I own neither The Expanse nor Mass Effect.
Please let me know what you think.
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The First Interplanetary War.
Once spaceflight was developed with the first man, Gagarin, being sent into space and the moon landing, exploration into space was slow due to the costs. It was in the 21st century that reusable space ships were built, with space planes and rockets that used primitive fusion engines being the primary space exploration tools, but even with these developments space exploration was a slow business. Even the exploration of Mars and the solar system using fusion-powered rockets was going ahead at a slow pace. Ironically it was the work of individuals outside of governments that paved the way forward.
Thanks to fusion drive rockets, with each design becoming bigger and more advanced with better computers and life support systems, expeditions were sent into space, but sadly it wasn't as widespread as it could have been. There were many governments who were worried about the cost of the expeditions, and they instead opted to construct probes and the occasional group out into space.
Frustrated by the lack of development, billionaire Victor Manswell founded his own space exploration research team, funded by his own businesses, and for five years their efforts helped devise new advances into colonisation of the planets with small research colonies in orbit of the moon and around Mars.
Victor Manswell was a consummate fan of science fiction. As a child, he had loved watching Star Trek and Babylon 5, and he had several scientists look into pop culture for reference and for ideas to see if they could advance their own research. It certainly worked. While they didn't have artificial gravity and things like teleportation, they had the basics and they were making strides. Many scientists, frustrated by the lack of progress and development in space exploration, flocked to Manswell.
Scientists like geneticists who believed the hazards of spaceflight meant humanity and anything organic taken into space needed to be adjusted came onboard. They were welcomed and given top-notch research facilities.
Cyberneticists who wanted to advance computer and prosthetic technologies came to Manswell.
Rocket scientists who still had faith in old-style rocket engines came to Manswell, and they used their knowledge to send hybrid rockets - ships that used a mix of ion, fusion, and rocket motor-driven ships into space, some of them were manned.
Fusion drive experts who were frustrated and tired of their ideas being thrown into archives with empty promises ringing in their ears came to Manswell when they saw he meant what he said about going into space. Thanks to them, advancements in fusion drive technology accelerated a pace. But one of the greatest contributions to Manswell's space research program was the number of scientists and astronauts from other countries, who were so frustrated by a lack of action.
While space technology followed the same principles regardless of whatever country used it, each country had a different approach to problems or had different ideas which weren't implemented in other space vehicles. With Russian, Chinese, Japanese, British and Indian scientists working for him, Manswell had the cream of the crop.
He had always believed firmly in the belief space was the future of humanity and you couldn't and shouldn't cower away from it.
Manswell was seen by many as a visionary, as the man who wanted to free humanity from the red tape of people who surrounded themselves with Yes Men but lacked the spine to really do any good.
Under Manwell's direction and vision, his organisation constructed several research colonies on the moon and on Mars. He was definitely responsible for the advancement in space station technology, with the development of a large space station designed and constructed in different segments on Earth and then taken up into orbit and assembled there. The Manswell Space Station, as it was remembered, was designed to be a space probe construction depot, where engineers were allowed to experiment with well-known construction methods with the aim of getting ships built in orbit for launching.
One such ship was sent on a flyby around Venus and was responsible for sending in probes into the atmosphere of the planet.
As a businessman, Manswell knew full well the value of taking risks. And for him, space travel was the ultimate risk. Instead of cowering away from it, everyone should be striving to do better.
However, Manswell wanted to do more and do things nobody had done before.
First, he planned to get more people invested and interested in space travel.
He knew he couldn't achieve Faster-than-Light, but he believed he could do much to advance humanity's presence in space. One of the most important contributions Manswell made in the history of human spaceflight was the industry of space tourism. With more people going into space for fun or for adventure, there would be a greater drive to push onwards and make startling new advances.
Second, the conquest of interstellar space. Now, Manswell took the space plane and fusion rocket concepts, but that was all he had. In the end, he decided to go along with what he had and he decided on two different approaches to the problem; he decided to work on constructing a series of generational ships where the crews and passengers would be kept in cryogenic stasis and they would leave the Sol system and travel beyond the moon while onboard instruments not only kept the crews alive, but they would also send information back to Earth on specially constructed satellites which would be dropped behind them as the ship moved. Uncaring that the trip would definitely take centuries and the risk to the passengers was greater than the gain, Manswell hoped the expeditions into space would be the key to getting everyone asking What are we waiting for?
Indeed, when Manswell's organisation heard what their boss was proposing, many jumped at the prospect in excitement; while humanity didn't have access to any kind of Faster-than-Light propulsion technology despite the so-called theoretical research, and thanks to the work Manswell's people had in developing fusion drive technology, pushing the boundaries with one model which pushed the acceleration further from the original designs, many saw it as a grand adventure.
They didn't seem to realise the terrifying risks they were taking. While Manswell's work into fusion drive had advanced the number of probes launched into the solar system and the number of people taking part in sponsored - by the media or by private companies - expeditions into space for the thrill of adventure or excitement once Manswell had had the fusion drives he pioneered sold to the world since he wanted everyone to go into space, and saw no reason to keep it all to himself, it would still take many centuries for a ship powered by fusion drive to cross the expanse of space between star systems.
But it was the fact nobody had done it before that was the greatest attraction.
Underway on Fusion power.
One of the ships bound for Alpha Centauri, the nearest star to Sol, relayed back to Earth.
Victor Manswell had inspired many scientists and businessmen into following him into space, and although Manswell's expedition ships were lost in the void of space, it was too late. So many scientific discoveries had come from the flyby around Venus, and fusion drive technology had advanced to a higher degree. Cybernetic exoskeletons for the moving of equipment and heavy goods while in a vacuum had been pioneered and expanded upon thanks to Manswell's work, but one of the leftover greatest contributions the billionaire ever made was the colonisation of Mars; before, the Red Planet had only received a handful of people, but thanks to the research communities Manswell placed on the planet, there was a slow and steady colonisation of people being born and having full lives there. Humanity had become a two-planet space-faring civilisation.
And it was only going to get better.
