The Road to the Stars: Prologue
23 June 2025, Geneva,
Switzerland (AP): Today the Artemis Accords were officially ratified. Officials
from the previous signatories – the United States, Japan, India, Canada, the
United Kingdom, France, Israel, Ukraine, South Korea, Australia, and New
Zealand – applauded as Salome Rossi, the recently-elected 58th Prime
Minister of the Republic of Italy, added her name to the treaty. First
announced by then-President Donald Trump (U.S.) in 2020, the Artemis Accords
aim to allow for Lunar mining by private concerns.
China and Russia, notably
excluded from the Accords, jointly renewed their opposition, and called for a “free
moon, freely available to all.”
The United States space
agency, NASA, plans to launch its long-delayed Artemis IV mission to the moon
on July 16 to coincide with the 56th anniversary of the launch of
Apollo 11, the first successful mission to land a man on the moon and return
them to Earth. Artemis IV will carry six astronauts – four men and two women –
to the moon, remain on the surface until pre-landed habitat sections are
erected and deemed functional, and then return two astronauts to Earth. The
four who remain will be the first official residents of the moon.
“The Accords will allow for
the establishment of permanent colonies on the Lunar soil,” said Dr. Curtis
Philips, Director of Operations at NASA. “If we had to rely on raw materials
from Earth, the colonization of the moon would take decades, if possible at
all. The ability to extract minerals, metals, and gases from the moon itself
will speed the process immensely.”
When asked about other
nations presence on the moon, Dr. Philips said, “We welcome the participation
of all the signatories of the Accords in the effort to establish a permanent,
human presence on the moon.”
The joint Sino-Russian lunar
program, Yue Liang, has so far failed to match the success of the NASA program,
but Dr. Gao Ling, Minister for Space Affairs for China, insisted through a translator
that they were on track. “We are proceeding according to plan and expect to
report a successful launch and Lunar orbit of a manned Siyayutsaya Luna
spacecraft within the month.” When pressed for further details, the Minister
declined to comment.
The widow of the former
President, Melania Musk (Trump), attending the ceremony in his honor with her
current husband Elon Musk, said, “It proud would have made him, seeing the
world being best together to exploit the moon.”
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4 April 2032, Houston, TX
(UPI): Today NASA announced that the nascent Lunar colony, named by some “Luna
City”, has achieved self-sufficiency in three of the four major categories.
“We have long been
energy-independent, due to the abundant sunshine available on the surface,” said
Dr. Danna Gomez, Director of the Artemis Project at NASA. “In addition, the
Lunar rocks contain a higher-than-normal percentage of Helium 3 (He3),
which is an ideal fuel for fusion reactors. By utilizing that energy, we have
been able to unlock sufficient quantities of Carbon, Oxygen, Nitrogen, and
Hydrogen. With these, we are not only able to manufacture a sustainable
atmosphere, but also provide the nutrients needed for successful farming. The
plants grown in farming further reinforce the sustainability.”
When asked about the fourth
category, metals and other minerals used in manufacturing, Dr. Gomez admitted, “We
have run into difficulties extracting adequate quantities of exotic metals from
the regolith. Silicon and iron are plentiful, which has allowed for the rapid
construction of the Artemis Colony buildings and the dome, but more advanced
metallurgy is so far eluding our best efforts.”
The dome Dr. Gomez refers to
is the double-walled atmospheric shield over the nascent colony. The outer
surface is composed of high-iron glass, which gives it a greenish tinge, and is
approximately 5cm thick. There is a lattice of carbon fiber beams in the two
meters between the outer dome and the inner dome. Scattered across that lattice
are canisters of rapid-expand sealant which are primed to rupture in case of a
pressure drop. The inner dome is aluminum oxynitride, commonly called
transparent aluminum, coated on the outer side with low-iron glass and 3cm thick.
These domes allow for maintenance of Earth-breathable atmosphere without the
need for pressure suits and cover an area of nearly an acre.
Self-sufficiency is the
stated goal of the Artemis Project. Dr. Gomez estimated that, with improved
refinement techniques, metallurgy of the metals required to maintain a high-tech
colony will be feasible within five years.
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18 October 2039 (AP): Today
the former head of the Sino-Russian space program, Dr. Gao Ling, was executed
for crimes against the state. Informed observers suggest that this was
punishment for the consistent failures Dr. Gao encountered in his twelve-year
career as head of Yue Liang.
Although Dr. Gao has claimed
twice to have landed a crew of Chinese and Russian cosmonauts on the far side
of the moon, no proof has ever emerged. The first mission, Siyayutsaya Luna Six,
was only the second successful launch of the Siyayutsaya Luna craft. Siyayutsaya
Luna Six was reported to have lost contact while on the moon due to a
catastrophic loss of pressure in the vehicle.
After the aborted Siyayutsaya
Luna Seven in 2031 and the explosion on the pad of Siyayutsaya Luna Eight in
early 2032 that forced a rebuilding of the launch facilities, no outside
observers were allowed to view any Yue Liang proceedings. It was reported that Siyayutsaya
Luna Eleven had landed on the moon and returned to Earth; however, none of the
cosmonauts were named or allowed to speak to anyone in the press. It was widely
speculated that the spectacular fireball seen by inhabitants of the Australian
outback on the night of February 15, 2034 was in fact the Siyayutsaya Luna Eleven
burning up on re-entry.
The Yue Liang program is
reported to be suspended, though there has been no official confirmation.
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3 August, 2045, Artemis
City, Luna (Reuters): Representatives from each of the nations of the Artemis
Accords held a historic meeting today at the Colony Center in Artemis City, the
first such meeting on Luna since their signing two decades ago, to announce an
amendment to the Accords.
“In light of the continuing
inability to refine sufficient materials to maintain and advance the
development of the Artemis Colony, the nations of the Accords have therefore
come to the following agreements. First, to expand the reach of the Artemis
Accords to include all non-planetary bodies in the Solar System, including, but
not limited to, asteroids, comets, Kuiper Belt objects, and others. Second, to
devote increased planetary resources to the exploration and exploitation of
said non-planetary bodies with an eye specifically to discovering off-planet
sources of materials required for the continued survival and expansion of
humanity’s presence in the Solar System. Third, to jointly build the ships
needed to do such exploration and, if desired, establishment of other colonies.
And fourth, to support the Artemis Colony in every possible manner, including zero-cost
shipments of all needed minerals and rare-earth metals, until such time as
alternate sources are available.”
No questions were taken
after the announcement, but Dr. Danna Gomez, former Director of the Artemis
Project, commented.
“These steps should prove to
be highly limited in scope and duration,” she said. “There continues to be
evidence that harvestable quantities of rare-earth metals are within reach of
the Lunar colony.” Dr. Gomez was removed from her post in 2043 after failing to
achieve success in the mining of those metals, necessary in most high-tech
applications.
Exceptions to the materials
export order are expected to include basic infrastructure needs, with an
emphasis on transportation and agriculture. Additionally, countries which are
not signatories to the Accords are not bound by them.
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