Artificial Gravity Generation

[Timo]

The deterioration of bones and muscles is not a question of nutrition, it's owed to the absence of Mother Earth's gravity.

It is very much a question of a working digestion system: the bone and muscle mass wouldn't go anywhere unless normal circulation were carrying it away.

And the cryosleep process must slow down all aspects of "life", or else the victims would die of aspects-left-unfozen (such as thermodynamically driven diffusion being out of synch with muscle-driven circulation). Basically, that means slowing down of many types of ailment as well. Radiation damage wouldn't be stopped as such, but certain other external attacks would, as long as their propagation through the body depended on a working circulation. Calcium loss is one of those.

OTOH, let's remember that artificial gravity staying on for centuries or millennia isn't particularly rare. In "Beyond the Farthest Star", AG had been running for three hundred million years, on a ship deemed simply "dead" by Spock. Apparently, the power consumption of the technology is either extremely low, or then does not apply - once you turn it on, it will provide free gravity until you again briefly apply power to turn it off.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Ronald Held]

For these criminals why bother with AGS assuming they had it. A point about how weak Khan was may indicate there was none on for the voyage or not continuously.

 

[Capt_Jason]

People, I really really do not want this thread to turn into an endless quibble over the principle episode's inaccuracies or how it all turned out "in the end."

Timo has suggested a possible course to follow here: What if AG research was begun on Earth, but completed in some fashion by the discovery of exotic technologies i.e. the Slaver stasis box and it's flying belt? Who were the principle characters responsible in the development process? When and where exactly was the "exotic element" discovered and by whom? I'm really asking for some speculation here rather than endlessly arguing the merits of the on-screen evidence.

 

[Timo]

We can invent any set of creators for the technology, as long as we have them complete their research by the late 1980s at the very least and put it in practical and public use aboard DY-100 spacecraft. I'd just enjoy having the wild speculation be anchored and even limited by onscreen facts.

Since those aren't many, and (as seen) can be endlessly debated, I might throw in some classic noncanon material. The old Goldstein/Sternbach Spaceflight Chronology is silent on the actual issue, but mentions the Earth-Saturn probe of "Tomorrow is Yesterday" fame discovering signs of alien presence on several of the small moons (ring fragments) of the planet. The book only speaks of "signs of mining", but perhaps there was a Stasis Box there that the aliens had searched for and failed to find? Or had finally uncovered, opened, and then abandoned, perhaps because what was inside had killed them? The box and the rest of the contents would now be open for humans to stumble on (and secretly deliver to their government while the internationally published mission report would only mention the alien mining).

This is the very first proof of alien life in the book (there's a SETI breakthrough a decade later, and a meeting with aliens after a sublight interstellar flight to Alpha Centauri in 2048), and obviously doesn't explain DY-100, but could serve as the "key" that unlocks the mystery of how those long-dead Augment scientists originally developed the DY-100 AG system.

Personally, I still prefer the idea that the flying belt from the Stasis Box was some ancient discovery that played no role in the local development of AG systems on various planets, but could be established as the earliest application of AG and thus the "spiritual forefather" - much like the Pyramids, the Stonehenge or Göpekli Tepe could be considered the basis of later construction including works whose makers had never heard of those early achievements.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[publiusr]

I always thought Miranda looked as if it had been strip mined.

 

[Capt_Jason]

A bit of timeline exercise to illustrate where my current thinking is on this subject.

1856

10 July

Nikola Tesla is born.

1892

Nikola Tesla investigates harvesting energies from space. He believes that it was merely a question of time until men would succeed in attaching their machinery to the very wheelwork of nature, stating: "Ere many generations pass, our machinery will be driven by a power obtainable at any point of the universe.”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikola_Tesla

1903

13 December

The Wright Brothers achieve Earth's first powered flight in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.

1908

30 June

An unmanned Preserver probe prevents a cometary fragment from wiping out half of central Europe by diverting the body to explode over an uninhabited region of Siberia, flattening and burning the forest.

Conjecture based on historical accounts

1914

Earth's World War I, also known as The Great War, begins following the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand of Spain.

Historical Accounts

1918

Earth's World War I ends with over 6 million people losing their lives.

Historical Accounts

1920

10 January

The League of Nations is founded in Geneva. It marks the first Earth attempt at global government. Its effectiveness is hampered, however, by the refusal of the United States, whose president proposed the league, to join.

Historical Accounts

Albert Einstein conducting work on the nature of space-time, when he is thunderstruck to find that, if his calculations are correct, it is in fact theoretically possible to evade the speed-of-light barrier by "warping" space, thus making it possible to travel interstellar distances in weeks or months instead of plodding along at a fraction of c. Einstein doesn't release these findings publicly, but discusses them with colleagues he particularly trusts.

http://www.alternatehistory.com/discussion/showthread.php?t=217588

1929

29 October

A huge stock market crash in the United States plunges the entire industrialized world into economic depression. Poverty is widespread even in the great powers of Earth.

Historical Accounts

1932

Edith Keeler, a well-known social worker, is killed in a tragic accident when she is hit by an automobile while crossing a street in downtown New York. The police search for two witnesses, a man who was known to be keeping company with Keeler and his vaguely Oriental-looking friend (who is noticeable because of the knit cap he always wears), but they seem to have literally vanished from the face of the Earth.

http://www.alternatehistory.com/discussion/showthread.php?t=217588

1937

John Christopher, Air Force pilot, is born during this period on Earth. After 1969, John Christopher will have a son, Shaun Geoffrey Christopher who will lead the first successful Earth-Saturn probe.

Tomorrow is Yesterday (TOS)

Nikola Tesla, at age 81, claims in a letter to have completed a "dynamic theory of gravity" that "would put an end to idle speculations and false conceptions, as that of curved space". He states that the theory was "worked out in all details" and that he hoped to soon give it to the world.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikola_Tesla

1938

Earth's World War II begins with a Nazi-controlled Germany led by Adolph Hitler invading the country of Poland.

Historical Accounts

1943

1 January

Nikola Tesla informs friend and confidant Kenneth M. Swezey that he has “witnessed his own passing” in a specific vision. He instructs Swezey to remove a collective set of plans, notes and completed blueprints (Experimental works and projects that were lost in a fire; re-created from Tesla's photographic memory) secured in a locked trunk and transfer them to a museum in Belgrade, Yugoslavia. He tells Swezey that the contents of the trunk are to be opened only after Humanity has put an end to it's mistrust across international borders and makes a concerted effort to push into outer space together. Among the contents of the strongbox are a set of functional plans and detailed notes on assembly for a “gravity manipulation apparatus” which will revolutionize air and space travel well beyond the orbit of Earth. The gravity apparatus is the culmination of the last twelve years of Tesla's life developed in secret and well outside of the scientific mainstream; a fact which he had feared would attract the attention of “audiences of interest”. With continuing conflict in Europe and around the world, his fears are justified.

7 January

Nikola Tesla is found dead in his room at the New Yorker Hotel. The official cause of death was coronary thrombosis but lingering doubts on this disclosure remain.

16 January

Kenneth Swezey, fearing for his life, is unable to secure passage to Belgrade. He retreats to Saint Johns, Nova Scotia pending travel arrangements.

Conjecture

13 February

Swezey is unable to relocate to Belgrade, Yugoslavia as instructed by the late Nikola Tesla. Fearing the cause is lost, Swezey returns to New York but is met along the route by John M. Onex, who proceeds to tell Swezey that he is Agent 120 a man of the twentieth-century relocated to an alien world far in the future and sent back to this time period to ensure that Tesla's revolutionary work be distributed as intended and for the betterment of the entire world. After a heated period of rational convincing, Swezey agrees to allowing Agent 120 to take the gravity manipulation technology to it's intended destination in Belgrade. Onex instructs Swezey to publish The Tesla Papers detailing the life, times and contributions of Nikola Tesla and charges him with ensuring that said works were proclaimed as a national heritage of human science.

Conjecture

Due to various technical problems, the Manhattan Project experiences delays which make a finished nuclear weapon unavailable until late 1945. The Soviets, under the Zhukov/Molotov junta, grind westward, pushing the fascists back inch by inch. The Germans choose to go on the defensive instead of attacking at the Kursk salient, and the resulting fight, while a narrow tactical victory for the Soviets, leaves their best armored units shattered, and the Germans are able to withdraw into more compact defensive lines. No salient forms in the Army Group Center area that the Soviets can exploit. The Red Army, all the same, keeps grinding relentlessly west, with copious Lend-Lease aid from the US. The Pacific War, North Africa and Italy proceed much as OTL. Preparations for Overlord, the invasion of Normandy, begin in earnest.

http://www.alternatehistory.com/discussion/showthread.php?t=217588

1945

As the front in Europe comes to a stalemate at the frontiers of Germany, the US finally launches Operation Olympic, the invasion of Kyushu. Near the end of 1945, though, everything finally comes together. The Trinity test is carried out successfully at Alamogordo, New Mexico, on December 10, 1945. A fierce debate immediately follows as to whether to use the atomic bomb first against Germany or Japan.

http://www.alternatehistory.com/discussion/showthread.php?t=217588

Earth's World War II ends with the United States detonating two atomic weapons over the Imperial Japanese islands of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, ushering in Earth's Atomic Age.

Historical Accounts

24 October

The United Nations is chartered on planet earth. The organization represents a significant effort in the quest for planetary peace.

Contemporary Accounts

1947

14 October

Earth test pilot Chuck Yeager becomes the first human to fly an aircraft faster than the speed of sound in his planet’s atmosphere. Yeager accomplishes the feat in a small rocket-powered vehicle called the Glamorous Glennis.

Contemporary Accounts

1950-1960

Project Chrysalis, a secretive group of scientists develops about 100 genetically engineered children of all racial and cultural groups, using bases located largely in third world countries. More are bred when these are a success and the numbers are about 500 by 1980.

http://www.alternatehistory.com/discussion/showthread.php?t=217588

1955

An intensive period of study begins on the study and application of “gravity control and propulsion research” as a means of propulsion and other uses. These studies are known to have been conducted at least until 1974, when all apparent references to it cease within aeronautical and aerospace engineering circles.

Conjecture

The first legitimate, two-dimensional photograph is taken of a Preserver probe ship by a Terran. By 2018, the number of photographs will total at least 18--and all will be dismissed as frauds and hoaxes. The Preservers account for other UFO cases, especially abductions and extraterrestrial contacts in the past and present.

Conjecture based on background information from Prime Directive and The Prometheus Design (Pocket Books)

1957

04 October

Sputnik 1 becomes Earth's first artificial satellite. It has a profound affect on the world and enables Russia to take the lead in early space development.

1958

29 July

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) federal agency is established in North America on Earth. Over the next century it will be responsible for many Earth spaceflights, including the Voyager series unmanned probes.

Star Trek The Motion Picture and Historical Accounts

13 December

The United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs is established, initially created as a small expert unit within the Secretariat to assist the ad hoc Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space established by the General Assembly in its resolution 1348 (XIII) of 13 December 1958. In time, this office will be replaced by the Office of the United Earth Space Probe Agency (UESPA) in 1972.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations_Office_for_Outer_Space_Affairs

1959

Stavos Keneclius prior to his developments in cloning and genetic engineering headed a secret Eurasian project of eugenics with selective breeding of humans for superior traits. It is speculated that Keneclius may have had the assistance of Nazi and Stalinist technology from the early 30s to this date.

Conjecture

25 November

Khan Noonien Singh is born in Agar, India.

1961

Cryogenics is developed to facilitate certain medical procedures including open-heart surgery. Cryogenic technology would be further developed and lead to the advent of Cryonics, a method of rapidly bringing the body of a subject to near absolute-zero conditions via negative ions and the introduction of Cordrazine into the body in minute quantities.

Conjecture based on background information from The Neutral Zone (TNG)

1962

The United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs becomes a unit within the Department of Political and Security Council Affairs when the Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space meets for the first time.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations_Office_for_Outer_Space_Affairs

1963

A Nuclear Test Ban Treaty is adopted on planet Earth. The agreement represents a significant early step toward the control of weapons of mass destruction. This treaty was discovered to be in violation after the “McKinley Rocket Base Incident” of 1968.

Conjecture based on Contemporary Accounts

1968

(Point of Departure between times and events in our timeline and Star Trek. From this point on, all data and events presented here are the subject of an alternate timeline and are not open to interpretation against events which may transpire in our own continuum).

Captain John Christopher is stationed at the Omaha Air Base.

Tomorrow is Yesterday (TOS)

NASA's request for $100 million to begin Phase B contractor studies of Earth-orbital space stations is granted.

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2012/06/mcdonnell-douglas-phase-b-12-man-space-station-1970/

Phase Three of Project Rover, Peewee, is initiated. It was small, easy to test, and well-sized for unmanned scientific interplanetary missions or small nuclear "tugs".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Rover

The McKinley Rocket Base Incident- USS Enterprise (NCC-1701), conducting historical research by order of the United Federation of Planets Star Fleet, intercepts an interstellar transport conducting Agent 147 “Gary Seven” to Earth. His original task was to sabotage the launch of a suborbital nuclear weapons platform by the United States of America in of itself a response to other nations having already launched similar platforms. At this time, the substantiating logic behind such launches was to maintain the balance of power and mutually-assured destruction in the event of a nuclear weapons exchange by any number of nations. Inadvertently, the Enterprise officers involved delayed Seven's operations as they were hesitant to commit to his assurances on the vital success of this operation. The device is launched and falls to Earth a short time later, but Enterprise officers had prevented Seven from completing the disarming process and the vehicle proceeded to landfall “hot” and armed. At a altitude of 104 miles, the vehicles was successfully detonated, and in the process gained the immediate attention of the entire globe.

This incident galvanizes global concerns about the direction of the 'space race' of the time; whether humanity was racing to space for the benefit of all, or for the sake of ensuring hastened destruction in a nuclear exchange.

The specified role and intent of the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs is called into question following the dissemination of the McKinley Rocket Base Incident of 1968. Many seated nations with the United Nations begin to question what role -if any- the United Nations can play in ensuring the end of the proliferation of nuclear arms in Earth orbit.

November

Robert Kennedy goes on to win the Democratic nomination for the presidency and win the election in November against Richard Nixon.

http://althistory.wikia.com/wiki/Robert_Kennedy_Survives

In an historic first, the 3-man crew of Apollo 8 journeys around the moon, observing and photographing the natural satellite and viewing 'Earth rise'.

Star Trek Spaceflight Chronology

1969

Robert Kennedy enters office as President of the United States of America. Among his many achievements while in office is to secure funding for NASA and contracted affiliates originally requested in FY 1966, ensuring the continuation of the orbital space lab/station, and Apollo-series manned lunar missions which paved the way for the continued development of space exploration beyond the lunar horizon.

The progressive withdrawal of American forces from the Brush Wars' zone of conflict is ordered on the authority of President Robert Kennedy, and ultimately completed in mid-1970.

Conjecture

The United Outer Space Initiative is signed by participatory signatories of the United Nations, opening an era of international cooperation unprecedented in Human history. The Initiative calls for the establishment of an international space agency based within and directly answerable to the United Nations which is charged with overseeing the peaceful exploration and development of space including satellite and planetary bodies within the Sol system. The document is partially framed around the lessons learned from the “McKinley Rocket Base Incident”, which in of itself was an operation carried out by the United States in direct response to similar launches (or attempted launches) of nuclear missile platforms in orbit of Earth. The Initiative calls for the immediate deactivation of these platforms and the safe destruction of existing platforms. It also calls for the peaceful development of space and bodies contained within the Sol system, while appropriating provisions for the effective commercialization of said via entrepreneurship and the private business sector. The Initiative also calls for complete disclosure any and all discoveries made within the Sol system that might directly impact or harm the collective nations of Earth and it's citizens.

Conjecture

16 July

The first manned moon shot, consisting of three astronauts, is launched on Wednesday, 6 A.M. E.S.T. Humans first set foot on Earth's moon, Neil Armstrong being the first. It is the first of twelve successful landings on the Moon prior to the building of Base One. This is the start of Human manned interplanetary exploration.

Tomorrow is Yesterday (TOS)

18 July

Just two days after the the first successful manned lunar landing, NASA awarded North American Rockwell (NAR) and Douglas Astronautics Company Phase B space station study contracts worth $50 million each. In the period of time leading to the launch and successful orbital insertion of the 12-man space station, Douglas Astronautics succeeds in developing functional designs for both station and it's interim logistics vehicle.

Conjecture based on http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2012/06/mcdonnell-douglas-phase-b-12-man-space-station-1970/

The Office of the United Earth Space Agency is founded, as called for in the United Outer Space Initiative of 1969 via special appropriations committee, under the immediate supervision of the United Nations Department of Political and Security Council Affairs, with offices and support located at the United Nations complex at Vienna. The Office is founded following the near-disaster that history has come to call the “McKinley Rocket Base Incident” of 1968.

Conjecture

1970

Four years after the founding of the Office of the United Earth Space Probe Agency, copies of Nikola Tesla's Gravity Manipulation Apparatus along with detailed instructions for assembly are dispatched virtually simultaneously to scientific authorities in the United States, Soviet Union, China, India, United Kingdom, and Japan. The revealed works of Nikola Tesla overturn nearly a century of theoretical inquiry into the nature of gravity and it's supposed limitations.

Conjecture

1974

Astronauts of Apollo 20 discover what is now known to be a Slaver stasis box at the exact center of Crater Copernicus, which the mission had been sent to study. Gaining access to the stasis box with much difficulty, retro-engineering of it's only contents, a 'flying belt' would lead to a method of generating artificial gravity in space vessels (thus representing the final “key” to the revealed works of Nikola Tesla between 1937 and 1943) and facilities by 1984 after an intense period of study conducted by the nations of Earth. The artificial gravity breakthrough would also lead to a feasible Inertial Dampening system that would in time allow for greater vehicle velocities approaching .25c by 2018.

Conjecture

All documented studies on artificial gravity, gravity generation and related concepts suddenly cease across the board.

Conjecture

1975

The Douglas-Yakovlev Aerospace partnership, a merger of the Douglas Aircraft Company (USA) and Yakovlev Design Bureau (Russia), is established. Following on the continued success of the NERVA program (And equally due to the incredibly-fortuitous chain of events after 1968), this partnership becomes the lead designer of thermal nuclear-driven vehicles from 1975 well into the twenty-second century. This strategically-cooperative merger would produce some of the finest examples of Earth-based interplanetary and interstellar vessels most notably beginning with the DY-Series.

Conjecture based on Star Fleet Printing Office and Aridas Sofia

The first modules of the Douglas Phase B Space Station are successfully inserted into Earth orbit. 24 hours after insertion, it's first 12-man crew arrives via the interim logistics vehicle Crew/Cargo Module (CCM).

Conjecture

The first manned Mars flyby is conducted by the Soviet Union via Heavy Interplanetary vehicle.

Harry Doddema – Titan Fleet Yards

1976

25 March

The first fully-functional orbiter, Enterprise, is delivered to the Kennedy Space Center.

Khan Noonien Singh completes education in engineering and aeronautics, and develops extensive experience in specialized military combat and strategic training.

http://www.alternatehistory.com/discussion/showthread.php?t=217588

1977

Phase B space station is declared fully operational.

Conjecture

Nuclear shuttles enter into service.

Conjecture

Deep space probe series' Voyager I-VI are launched during this period. Designed to collect data and transmit it back to Earth, this series is charged with the mandate to “learn all that is learnable” and transmit that data back to it's creator.

Star Trek The Motion Picture

1978

12 April

Space shuttle Enterprise (OV-102) is launched with a crew of 2, beginning the first of long successful string of STS missions in Low Earth Orbit. Enterprise is accompanied by sister-ships Challenger (OV-103), Discovery (OV-104), Atlantis (OV-105), and Endeavor (OV-106) between 1979 and 1988.

Conjecture

1980

NASA in cooperation with NPO Energia complete its "low-cost definition studies". Ostensibly studying costs of combining and reducing space mission costs to an absolute minimum. In reality, this functioned as a "grey operations project" producing the first synthetic gravity field amongst other technology; Unified Technology Project.

Conjecture

The Heavy Transport Development Project is announced. By this time, a detailed understanding of synthetic gravity generation would allow for a limited artificial gravity field effect to be generated aboard a space vehicle of sufficient size and energy generation. The project called for the design of a suitable nuclear fission rocket design that only a decade earlier was deemed too risky and cost ineffective to be practical. This development project would lead to the design of the first DY transports.

1982

The Eugenics project is in full momentum by the mid 70s, producing "Supermen" who quietly are being groomed for leadership roles around the world. This outgrowth of the Nazi eugenics movement is rivaled by the efforts of the Geneticists, led by internationally known researcher Stavos Keneclius. By the 1980s, Keneclius brings to public attention the first known human clone, that of himself. Socio-political backlash from this announcement produces the anti-human perfection movement, which later unites with the Luddite anti-technology philosophy, to become the Naturalist Movement.

Conjecture

1984

Douglas-Yakovlev aerospace is awarded the contract for developing Earth's first Heavy Transport vessel design, in the future to be known as the DY-100 Savannah class. The initial contract calls for at least three hulls to be constructed by 1991, and upon successful demonstration of flight capability and vehicle space trials, 7 additional hulls are to be constructed for a total of 10 transport-capable vessels to service the planned lunar facilities, as well as for secondary applications in interplanetary research, and colonization.

Conjecture – Aridas Sofia and Star Fleet Printing Office

1987

The Douglas Phase B Space Station has reached it's expected operational lifetime.

Conjecture

The drug Cordrazine is developed on Earth and used in radiation sickness therapy. Further study of this synthetic compound revealed that when introduced into test subject, the body was able to withstand extremely low temperatures such as found in absolute zero environments.

Conjecture based on the Star Fleet Medical Reference Manual

1988

The DY-100 Savannah Class Transport Development Project is announced by representatives of the fledgling UESPA. The project calls for the funding of at least 10 vessels to be constructed between 1988 and 1994. The purpose of these vessels would be to transport personnel, equipment, supplies and modules to the various orbital projects including the Space Station, and beyond to the planned lunar facilities. These vessels would also be used as limited range interplanetary exploration craft.

Conjecture based on the DY Class Construction Plans

1990

13 May

A letter from UESPA's NASA liaison Geoffrey Mandel to Dr. Imran Ahmed, Staff Consultant for Project SETI indicates that the Botany Bay (DY-102) sleeper ship should be ready for a Mars expedition sometime in 1994, following a trial run of the Savannah (DY-100). The Eugenics supermen receive a reception in New City. A Terrestrial planet is confirmed orbiting Alpha Centauri.

The U.S.S. Enterprise Officer’s Manual

Cryogenic advances are made allowing for more practical applications of the technology in space travel. Improved power supplies and maintenance software greatly enhance their commercial value.

Conjecture

1991

The Naturalist Movement is founded by Randolph Warren Green, and rapidly gains strength and influence in the political arena based on the false assumption that cloning had become commonplace and that, in time, the cloning procedure would eventually replace the natural-birth way of life. Randolph Green is the father of Edward Featherstone Green, who will lead a genocidal war against the perceived “clone threat” in 2034-35. Espousing "Genetic and Eugenic Cleansing" of Mankind. The Naturalist Movement (or Party) was formed initially in the United States. This came after the Eugenics Wars, out of former ecologically oriented political parties. These zealous groups propagandized that both cloned and eugenics (specially-bred) humans be permanently disenfranchised. Naturally born humans would replace them in political power.

Conjecture

The Naturalist Movement included in their propaganda famous 20th Century "human wars" novels, including: "Slan", a telepathic world war postulated by A. E. van Vogt; "Time Enough for Love", part of Robert Heinlein's "Future History" series of novels (the novel told the biography of artificially-bred immortal Lazarus Long); and the "Shining Path" of bred-human superiority, written into Frank Herbert's "Dune Chronicles". These books, said the zealots, prophesied the downfall of "natural" humanity. In actuality, there were only about 30 cloned human beings known as of 2030, along with various in vitro and eugenics survivors. This did not sway the NM's propagandists. Also, there was rumored in new-age circles, of isolated "perfect" humans, supposed immortals that had been naturally produced by Earth's biosphere, in the tradition of "Saint Germaine," also known as the "Wandering Jew". However, this notion was discounted even by the Natural Party members as "wishful thinking".

Conjecture

30 April

A young charismatic man named Khan Noonien Singh is elected to India's parliament.

http://www.alternatehistory.com/discussion/showthread.php?t=217588

12 October

S.S. Savannah (DY-100), the first of Earth's interplanetary spacecraft, is launched and begins trial runs.

Kevin Willcocks and The USS Enterprise Officer's Manual

20 October

General Muhammed Hasan's Revolutionary Islamic Genesis Movement overthrows Ayatollah Khatami in Iran. He begins mass genocide of native Turks, Assyrians, Armenians, Christians, and Zoroastrians in his country.

http://www.alternatehistory.com/discussion/showthread.php?t=217588

1993

14 February

S.S. Mayflower (DY-101) is launched. Trials for this vessel are delayed until after the conclusion of the Eugenics Wars in 1996.

Kevin Willcocks and The USS Enterprise Officer's Manual

17 April

S.S. Botany Bay (DY-102) is launched. In 1996, this vessel will be depart the Sol system along with 96 of the Eugenics 'supermen' left alive after the close of the Eugenics Wars.

Kevin Willcocks and The USS Enterprise Officer's Manual

March

The Eugenics "Supermen" seize power across Earth. The cadre of highly intelligent and physically powerful men and women led loyalist forces to take power in over forty nations throughout the "Third World", including Latin America, the Mediterranean Basin, Sub-Saharan Africa and in Central Asia. Certain nations of the former Eastern Bloc supplied arms and "humanitarian" materiel to Khan, Li Quan, Joaquin, Xian Ling, Macpherson, and many other Supermen.

Conjecture based on Space Seed (TOS)

1994

The United Nations Armed Forces (UNAF) is formed on Earth. The jurisdiction of this multi-national police organization will later be extended to include the supervision of national arms and technology. After the 'Clone War' of the 2030s, it will replace national militias entirely.

Conjecture based on The U.S.S. Enterprise Officer's Manual

1996

22 September

Khan Noonian Singh, absolute ruler of more than a quarter of Earth, from South Asia to the Middle East, escapes aboard the S.S. Botany Bay, (DY-102) sleeper vessel with a crew of 96 "supermen." Their destination is Tau Ceti, possibly the destination of other supermen who will be wiped out.

Space Seed (TOS), U.S.S. Enterprise Officer’s Manual, Star Trek 2 (Bantam Books), and FASA

1 October

The Eugenics Wars end as Khan and his cadre of eugenic supermen are presumed killed in the battle to liberate Sydney,Australia- where they had held out in a last stand. Chairman Minsei signed an unconditional surrender document in Beijing, China.

http://www.alternatehistory.com/discussion/showthread.php?t=217588

The Eugenics Wars comes to an end. Dr. Stavos Keniclius, Earth's first cloned human, is banned from the community. The tyrants' altered Humans are declared wards of the United Nations and are sent to live in a series of camps in isolated areas. Gene engineering of Humans is banned, although certain groups will pass on the forbidden knowledge. Many of the men and women who married Khans are hunted down and lynched. Their children are killed just as ruthlessly. Many manage to flee to the Sahara Reclamation Zone, Mars, and the Moon. Several hundred half-Khan children are secretly brought to Alaska.

Conjecture based on the Star Fleet Medical Reference Manual, and The Infinite Vulcan (TAS)

1997

A Second Dark Ages falls over what is left of the third world on Earth. This brief three-year period of humanitarian disaster and recovery sees the rise of the United Nations in power and influence, rapidly elevating it prominence as a defacto world governing body. A period of nuclear/biological aftermath in southern Asia and in Sub-Saharan Africa. The first and second worlds are driven into a Second Great Depression, 1997-2001, in trying to spend money to clean up the devastation by Khan's Alliance. In space, the Orbital Habitats and bases on the Moon are left with barely skeletal staffs, and develop near independence.

Conjecture based on Starfleet Medical Reference Manual

Antimatter is produced in minute quantities on Earth.

Historical Accounts

1999

11 August

Historian and author Travis Mitchell claims in his seminal work- The Eugenics War that there is next to no evidence that Khan Singh and his clique of eugenic supermen were killed in the liberation of Sydney on October 1,1996.Mitchell puts forth the widely unaccepted theory that Khan and his people escaped death and punishment on a DY-100 vessel launched that same day.

http://www.alternatehistory.com/discussion/showthread.php?t=217588

 

[Capt_Jason]

What a difference a year makes.. Well I hope that to be the case here.

Assuming:

A: Nikola Tesla, prior to his death, purported to have in his possession a radically-new concept on gravity manipulation that he "hoped soon to release to the world";

B: A crashed extraterrestrial spacecraft was the subject of exploration during the conjectural Apollo 20 manned lunar mission of 1974, During the course of their explorations, a Slaver-era stasis box was recovered and returned to Earth. After a period of time (Perhaps the rigors of discovering a method for opening the box), a "flying belt" is recovered from the box;

C: During a conjectural period of 10 years, the "flying belt" is tested on non-living subjects and it is discovered to be "functional proof" of anti-gravity theory which had been researched actively on Earth between circa 1950 and 1974. Retro-engineering of this device also led to the discovery that the flying belt's AG properties could also be reversed and, in fact, generate an "opposing" artificial gravity field;

D: Sometime after 1974, cooperative study ventures on the "flying belt" and the revelation of Tesla's "lost and recovered" works on gravity manipulation suddenly jibed indicating that a radically-new direction in spacecraft and even terrestrial applications was now possibly with artificial gravity generation. A virtual paradigm shift seems imminent.

E: The first ships equipped with ArtGrav technology, the DY-100 Savannah Class, are launched between 1988 and the 1990s.

Assuming all of these items to be truth:

1. What would the social, economic and scientific ramifications be in a world suddenly "turned on" with gravity manipulation and artificial gravity generation?

2. What authority would be responsible for making this technology "user public" as envisioned by Tesla?

3. What power sources would be required to allow for the safe operation of spacecraft and systems utilizing this technology?

 

[T'Girl]

We know that the key to this device most-likely was the recovery a Slaver stasis box which contained a 'flying belt' ("The Slaver Weapon" (TAS)

Spock said of slaver boxes: "In one was found a flying belt which was the key to the artificial gravity field used by starships."

Khan's ship did have artificial gravity (unless it was somehow being generated by the Enterprise remotely), however that that particular type of AG came from the referred to flying belt wouldn't automatically follow.

There might be different ways of achieving the same effect and the AG from the later discovered flying belt superseded the previously used version in Khan's ship.

 

[Timo]

A crashed extraterrestrial spacecraft was the subject of exploration during the conjectural Apollo 20 manned lunar mission of 1974, During the course of their explorations, a Slaver-era stasis box was recovered and returned to Earth

Hmm. Personally, I'd be happier with an Earth space program that sped ahead a bit faster. Apollo 20 in 1974 is fine, but a crewed mission to Mars in the 1980s (as planned in the 1960s-70s, using NTR tech) would also fit the bill. That is, it would provide Earth with the flying belt and AG tech in time to get the DY-100 craft flying, while relating to the concept of the Slavers ruling back when Mars was still humanoid-habitable but Earth wasn't yet (a possible scenario even in our universe, while not the likeliest one in light of modern knowledge).

1. What would the social, economic and scientific ramifications be in a world suddenly "turned on" with gravity manipulation and artificial gravity generation?

If the tech really came from a motive application (the Belt), I could see it applied on vehicular development at first, transcending all transportation. If the original miniaturization could be reproduced, there'd be flying infantry ASAP, and certain wars that had previously not been possible would now be ignited and others quickly concluded. Gravity manipulation would also circumvent several cases of mass limitations, allowing an ever-smaller number of laborers to handle ever-greater logistics tasks and at least temporarily peaking the unemployment figures. AG would also instantaneously allow for cheap space access; the tech might make a big impact in private/commercial hands, outdating the concept of governmental space exploration and exploitation outright.

Then again, we see no evidence of flying infantry, unconventional logistics or private space exploration in the late 20th and early 21st century Trek Earth yet...

2. What authority would be responsible for making this technology "user public" as envisioned by Tesla?

The Lone Gunmen. It's definitely something that would be leaked rather than released: a "key" that unlocks something a madman from a century past had already been able to figure out doesn't need careful packaging and distribution, just dropping in the right (or wrong) hands.

3. What power sources would be required to allow for the safe operation of spacecraft and systems utilizing this technology?

Flashlight batteries. Clearly, AG in Star Trek consumes extremely little power during normal operations, as ships declared powerless still retain gravity. Or antigravity, for that matter, as many a crash-landed ship ought to look much more crash-landed if gravity manipulation weren't holding up the massive but flimsy-looking structure...

Timo Saloniemi

 

[P. Fingh]

There are different ways to simulate gravity. One I heard from a friend was.

Poor man's low power AG system is substituting magnetism for gravity by ingesting magnetized iron in food for an extended period of time before a space mission, then use a magnetized floor in the space-craft.

 

[Timo]

Keeping people attached to the floor is not the issue - indeed, it would be better if we could fly freely, now wouldn't it? Keeping specific parts of our bodies, down to molecular level, flowing in a desired direction is the issue, and we can't force iron into all the necessary molecules simply by eating it.

There's also the problem that the parts that do get saturated with iron will probably suffer a lot from being pulled by a magnetic field...

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Albertese]

There are different ways to simulate gravity. One I heard from a friend was.

Poor man's low power AG system is substituting magnetism for gravity by ingesting magnetized iron in food for an extended period of time before a space mission, then use a magnetized floor in the space-craft.

This is a good way to get yourself killed... slowly and uncomfortably. In fact, there is a medical condition called hemochromitosis where your liver doesn't process iron and it simply builds up in your system. It causes massive scaring of the liver and kidneys, leading to cirrhosis and cancer and death. Advanced patients can have so much iron in their systems that they set off metal detectors and their organs actually begin to internally rust. Yet, this is still nowhere near enough iron to make you magnetic.

If your goal is just to hold you to the floor, just use Velcro shoes like in 2001: A Space Odyssey. Much simpler and more effective than iron injections.

--Alex

 

[publiusr]

One concept I was had been invented is a grav plate system that works even with no power--that the field effect is in the material itself somehow

An interesting take http://up-ship.com/blog/?p=26086

 

[T'Girl]

Then again, when our heroes intercept the derelict, a heart rate of 4 per minute is observed.

Maybe that was four beats per minute for all seventy-three survivors combined?

One heart beat every eighteen minutes for each.

In 200 years, that'd be about half a billion beats - or a dozen years of life at standard heart rate.

But if it was four beats for all of them, then that would be something like sixty days of life per person.

 

[Timo]

It would be pretty remarkable for 74 people to provide four evenly spaced heartbeats between them. And if the spacing weren't even, McCoy would be commenting on arrhythmia...

Then again, McCoy doesn't seem to observe the bunch for a full minute. Two random beats in half a minute might fool him into thinking in terms of a steady rhythm. And the theme in the teaser of "Space Seed" is our heroes making a mistaken assumption after mistaken assumption, a bad guess after a bad guess.

Personally, I still prefer the idea that the Botany Bay sensed the approach of the Enterprise and triggered an upramping of the heartbeats before McCoy started taking his readings. Heck, Khan's plan all along might have been to lie in wait of approaching ships (rather than to head for a new world to colonize or conquer - another bad guess by our heroes?). Perhaps his ship's alarm clock was set for more primitive victim ships that would approach more slowly?

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Robert Comsol]

Heck, Khan's plan all along might have been to lie in wait of approaching ships (rather than to head for a new world to colonize or conquer.

Makes perfect sense for me. Did they even have knowledge of an extrasolar planet that would sustain human life and could they possibly reach it?

To leave Earth, hide in some sort of time capsule, and hope that by the time they are awoken, everybody has forgotten who they were sounds like a sound and more promising strategy. And it almost did work, didn't it?

Bob

 

[Timo]

The first mention of successful interstellar probes would be NOMAD, with graphics indirectly suggesting a 2002 launch and the rest of the evidence pointing at considerable sublight speeds. Knowledge of extrasolar worlds to live on could come from telescopic observations as well, though.

Or perhaps Khan was headed for Jupiter, intent on conquering Ganymede Base and mounting a campaign from there, but something went wrong? We know Mars had no useful infrastructure as late as 2032, and the first permanent colony had to wait until the 22nd century, but that doesn't mean other, perhaps more profitable locations wouldn't have been settled earlier on. After all, somebody went to the trouble of mass-producing DY-100 ships in the 1980s-90s already, supposedly for interplanetary use. (Perhaps Mars had a thriving colony in the 1980s, but none in 2032, because of the wars in between?)

We have to consider the name of the ship, too. Due to the spotty records, we don't know if Khan named that ship, or if she had that name to start with. But Botany Bay does associate with prisoner deportation and/or the founding of new nations by convicts, unless we assume coincidence (it could be an exploration reference, too). Perhaps Khan indeed was being deported by his opponents, despite the logistical issues of such practices? And perhaps this was a one-way ticket to the Moon or the like, but something went wrong, either due to a malfunction or due to a subset of the opponents reprogramming the ship to take Khan to his doom or to his salvation as opposed to the planned offworld imprisonment.

Khan did know enough to ask "How long?". The question would be particularly relevant if he planned on ambushing his rescuers, or perhaps on looping back to Earth and awakening on his own account a few centuries later. Would Khan have counted on at least two centuries of sleep, even if this cost the lives of several of his followers? Would anything less have worked?

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Robert Comsol]

We have to consider the name of the ship, too. Due to the spotty records, we don't know if Khan named that ship, or if she had that name to start with. But Botany Bay does associate with prisoner deportation and/or the founding of new nations by convicts, unless we assume coincidence (it could be an exploration reference, too).

I'd find it hard to believe that the "King of Earth" (Khan in TWOK) would voluntarily name his departure vessel after a penal colony, it's almost like admitting some guilt or remorse he never did show in "Space Seed".

Nor would his supporters name their leader's escape vehicle after a penal colony, IMHO. This really looks like a vessel seized in the nick of time, but otherwise probably a deportation vehicle which then could suggest there was an extraterrestrial penal colony in the solar system at the end of the - cough - late 20th Century.

Bob

 

[Timo]

It would certainly make things easier if SS Botany Bay were a completely random name, stenciled on the hull long before anybody had even heard of Khan Noonian Singh. As said, it could be a reference to a successful voyage of exploration to the ends of the Earth, too.

The thing is, nothing about the Botany Bay is specific to Khan as such. According to McGivers, it was perfectly normal to have a trigger system that revives the leader. But perhaps McGivers is already lying, having recognized Khan and planning ahead - and the trigger system is a surefire sign of something being amiss? Perhaps Khan is on a shelf clearly reserved for the guards of a prisoner/forced laborer shipment, and therefore being revived first?

We never learn whether Khan is surprised to find himself and his followers frozen aboard the Botany Bay. The drama of his launch is lost to history (say, even if it was a clear getaway scheme, perhaps it had interesting complications such as various supermen secretly programming the chambers of their competitors to fail?). Khan being aboard the ship could be a surprise to him, the naming the cruel joke of his enemy or friend - I could well see somebody like Stavos Keniclius saving Khan against his will and without his knowledge, and then leaving a Valentine in the form of a suggestive ship name.

This ruminating won't get us anywhere, alas. But it could be pointed out that Aussies are quite proud of having been deported as criminals, often also stating that the "crimes" were more the doing of their jailors. This could be Khan's attitude as well.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Nebusj]

I'd find it hard to believe that the "King of Earth" (Khan in TWOK) would voluntarily name his departure vessel after a penal colony, it's almost like admitting some guilt or remorse he never did show in "Space Seed".

Or it would reflect gallows humor. Certainly Khan (in ``Space Seed'') feels betrayed by humans who wouldn't accept his gifts and thus sent him into exile; why not include a grim joke about the exile?

Nor would his supporters name their leader's escape vehicle after a penal colony, IMHO. This really looks like a vessel seized in the nick of time, but otherwise probably a deportation vehicle which then could suggest there was an extraterrestrial penal colony in the solar system at the end of the - cough - late 20th Century.

But as Spock points out on-screen, a penal or deportation vessel doesn't make sense. An interplanetary spaceship would be one of 1996's most advanced, most expensive ships; to use it as a way to deport even hundreds of criminals (if it were intended for non-Khan use)? It doesn't make economic sense, and when something doesn't make economic sense in science fiction you know it's a bad scheme.