So Kiova, while not the first to settle in the starzone, was the first to move offworld after the initial settlement.
But expansion brought only more expansion and finally to war. This war was against the world of Magneta, currently one of the founding members of the Transhuman Union. The population of Magneta were mainly transgenics, genetically engineered peoples. The lush world was harnessed to feed the masses in Kiova which was constantly growing and becoming more dangerous to the oligarchy that ruled it.
Finally, the transgenics rebelled, aided by their sister world Xavier. The war was long and bitter and ended in the defeat of the then-republican Kiova and the birth of the Transgenic Union. The catastrophe of defeat also brought with it a military coup. The coup brought with it harsh control, food rationing and limitation of basic rights. At the same time the coup leaders attempted to solve the food crisis at every consievable way. Mass deportations, orbital gardens and genetic engineering were all attempted. There are some rumours lingering that millions died also in the hands of the military police, cleansing 'undesirables'. When the old junta leader died, his son stepped in and thus the system became hereditary.
The present Kiova is a mighty star kingdom, controlling nearly a hundred systems and having colonies on roughly two dozen worlds. It boasts the strongest military in the Cruxis starzone.
Great Puritanian Commonwealth
The Great Puritanian Commonwealth sprung from a theocratic planet called Puritania. Settled by religious fundamentalists with a certain sense of realpolitik, it grew in time as a minor regional power. Acting as a mediator and police force it gained more power and eventually united several worlds under it's banner. Some systems were annexed by force, usually after repeated warnings and transgressions against Puritania, but more usually a system would request to join the alliance.
Puritanians see themselves as the protectors of their allies. They demand simply payment for their protection either in form of money, raw materials, personnel or a combination of these. The systems are allowed to govern themselves as they see fit but puritanians have been known to suppress undesired governments, sometimes harshly.
These suppressive actions caused a major crisis seventy years ago which led to the formation of the Commonwealth Council. The Council is comprised of representatives from every member world. Every world has a limited veto on the Commonwealth's action, but a two-thirds majority can overrule a veto. The Council has also moved to increase non-puritanian officers in the fleet, currently a small minority and mainly in the lower officer ranks. All fleet officers serving are of puritanian descent.
Republic of Macedon
Macedon was founded with a vision of a scientific and philosophic utopia. The founders were quick to build industry and automation to allow the population to concentrate on more important things. The educational levels in the republic are very high and equally high is it's contribution to the scientific community. Nanotech, gravitic drives and antimatter power are all attributed to macedonian scientists.
While Macedon excells in material sciences, it is lacking in ethics and diplomacy. Macedonians use genetic slavery, a method abhorred by nearly every stellar state with some exceptions like the Kingdom of Kiova. This genetic slavery is not only for transgenic slaves grown in the vat chambers of the State Creche but also to those unfortunate enough to be seen "unfit" for citizenry. This fittingness is decided during school years with those passing the required grades gaining citizenship status at graduation. Those who failed, however, are practically sentenced to slavery. Those who are seen to have some hope serve in a form of limited slavery with a chance to redeem oneself. These limited slaves make up most of the macedonian marine corp and navy enlisted personnel.
Militarily Macedon isn't much of a threat to anyone but it has strong planetary defense systems and the fleet is strong enough to challenge an invader. The highly automated fleet requires only comparatively small crews, roughly a fourth of that of other fleets.
While republican, Macedon has cold relations to Voltaire due to the slavery question. It has recently allied itself with the Kiovans.
Republic of Voltaire
Voltaire prides itself as being the first system colonized in the Cruxis starzone and it's oldest democracy. It has grown steadily in power and influence and while it is not a military might for much else than protection of it's territorial integrity it is an economic might controlling several vital stellar routes. Voltaire itself is a focal point of trade with thousands of ships arriving daily.
In the past Voltaire was looked upon as the ultimate success of capitalist democracy. Enterprising, industrious and cultural, they prospered. However, as their wealth increased, so did social differences. A large underclass grew steadily as corporations preferred immigrants, specially transgenics, in simpler jobs, leaving many native voltairans unemployed. This led to a revolution some two hundred years ago and the establishment of a socialist state in Voltaire. The military, however, fought the revolutionaries and eventually stalemated, dividing the Voltaire colonies in two.
This divided state continued to exist separately for several decades until a military coup in the old republic usheredin a new war between the states, finally resulting in reunification by the militant republic. The People's Republic did manage to send out several refugee fleets to settle outer worlds where remnants of the old socialist state survives.
The current Voltaire Republic is once again a democratic state and is the starzone's economical giant, having double the economical weight of any of it's competitors. Militarily, the republic lags behind the more militant Puritanians and Kiovans but is strong enough to hold it's own. Voltaire has been rumored to use mercenaries in limited warfare against Macedon but no substantial evidence has surfaced.
Transhuman Union
The Transhuman Union was born from a dream. This dream was to unite the transgenics and post-humans under a single banner, to protect them against mainline human discrimination and subjugation. It's founders dreamed of an peaceful utopia but soon quarreled over what should be done with the mainline humans. As a result of this quarrel the union split in two factions, each settling it's own world. The worlds happened to be orbiting a binary system so limited hostilities continued until Magneto, the more militant of the two factions, was subjugated and occupied by the Kiovans.
The Xanadu faction, the more peacable of the two, supported covertly their oppressed brethren and by decades of hard work, guerrilla warfare and terrorist attacks forced Kiova to retreat. This resulted into a major political crisis within Kiovans and simultaneously in reunification of the two factions. Best of both worlds were combined and as both saw that conflict with other star powers was unavoidable, they assumed a military collectivist society built for warfare.
TU has been in war with Kiova for most of it's existence, the war varying from border skirmishes and raids to outright invasions. TU has managed to form a buffer zone between Kiovans and itself, maintining the more important worlds behind the heavily fortified border worlds. TU's military power rivals that of the Kiovans but is more focused on smaller operations and smaller ships while Kiovan fleet focuses more on major fleet actions.
The Garm Territories
Garm are the only major alien faction in the starzone. They had obtained the technology for interstellar travel a little after the settlement of Voltaire and were first met by the Macedonians whose territory is nearest to those of the Garm. The relations between the two have been peacable interrupted only by two short wars. Trade between the Garm and human factions is common, with the Garm being highly interested in biotechnology.
Garm is a marsupian species with the females being slightly taller than male. The tallest garms are shorter than the average human, roughly 170cm but they are more heavily built, thanks to their high-gravity homeworld. Despite the cold climate the garm are hairless, preferring heavy clothing. Their skin color is a mottled gray. They are highly social and prefer to live in large clan-packs of 6-20 interrelated adults and their young living in the same household. Social pecking order is set by the oldest female leading the family pack. Males care for newborn and infants until they can walk. It is exceptional in that any male, not just the father, can be assigned as the caretaker and it is not expected of the father to enter the child's life, the child living with his or her mother's clan-pack. Sexual relationships are conducted outside the clan-pack and it is considered taboo to have a sexual relationship within the clan-pack. Transgressors are expelled or killed.
Garm society at large is, for the human observer, a semi-anarchic meritocracy with the most able receiving the best positions of power, most mating propositions and the best resources. Power is seen that as all individuals are expected to further the better future of the race, they should have free rein in how to accomplish this. Resources are assigned by clan-packs supporting the individual. As these resources can be pooled, a poweful garm politician can easily combine the resources of a thousand clan-packs for starship production, agriculture or such. As an unspoken rule, politicians are not allowed to countermand each other and disagreements of policy are often settled by personal combat. This tradition, according to the garm, is fairly recent. Before entering space, the garm lived in more or less competing feudal kingdoms. A planetary regime came from cooperation between these feudal kingdoms. As feudal lords were of the habit of granting succession to their most able servant instead of favoring familial relationships determining power within the clan, the current system was created.
Garm have ambassadors on all major trade worlds and stations around the starzone. The ambassadors are considered major politicians who hold large sway over garm affairs domestically. Militarily, the garm could outnumber all human factions if they combined their efforts. However, the fractured state of the garm society ensures that such an union is unlikely.
tiistai 7. joulukuuta 2010
tiistai 14. huhtikuuta 2009
Working on something shiny, something new
So, I've been quiet a lot lately, due to family necessities such as required computer down-time and such. But I've been active nevertheless, working on a new scifi rpg setting. This is almost just an exercise of my world building skills, but I think it's becoming worthy of at least a campaign.
The next few entries will discuss the setting topic by topic. The first one, this one, is a general introduction.
Post-Terra
The setting is circa 1 500 years to the future. In AD 2544 Earth was destroyed by a massive impact damage. The cause of this was a giant asteroid sent off-course by meddling humans trying to prevent a far-future impact. Several fragments of this asteroid, successfully destroyed by humans, slammed into the moon, sending it spiralling towards Earth.
Evacuations started over 60 years before the impact by UN-headed project Daedalus. However, a scientific breakthrough made FTL travel possible through generated wormholes. An operation to control this technology was unsuccesful and the technology soon leaked ti the world, leading to an uncontrolled diaspora of humanity with everyone who could afford offsystem travel doing so.
Most opted for nearby systems which had some habitable systems. Some, however, made the hard choice and started a long voyage accross the interstellar void for the Cruxis zone, the largest area of habitable life in the galaxy. The Cruxis zone is over 40 000 ly from Earth and is roughly 1200 ly in diameter.
This story is about those brave who successfully made it to the Cruxis zone, known to it's inhabitants today as "known space".
After settling on several promising worlds, humanity once again reached for the stars. Within a few hundred years interstellar trade was flourishing and even the occacional skirmish was seen between the rising stellar nations. Most of these fledgeling colonies controlled only one or a few systems and centered on a single starsystem, but some rose to control more than a hundred systems and inhabiting dozens of planets.
There are of course species native to this zone. The Garm are marsupial sentients who are psychologically quite close to humans. There have been a few wars between the human nations and the Garm but mostly trade and diplomacy have been the key. Garm have been content to stay in their sphere of stars and humans have been content to stay on theirs. The Tanz, named after their discoverer, the Macedonian ship Tanganjika, are silicate-based lifeforms who live amongst the humans, mainly near cooling systems and engines of starships. They work as repairmen and technicians and have a knack for computer hacking. Then there are the Others, the Arachnids or however one might call them. They look nightmarish but their requirements for life are different enough from humans that they do not compete from the same worlds as humans do. Some human-controlled systems may have Other colonies on their outer planets but mainly the two don't interact much.
Technology is based on manipulation of gravity, fusion power and ftl travel. There is no ftl radio, so news travel by courier ships. Gravity technology is used for stl drives, force fields and on-planet building technology. Countergrav cars were experimented upon but they caused more trouble than what they were seen worth and were abandoned. Thanks to gravitic technology, no spin gravity is required on starships or space stations to generate gravity. Thanks to inertial compensation, ships can handle over 100G acceleration rates and military vessels can do even 200-300G. The huge power consumption of these systems are met by advanced fusion power. Most ships have at least two reactors giving the ship ample energy for all needs. Due to the larger consumption rates, the fusion reactors need to be fueled roughly once or twice a year. They use hydrogen and helium as fuel, both being equally acceptable.
The FTL technology works as follows: it can be activated only around the outer limit of a given system, around 15-50 AU from any star. The FTL drive spins up, generating a temporary wormhole between A and B. Systems A and B must be in straight-line connection not going through the system of departure (within the system limit). Currently the technology can maintain only a 4-5 parsec (12-16 ly) wormhole so a cross-zone voyage may well be around 150-200 days of travel, depending on route choice. Interstellar space wormholes are known to be highly inaccurate and unstable so most sane people avoid opening wormholes in interstellar space. Navigation and endpoint calculation is a science known as astrogation and is fairly complex but manageable by a human of sufficient training.
Pre-jump sequence takes around 5-15 minutes. During this time the ship spins up the jumpdrive and shuts down other systems to give the jump maximum accuracy. The astrogator inputs the jump coordinates and the onboard navigation computer makes corrections due to constant travel and After-jump the jump drive needs to cool down for a duration of 1h per travelled parsec after which a new jump can be made. A jump can be detected through gravitic sensors as it generates quite a bit of localized gravitational phenomena. This effect can be devastating up to 1000 km away from the ship entering or leaving and this effect can be seen up to 15 AU away from the jump point. Because of the vast area to cover, detecting incoming jumps is done mainly by deep-space sentry drones who send a warning to the centralized system command through laser pulse.
In my next entry, I will discuss more of the existing major starpowers and write something about the average lesser powers around.
The next few entries will discuss the setting topic by topic. The first one, this one, is a general introduction.
Post-Terra
The setting is circa 1 500 years to the future. In AD 2544 Earth was destroyed by a massive impact damage. The cause of this was a giant asteroid sent off-course by meddling humans trying to prevent a far-future impact. Several fragments of this asteroid, successfully destroyed by humans, slammed into the moon, sending it spiralling towards Earth.
Evacuations started over 60 years before the impact by UN-headed project Daedalus. However, a scientific breakthrough made FTL travel possible through generated wormholes. An operation to control this technology was unsuccesful and the technology soon leaked ti the world, leading to an uncontrolled diaspora of humanity with everyone who could afford offsystem travel doing so.
Most opted for nearby systems which had some habitable systems. Some, however, made the hard choice and started a long voyage accross the interstellar void for the Cruxis zone, the largest area of habitable life in the galaxy. The Cruxis zone is over 40 000 ly from Earth and is roughly 1200 ly in diameter.
This story is about those brave who successfully made it to the Cruxis zone, known to it's inhabitants today as "known space".
After settling on several promising worlds, humanity once again reached for the stars. Within a few hundred years interstellar trade was flourishing and even the occacional skirmish was seen between the rising stellar nations. Most of these fledgeling colonies controlled only one or a few systems and centered on a single starsystem, but some rose to control more than a hundred systems and inhabiting dozens of planets.
There are of course species native to this zone. The Garm are marsupial sentients who are psychologically quite close to humans. There have been a few wars between the human nations and the Garm but mostly trade and diplomacy have been the key. Garm have been content to stay in their sphere of stars and humans have been content to stay on theirs. The Tanz, named after their discoverer, the Macedonian ship Tanganjika, are silicate-based lifeforms who live amongst the humans, mainly near cooling systems and engines of starships. They work as repairmen and technicians and have a knack for computer hacking. Then there are the Others, the Arachnids or however one might call them. They look nightmarish but their requirements for life are different enough from humans that they do not compete from the same worlds as humans do. Some human-controlled systems may have Other colonies on their outer planets but mainly the two don't interact much.
Technology is based on manipulation of gravity, fusion power and ftl travel. There is no ftl radio, so news travel by courier ships. Gravity technology is used for stl drives, force fields and on-planet building technology. Countergrav cars were experimented upon but they caused more trouble than what they were seen worth and were abandoned. Thanks to gravitic technology, no spin gravity is required on starships or space stations to generate gravity. Thanks to inertial compensation, ships can handle over 100G acceleration rates and military vessels can do even 200-300G. The huge power consumption of these systems are met by advanced fusion power. Most ships have at least two reactors giving the ship ample energy for all needs. Due to the larger consumption rates, the fusion reactors need to be fueled roughly once or twice a year. They use hydrogen and helium as fuel, both being equally acceptable.
The FTL technology works as follows: it can be activated only around the outer limit of a given system, around 15-50 AU from any star. The FTL drive spins up, generating a temporary wormhole between A and B. Systems A and B must be in straight-line connection not going through the system of departure (within the system limit). Currently the technology can maintain only a 4-5 parsec (12-16 ly) wormhole so a cross-zone voyage may well be around 150-200 days of travel, depending on route choice. Interstellar space wormholes are known to be highly inaccurate and unstable so most sane people avoid opening wormholes in interstellar space. Navigation and endpoint calculation is a science known as astrogation and is fairly complex but manageable by a human of sufficient training.
Pre-jump sequence takes around 5-15 minutes. During this time the ship spins up the jumpdrive and shuts down other systems to give the jump maximum accuracy. The astrogator inputs the jump coordinates and the onboard navigation computer makes corrections due to constant travel and After-jump the jump drive needs to cool down for a duration of 1h per travelled parsec after which a new jump can be made. A jump can be detected through gravitic sensors as it generates quite a bit of localized gravitational phenomena. This effect can be devastating up to 1000 km away from the ship entering or leaving and this effect can be seen up to 15 AU away from the jump point. Because of the vast area to cover, detecting incoming jumps is done mainly by deep-space sentry drones who send a warning to the centralized system command through laser pulse.
In my next entry, I will discuss more of the existing major starpowers and write something about the average lesser powers around.
sunnuntai 4. tammikuuta 2009
Exploration of space
A current topic if any. I had some thoughts recently about how hard it might be, even with FTL travel to explore even small regions of space.
A hypothetical setting: a way to travel faster than light has been discovered and a stable jumpdrive-ship built. The maximum speed it can travel is roughly 1 ly / day, vastly more than the speed of light. The drive can be activated in the outer solar system, to where it takes a week or two to travel with the sublight drives.
The practical range of travels with the ship is limited to two months, after which it starts running out of food, air and fuel. 6 weeks of travel is roughly 95% safe not accounting accidents or unforeseen problems.
So around 42-56 lightyears is the maximum range of the ship. The ship can, when entering a system, survey the entire star system in a 1-3 days, depending on the system, with an average of 1,5 days.
It would be logical for the ship, being still first of it's kind, to first make short jumps to nearby systems: Proxima Centauri, Alpha Centauri, Sirius, etc. First to the Centauri system and back, a 9-10 days trip in total. Then a two-system journey, say to Sirius and then Lalande 21185. Sirius is 9 days of hard travel, then about 5-6 days to Lalande 21185 and finally back home, another 8 days. In total, the journey took 21-22 days plus a few days to survey the system.
Now the ship has spent around 5 weeks exploring and has reached 3 systems. A still longer journey is planned out: going by Barnard's Star and Ross 154 to HD 217987. Barnard's star is a little over 5 light years, getting there is 6 days. From there, Ross 154 is about the same distance, 6 days more. Then, to HD 217987, roughly 9 more days. And let us say 6 days of surveying. The total time of this star trek has been 27 days, almost a month. The ship can still travel a little less than doubly this travel, we are approaching the limit. The ship has now seen 6 systems during it's journeys and systems close to Earth are running out. And a roughly two-day survey on each system gives only a slight clue on the planets and their possible habitability. And the usefulness of each system can only be guessed at the moment. But that is not the concern of this exploration vessel.
Now an even longer trek, off first to UV Ceti, Epsilon Eridani, then Wolf 359, then Ross 128 and finally to DEN 0255-4700. The travel takes 9 days to UV Ceti, from there about 7 days to Eplison Eridani, then almost two weeks to Wolf 359, then say a 5 day travel to Ross 128 and finally a 12 day travel to DEN 0255-4700 and 17 days home. The total travel, including the surveys take about 70 days. The ship will be almost running on fumes and the crew a bit tired when they return. And now there has been almost 4 months of exploring. Not so much as such, but so far the ship has explored 11 systems out of the 50 systems within 15 light years from Sol. With the rate remaining the same, within one year there would be around 30-35 exlored systems, within 20 months all of the nearby systems would be explored. But of course the rate would drop and I'd assume that the real time spent to explore all the 50 systems would be somewhere around 2-2½ years. Possibly 3.
Now humanity has explored a roughly spherical volume of space, 15 light years in diameter. The local bubble, the next step, is 300 ly across. With a spherical volume, it would be around 94247 cubic ly. This area might contain somewhere around 10 000 solar systems and assuming rate remaining constant (it wouldn't), it would take around 300 years to explore. After this step, humanity has explored around 1/100th of the distance from the Sun to the Galactic Core.
Of course, while time progresses, there would be more exploration ships, the technology would improve and people would start building colonies and starbases further away from the Solar system. And starships could be away longer periods of time, perhaps even a few years, exploring.
Still, exploring a galaxy might take time. And of course there might be prioritizing. If the priority is in establishing new colonies, surveys might only be done to systems likely to have habitable planets. This would quicken up the exploration a great deal, but a huge portion of stars would be left unobserved.
A hypothetical setting: a way to travel faster than light has been discovered and a stable jumpdrive-ship built. The maximum speed it can travel is roughly 1 ly / day, vastly more than the speed of light. The drive can be activated in the outer solar system, to where it takes a week or two to travel with the sublight drives.
The practical range of travels with the ship is limited to two months, after which it starts running out of food, air and fuel. 6 weeks of travel is roughly 95% safe not accounting accidents or unforeseen problems.
So around 42-56 lightyears is the maximum range of the ship. The ship can, when entering a system, survey the entire star system in a 1-3 days, depending on the system, with an average of 1,5 days.
It would be logical for the ship, being still first of it's kind, to first make short jumps to nearby systems: Proxima Centauri, Alpha Centauri, Sirius, etc. First to the Centauri system and back, a 9-10 days trip in total. Then a two-system journey, say to Sirius and then Lalande 21185. Sirius is 9 days of hard travel, then about 5-6 days to Lalande 21185 and finally back home, another 8 days. In total, the journey took 21-22 days plus a few days to survey the system.
Now the ship has spent around 5 weeks exploring and has reached 3 systems. A still longer journey is planned out: going by Barnard's Star and Ross 154 to HD 217987. Barnard's star is a little over 5 light years, getting there is 6 days. From there, Ross 154 is about the same distance, 6 days more. Then, to HD 217987, roughly 9 more days. And let us say 6 days of surveying. The total time of this star trek has been 27 days, almost a month. The ship can still travel a little less than doubly this travel, we are approaching the limit. The ship has now seen 6 systems during it's journeys and systems close to Earth are running out. And a roughly two-day survey on each system gives only a slight clue on the planets and their possible habitability. And the usefulness of each system can only be guessed at the moment. But that is not the concern of this exploration vessel.
Now an even longer trek, off first to UV Ceti, Epsilon Eridani, then Wolf 359, then Ross 128 and finally to DEN 0255-4700. The travel takes 9 days to UV Ceti, from there about 7 days to Eplison Eridani, then almost two weeks to Wolf 359, then say a 5 day travel to Ross 128 and finally a 12 day travel to DEN 0255-4700 and 17 days home. The total travel, including the surveys take about 70 days. The ship will be almost running on fumes and the crew a bit tired when they return. And now there has been almost 4 months of exploring. Not so much as such, but so far the ship has explored 11 systems out of the 50 systems within 15 light years from Sol. With the rate remaining the same, within one year there would be around 30-35 exlored systems, within 20 months all of the nearby systems would be explored. But of course the rate would drop and I'd assume that the real time spent to explore all the 50 systems would be somewhere around 2-2½ years. Possibly 3.
Now humanity has explored a roughly spherical volume of space, 15 light years in diameter. The local bubble, the next step, is 300 ly across. With a spherical volume, it would be around 94247 cubic ly. This area might contain somewhere around 10 000 solar systems and assuming rate remaining constant (it wouldn't), it would take around 300 years to explore. After this step, humanity has explored around 1/100th of the distance from the Sun to the Galactic Core.
Of course, while time progresses, there would be more exploration ships, the technology would improve and people would start building colonies and starbases further away from the Solar system. And starships could be away longer periods of time, perhaps even a few years, exploring.
Still, exploring a galaxy might take time. And of course there might be prioritizing. If the priority is in establishing new colonies, surveys might only be done to systems likely to have habitable planets. This would quicken up the exploration a great deal, but a huge portion of stars would be left unobserved.
sunnuntai 26. lokakuuta 2008
Sublight Travel
This one has bothered me for a while in my game setting and some others as well so I'll write up my thoughts here and try to sort it out.
So, let us assume that there is a way of working FTL which works with speeds of about 0,3-0,5 parseks an hour. It's drawback is that it doesn't work well in a gravity well. Previously I had specified that the limit a ship could approach an object in space was about 100 times the diameter of the object multiplied with it's surface gravity (a cheap ripoff from Traveller, I know). With average settled planets in this setting this would be about a million km.
Now then, concerning gravity wells, the largest in a solar system would naturally be the star(s). With our dear Sol this would be about a million kilometers, making it's base jump limit around 100 million kilometers, just short of Earth. However, when multiplied with the surface gravity of 27g this would create an almost 2,7 billion kilometer no-jump zone, about 18 AU, roughly around the orbit of Uranus.
Now, this makes interstellar travel a bit more slow. While it takes a few hours to make the jump from, say Alpha Centauri to Sol, it still would take quite a while to make the travel from Uranus to Earth on sublight. At light speed it would still make about two and a half hours to reach it.
Until now I've ignored the effect of the Sun in this, limiting myself only to planetary gravity wells but after doing a little study for another project of mine I realized that I cannot do this without proper explanation. It's paradoxical, isn't it? Why take some wells into account and not others? Are stars somehow different than planets, would this be a question of, say, densities? Star densities are way less than planetary densities, even Saturn is more dense than the Sun. It would make a more simple explanation to include the Sun gravity well into the accounts as well.
So, let us now consider the two models of gravity well jump limits with the stl technology available. Previously, starships were doing about 2-3 g tops, most ships around 0,5-1g. Courier ships and such might break for 8-10g but that would be it. That would mean that a 1g acceleration ship would accelerate to around 9,8 m/s squared. Let us say that fuel limits cap this acceleration to a delta-vee of 30 km/s. Travel from Uranus to Earth would take almost three years. Not really viable as I thought that the absolute travel time to a world 10 pc away would take about a day. Outer system colonies and stations would boom as trade hubs though, as merchant ships would want to minimize the travel time and just dump the cargo, get paid and leave. And faster in-system ships would then take the trade items further in-system.
Now then, ignoring the effect of the sun, a starship would appear around 1 million km from Earth. With 1g acceleration and a 30km/s delta-vee the ship would take about 9 h 15 min not including deceleration to reach Earth. A bit long still but more viable. In Earth's case, having stations in lunar orbit would be profitable since ships would then prefer to dock at the much nearer moon stations, leave the cargo there to the middle man and leave.
However, I thought a different solution. Increase the acceleration so that ships in-system would travel at around 0,1-0,3c. The solution I thought of is gravity drives which would be almost like warp drives in themselves. This would still make the travel from Uranus to Earth a long travel, around 12,5 hours on the average 0,2c speed, not including deceleration. With gravity compensators onboard (a technological item already included in the setting), inside the ship people would not notice the acceleration much. Which is good, since the planned 50-200g acceleration would squash a crew in an instant to tomato juice. I've planned that the grav drive would take it's power from fusion reactors onboard. This would however make smaller fighters less effective because of the space reactors require. Smaller ships would be mainly for maintenance, supply runs and crew transfer. On the other hand, ships built for battle would be huge.
This creates another problem. I've always liked the setting's emphasis on heroic fighter pilots fighting amongst large battleships and swarming the bigger ships with missiles. Emphasizing bigger ships would however make rebellions a much harder thing to do without orbital support and when the Imperial Navy kicks in, it's over. Then again, even a well-equipped fighter squadron defending a world would be doomed since the Imperial Navy has it's own fighter squadrons to deflect such attacks. And of course clever tactics will always be an advantage.
The appeal of having a large system to travel through before arriving at the inner system inhabited planets is largely of the chances of action along the way. While the journey of a million kilometers to a jump point might include some exitement, fast ships could intercept the pirate attacking around the jump limit and it is a little risky running that close to the planetary security. Not profitable. With a couple of light-hours to travel there might be "accidents" and the patrol is far away..
I'll have to think and see where this goes.
So, let us assume that there is a way of working FTL which works with speeds of about 0,3-0,5 parseks an hour. It's drawback is that it doesn't work well in a gravity well. Previously I had specified that the limit a ship could approach an object in space was about 100 times the diameter of the object multiplied with it's surface gravity (a cheap ripoff from Traveller, I know). With average settled planets in this setting this would be about a million km.
Now then, concerning gravity wells, the largest in a solar system would naturally be the star(s). With our dear Sol this would be about a million kilometers, making it's base jump limit around 100 million kilometers, just short of Earth. However, when multiplied with the surface gravity of 27g this would create an almost 2,7 billion kilometer no-jump zone, about 18 AU, roughly around the orbit of Uranus.
Now, this makes interstellar travel a bit more slow. While it takes a few hours to make the jump from, say Alpha Centauri to Sol, it still would take quite a while to make the travel from Uranus to Earth on sublight. At light speed it would still make about two and a half hours to reach it.
Until now I've ignored the effect of the Sun in this, limiting myself only to planetary gravity wells but after doing a little study for another project of mine I realized that I cannot do this without proper explanation. It's paradoxical, isn't it? Why take some wells into account and not others? Are stars somehow different than planets, would this be a question of, say, densities? Star densities are way less than planetary densities, even Saturn is more dense than the Sun. It would make a more simple explanation to include the Sun gravity well into the accounts as well.
So, let us now consider the two models of gravity well jump limits with the stl technology available. Previously, starships were doing about 2-3 g tops, most ships around 0,5-1g. Courier ships and such might break for 8-10g but that would be it. That would mean that a 1g acceleration ship would accelerate to around 9,8 m/s squared. Let us say that fuel limits cap this acceleration to a delta-vee of 30 km/s. Travel from Uranus to Earth would take almost three years. Not really viable as I thought that the absolute travel time to a world 10 pc away would take about a day. Outer system colonies and stations would boom as trade hubs though, as merchant ships would want to minimize the travel time and just dump the cargo, get paid and leave. And faster in-system ships would then take the trade items further in-system.
Now then, ignoring the effect of the sun, a starship would appear around 1 million km from Earth. With 1g acceleration and a 30km/s delta-vee the ship would take about 9 h 15 min not including deceleration to reach Earth. A bit long still but more viable. In Earth's case, having stations in lunar orbit would be profitable since ships would then prefer to dock at the much nearer moon stations, leave the cargo there to the middle man and leave.
However, I thought a different solution. Increase the acceleration so that ships in-system would travel at around 0,1-0,3c. The solution I thought of is gravity drives which would be almost like warp drives in themselves. This would still make the travel from Uranus to Earth a long travel, around 12,5 hours on the average 0,2c speed, not including deceleration. With gravity compensators onboard (a technological item already included in the setting), inside the ship people would not notice the acceleration much. Which is good, since the planned 50-200g acceleration would squash a crew in an instant to tomato juice. I've planned that the grav drive would take it's power from fusion reactors onboard. This would however make smaller fighters less effective because of the space reactors require. Smaller ships would be mainly for maintenance, supply runs and crew transfer. On the other hand, ships built for battle would be huge.
This creates another problem. I've always liked the setting's emphasis on heroic fighter pilots fighting amongst large battleships and swarming the bigger ships with missiles. Emphasizing bigger ships would however make rebellions a much harder thing to do without orbital support and when the Imperial Navy kicks in, it's over. Then again, even a well-equipped fighter squadron defending a world would be doomed since the Imperial Navy has it's own fighter squadrons to deflect such attacks. And of course clever tactics will always be an advantage.
The appeal of having a large system to travel through before arriving at the inner system inhabited planets is largely of the chances of action along the way. While the journey of a million kilometers to a jump point might include some exitement, fast ships could intercept the pirate attacking around the jump limit and it is a little risky running that close to the planetary security. Not profitable. With a couple of light-hours to travel there might be "accidents" and the patrol is far away..
I'll have to think and see where this goes.
tiistai 3. kesäkuuta 2008
Colonies, space
I covered previously colonies on the surfaces of other planetary objects. With this article, I will cover asteroid colonies and colonies in space.
Space and asteroid colonies have several advantages over planetary colonies. They can be (although slowly) moved, they can be expanded and they have plenty of energy coming from the sun. Depending on it's location it can be a center for manifacturing, processing, commerce or military. The versatility and adaptability of the space colony makes it a strong option. Also, space colonies are seldom very heavily populated (let us say seldom more than 1 million) and are probably shielded so that upon a catastrophic event the colony can be easily evacuated at least off-station for a short duration. Compartements can enhance the shielding and make it hard to do serious damage to the inhabitants.
The drawbacks are however that the colony will need oxygen and water. Oxygen can be generated from plants and through chemical processes. Plants require water, however, which has to come from somewhere. There may also be an alternative (backup or primary) nuclear power plant which will require fuel (hydrogen, helium, water, plutonium or similar). Also at least a part of the construction materials need to be imported, increasing the cost of building. Another drawback is the need of repairs. The colony needs constant repairs to stay operational, especially as older the colony gets. And the population growth has a very specific limit, after the water, air and space run out you have to either expand the colony or send people elsewhere.
The space colonies are usually present in science fiction around LaGrange points, in the asteroid belts and orbiting some planet on a stable orbit. The location of the colony also gives an indication of it's use.
Orbital space colonies are usually for commercial and military use. They may provide a port of call to off-planet traders, a base of operations for planetary security forces and such. Their industrial capacity is usually concentrated on ship and food manufacturing.
LaGrange colonies are usually built for their location. It is fairly easy to throw material from a planetary object to the LaGrange point and make it stay there. This makes, say an Earth L-5 colony a nice industrial center as they can get materials thrown from the moon, process it and sling it towards earth, for instance. Or sell it to traders passing back and forth. They are waystations but may also function as a way to ease the population growth issues on the planet below. These stations are usually huge and don't serve any particular reason except supporting the local population.
Asteroid colonies aren't usually very big. They might also be completely temporary, only existing until the asteroid the colony is built on (and the asteroids nearby) have been exploited. The colony usually has some installations on the surface of the asteroid but most of the habitation and basic operations are under the surface. Nevertheless, the population of an asteroid colony composes mostly from miners and engineers and possibly their family. The colony might not be for habitation at all, miners and engineers only being there for a certain tour of duty. Abandoned asteroid colonies are the favourite bases for space pirates and smugglers since they usually are pretty functional with some repairs, have all the facilities and have lots of space. If this is an issue, there might be regulations about blowing up abandoned space colonies every now and then.
Space and asteroid colonies have several advantages over planetary colonies. They can be (although slowly) moved, they can be expanded and they have plenty of energy coming from the sun. Depending on it's location it can be a center for manifacturing, processing, commerce or military. The versatility and adaptability of the space colony makes it a strong option. Also, space colonies are seldom very heavily populated (let us say seldom more than 1 million) and are probably shielded so that upon a catastrophic event the colony can be easily evacuated at least off-station for a short duration. Compartements can enhance the shielding and make it hard to do serious damage to the inhabitants.
The drawbacks are however that the colony will need oxygen and water. Oxygen can be generated from plants and through chemical processes. Plants require water, however, which has to come from somewhere. There may also be an alternative (backup or primary) nuclear power plant which will require fuel (hydrogen, helium, water, plutonium or similar). Also at least a part of the construction materials need to be imported, increasing the cost of building. Another drawback is the need of repairs. The colony needs constant repairs to stay operational, especially as older the colony gets. And the population growth has a very specific limit, after the water, air and space run out you have to either expand the colony or send people elsewhere.
The space colonies are usually present in science fiction around LaGrange points, in the asteroid belts and orbiting some planet on a stable orbit. The location of the colony also gives an indication of it's use.
Orbital space colonies are usually for commercial and military use. They may provide a port of call to off-planet traders, a base of operations for planetary security forces and such. Their industrial capacity is usually concentrated on ship and food manufacturing.
LaGrange colonies are usually built for their location. It is fairly easy to throw material from a planetary object to the LaGrange point and make it stay there. This makes, say an Earth L-5 colony a nice industrial center as they can get materials thrown from the moon, process it and sling it towards earth, for instance. Or sell it to traders passing back and forth. They are waystations but may also function as a way to ease the population growth issues on the planet below. These stations are usually huge and don't serve any particular reason except supporting the local population.
Asteroid colonies aren't usually very big. They might also be completely temporary, only existing until the asteroid the colony is built on (and the asteroids nearby) have been exploited. The colony usually has some installations on the surface of the asteroid but most of the habitation and basic operations are under the surface. Nevertheless, the population of an asteroid colony composes mostly from miners and engineers and possibly their family. The colony might not be for habitation at all, miners and engineers only being there for a certain tour of duty. Abandoned asteroid colonies are the favourite bases for space pirates and smugglers since they usually are pretty functional with some repairs, have all the facilities and have lots of space. If this is an issue, there might be regulations about blowing up abandoned space colonies every now and then.
keskiviikko 28. toukokuuta 2008
Colonies, surface
I seem to pace around certain ideas from time to time. I think it is a process of refining ideas for me. Anyways, today I thought about colonies.
In the legionverse science fiction setting of my creation, there are two types of human settlements: established worlds and colonies. The distinction between the two is that worlds have at least 100 million inhabitants (legal minimum set by Imperial Senate) and have a representative in the Imperial Senate as a consequence. Worlds also have the right to establish and govern colonies. People are free to establish colonies, but Imperial Law requires that the colony must be associated either with a specific world or be governed by the Imperial Navy. Illegal colonies found are immediately put under authority of the Navy.
Now, considering a colony. It is a permanent but relatively new settlement built by a relatively small group of people, a few hundred adults at most in the beginning. They probably have limited supplies, tools and a limited connection to the motherworld. Therefore the equipment they do have with them is concentrated to keep the colonists alive long enough that they can build shelter and start producing food (and oxygen, if needed).
Well-prepared (and/or funded) colonists might send an advance party to build the shelters for the colonists to inhabit. They might be robots, a group of volunteer colonists with the necessary skills or hired hands. What to send depends on technology and ease of travel to the location. Robots would be favoured if using humans is risky or expensive but humans probably would be used if robots are not trusted or if they are not flexible enough in their decision-making.
Now, let us assume that the colonists have shelter and have started producing food for themselves. The next goal would be to build a technical infrastructure. Let us assume that the planet the colonists have settled has natural oxygen and water so these are not required. To speed up food production, machinery will be needed and machinery will need power. Solar power would be easily obtained, but the amount of solar energy available would be limited. Nuclear or fusion power might be too difficult to build (and fuel), fossil fuels might not be available on the planet. If hydrogen is needed for powering vehicles or generators, there must be some way to separate hydrogen from water or a source of raw hydrogen (a gas giant, perhaps?).
The colony ship might be available for the colonists, at least if the colonists or the colony backer owns the ship. In this case, the colonists might dismantle the colony ship and strip it's high technology for their own use. This would provide the early colony with a power plant, sufficient fuel for a while as well as metal from the hull to use for reinforced shelter, possibly even surface-to-orbit weaponry from the ship's turrets or a minifactory for manufacturing spare parts. The ship would give the colony a good supply of essentials for building the core of industry on the planet.
Now, let us assume that the colony has survived the first cycle around their star (let us assume that this is roughly 0.5-3 years) and have means to produce food, electricity and can repair goods and might have some rudimentary transports, harvesters etc. Now new items appear. At this point, the colonists have been isolated for quite a while, only in the company of each others. Tensions might rise and the colony risking dispersement (which might be dangerous or simply divide the resources available). This would prompt to create a way to settle disagreements peacefully, by arbiter. The settlement would probably attempt to follow the customs of their homeworld but might, especially if exiles or otherwise unhappy with the rules back home, create something of their own. This would become the basis of government and society and the early days would shape the future society.
Another question is maintaining contact to homeworld, a vital requirement. While a colony should be as self-sufficient as possible, the colony needs additional colonists and resources to grow. Also, some spare parts might not be available on the planet and getting these would require contact with homeworld or trade relations elsewhere. This requires, however, that the colony has something to trade for the goods they need. The motherworld might require food, industrial metals or something else. The preparation to provide these to the motherworld will probably be a top priority, depending on what they can easily provide and what the world can offer. The motherworld would certainly fund operations to get more resources that the colony can provide and therefore fuel the colony's rapid growth.
In the legionverse science fiction setting of my creation, there are two types of human settlements: established worlds and colonies. The distinction between the two is that worlds have at least 100 million inhabitants (legal minimum set by Imperial Senate) and have a representative in the Imperial Senate as a consequence. Worlds also have the right to establish and govern colonies. People are free to establish colonies, but Imperial Law requires that the colony must be associated either with a specific world or be governed by the Imperial Navy. Illegal colonies found are immediately put under authority of the Navy.
Now, considering a colony. It is a permanent but relatively new settlement built by a relatively small group of people, a few hundred adults at most in the beginning. They probably have limited supplies, tools and a limited connection to the motherworld. Therefore the equipment they do have with them is concentrated to keep the colonists alive long enough that they can build shelter and start producing food (and oxygen, if needed).
Well-prepared (and/or funded) colonists might send an advance party to build the shelters for the colonists to inhabit. They might be robots, a group of volunteer colonists with the necessary skills or hired hands. What to send depends on technology and ease of travel to the location. Robots would be favoured if using humans is risky or expensive but humans probably would be used if robots are not trusted or if they are not flexible enough in their decision-making.
Now, let us assume that the colonists have shelter and have started producing food for themselves. The next goal would be to build a technical infrastructure. Let us assume that the planet the colonists have settled has natural oxygen and water so these are not required. To speed up food production, machinery will be needed and machinery will need power. Solar power would be easily obtained, but the amount of solar energy available would be limited. Nuclear or fusion power might be too difficult to build (and fuel), fossil fuels might not be available on the planet. If hydrogen is needed for powering vehicles or generators, there must be some way to separate hydrogen from water or a source of raw hydrogen (a gas giant, perhaps?).
The colony ship might be available for the colonists, at least if the colonists or the colony backer owns the ship. In this case, the colonists might dismantle the colony ship and strip it's high technology for their own use. This would provide the early colony with a power plant, sufficient fuel for a while as well as metal from the hull to use for reinforced shelter, possibly even surface-to-orbit weaponry from the ship's turrets or a minifactory for manufacturing spare parts. The ship would give the colony a good supply of essentials for building the core of industry on the planet.
Now, let us assume that the colony has survived the first cycle around their star (let us assume that this is roughly 0.5-3 years) and have means to produce food, electricity and can repair goods and might have some rudimentary transports, harvesters etc. Now new items appear. At this point, the colonists have been isolated for quite a while, only in the company of each others. Tensions might rise and the colony risking dispersement (which might be dangerous or simply divide the resources available). This would prompt to create a way to settle disagreements peacefully, by arbiter. The settlement would probably attempt to follow the customs of their homeworld but might, especially if exiles or otherwise unhappy with the rules back home, create something of their own. This would become the basis of government and society and the early days would shape the future society.
Another question is maintaining contact to homeworld, a vital requirement. While a colony should be as self-sufficient as possible, the colony needs additional colonists and resources to grow. Also, some spare parts might not be available on the planet and getting these would require contact with homeworld or trade relations elsewhere. This requires, however, that the colony has something to trade for the goods they need. The motherworld might require food, industrial metals or something else. The preparation to provide these to the motherworld will probably be a top priority, depending on what they can easily provide and what the world can offer. The motherworld would certainly fund operations to get more resources that the colony can provide and therefore fuel the colony's rapid growth.
keskiviikko 21. toukokuuta 2008
Huge Interstellar Empires And Why They Don't Last
Huge, interstellar, possibly galactic or even intergalactic empires are a usual sight in science fiction. Either they serve as an adversary to the freedom-fighting species around the galaxy, vicious militant aliens threatening earth or, in some cases, efficient and relatively benign and human-ruled.
In my previous entry I threaded upon the subject of FTL and interstellar society. Let us continue on that and assume that there exists, in the known space of this FTL travel society, an empire. This empire spans most of the known space. We shall assume that in this case, empire also means an autocratic monarchy. Let us call the supreme ruler emperor, although other titles might be as good. Even president, supreme chancellor or other superficially democratic titles. The fact remains that the emperor has control.
How does he have control? Either it is through religion, by controlling the clergy of the state religion (mandatory for all) and through the clergy promotes the emperor as divine or having a divine mandate to rule. It might be that his armed forces are superior to any other and he rules through threat of armes. He might distribute power to powerful warlords and form a sort of nobility (bureaucratic or martial) and have them rule far-off territories. This might cause the nobility to have more actual power (at least combined) than the emperor. And thus the Imperial Court would be a stage for intrigue, backstabbing and dark deals. And the emperor's spies would be everywhere. A theocratic empire keeps control through indoctrination. A theocratic empire does not happen overnight, though. It might be that the emperor is a figure drawn from a former religious leader slowly becoming a political and military leader. Or it might be that the emperor embraces a religion and the religion will be protective of it's most powerful patron. It also might be in this case that the religious leaders become very political. A theocratic feudal empire might even divide it's territories by diocese and set bishops and cardinals (or sheiks or whatever) to rule the territories directly.
How the system is created is equally important. Has the empire been created by conquest and assimilation or has it been a natural evolution of political power, ending in a stable (or somewhat stable) monarchy?
The creation by conquest has two major points. One is that the martial nobility is practically created by default. Military governors are appointed to conquered worlds even though they might be allowed to have some degree of autonomy and keep their local laws. There would be a garrison of imperial troops and possibly some ships in orbit, at least for a while. Military governors might eventually obtain a permanent and possibly hereditary claim to the world they administered or, to prevent such claims, the governors are cycled and replaced on a regular basis. In this case, powerful military leaders would gain much say in the Imperial court. This might be preferable to hereditary governors, since a military leaders might more often rise through the ranks by merit and skill rather than family influence. The second point is that the conquered territories are likely to harbor resentment towards the imperial authority and there would be a rebellion at any given moment on some world. Through assimilation, forced relocations and other harsh methods peace might be eventually obtained, but continued military presence on occupied worlds would cause a long-term strain on the imperial armed forces.
Natural evolution happens when a stellar state, probably under some sort of transition and crisis, hands over much power to a capable individual. This individual clears the crisis and as he does the job so well, more power is given to him. Alternatively, jealous powers might challenge him and force a civil war or political crisis. The leader would now have a good reason to gain absolute or almost absolute power "for the duration of the crisis". In the case of the Roman Republic, Caesar was assassinated quite shortly after winning the civil war, prompting another round of civil wars before Augustus, his legal heir, could assert his own authority. The civil war or other crisis to gain emergency powers could be faked or it could be manufactured and manipulated into happening, of course. But fact remains that evolution from a parliamentary (or other kind of plural rule) to autocratic is mostly triggered by a severe crisis, even though there might have been a slower move towards favouring strongman rule, possibly be long-term problems or recurring problems that need a swift hand.
Now, space. As with terrestial empires, geography (or should it be astrography in case of space?) and technology limits the boundaries of the empire. If distances between capital and outermost territories are long and the journey difficult, it will be a constant and expensive problem to keep the border territories. The border territories might even be partly or completely independent, serving as buffer states.
History has taught that if empires grow too large, they start to have management problems, bureaucratic expenses skyrocket and the society as a whole stagnates. And a stagnant society may be overrun by a less stagnant competitor or the empire might collapse under economic strain to several lesser states, ruled by the former governor or powerful warlords. Or (most probably) a collection of reasons, including the two mentioned.
In my previous entry I threaded upon the subject of FTL and interstellar society. Let us continue on that and assume that there exists, in the known space of this FTL travel society, an empire. This empire spans most of the known space. We shall assume that in this case, empire also means an autocratic monarchy. Let us call the supreme ruler emperor, although other titles might be as good. Even president, supreme chancellor or other superficially democratic titles. The fact remains that the emperor has control.
How does he have control? Either it is through religion, by controlling the clergy of the state religion (mandatory for all) and through the clergy promotes the emperor as divine or having a divine mandate to rule. It might be that his armed forces are superior to any other and he rules through threat of armes. He might distribute power to powerful warlords and form a sort of nobility (bureaucratic or martial) and have them rule far-off territories. This might cause the nobility to have more actual power (at least combined) than the emperor. And thus the Imperial Court would be a stage for intrigue, backstabbing and dark deals. And the emperor's spies would be everywhere. A theocratic empire keeps control through indoctrination. A theocratic empire does not happen overnight, though. It might be that the emperor is a figure drawn from a former religious leader slowly becoming a political and military leader. Or it might be that the emperor embraces a religion and the religion will be protective of it's most powerful patron. It also might be in this case that the religious leaders become very political. A theocratic feudal empire might even divide it's territories by diocese and set bishops and cardinals (or sheiks or whatever) to rule the territories directly.
How the system is created is equally important. Has the empire been created by conquest and assimilation or has it been a natural evolution of political power, ending in a stable (or somewhat stable) monarchy?
The creation by conquest has two major points. One is that the martial nobility is practically created by default. Military governors are appointed to conquered worlds even though they might be allowed to have some degree of autonomy and keep their local laws. There would be a garrison of imperial troops and possibly some ships in orbit, at least for a while. Military governors might eventually obtain a permanent and possibly hereditary claim to the world they administered or, to prevent such claims, the governors are cycled and replaced on a regular basis. In this case, powerful military leaders would gain much say in the Imperial court. This might be preferable to hereditary governors, since a military leaders might more often rise through the ranks by merit and skill rather than family influence. The second point is that the conquered territories are likely to harbor resentment towards the imperial authority and there would be a rebellion at any given moment on some world. Through assimilation, forced relocations and other harsh methods peace might be eventually obtained, but continued military presence on occupied worlds would cause a long-term strain on the imperial armed forces.
Natural evolution happens when a stellar state, probably under some sort of transition and crisis, hands over much power to a capable individual. This individual clears the crisis and as he does the job so well, more power is given to him. Alternatively, jealous powers might challenge him and force a civil war or political crisis. The leader would now have a good reason to gain absolute or almost absolute power "for the duration of the crisis". In the case of the Roman Republic, Caesar was assassinated quite shortly after winning the civil war, prompting another round of civil wars before Augustus, his legal heir, could assert his own authority. The civil war or other crisis to gain emergency powers could be faked or it could be manufactured and manipulated into happening, of course. But fact remains that evolution from a parliamentary (or other kind of plural rule) to autocratic is mostly triggered by a severe crisis, even though there might have been a slower move towards favouring strongman rule, possibly be long-term problems or recurring problems that need a swift hand.
Now, space. As with terrestial empires, geography (or should it be astrography in case of space?) and technology limits the boundaries of the empire. If distances between capital and outermost territories are long and the journey difficult, it will be a constant and expensive problem to keep the border territories. The border territories might even be partly or completely independent, serving as buffer states.
History has taught that if empires grow too large, they start to have management problems, bureaucratic expenses skyrocket and the society as a whole stagnates. And a stagnant society may be overrun by a less stagnant competitor or the empire might collapse under economic strain to several lesser states, ruled by the former governor or powerful warlords. Or (most probably) a collection of reasons, including the two mentioned.
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