Spaceship Zero (Timelines)

These timelines for the Spaceship Zero universes were posted by Toren Atkinson to the spaceship_zero Yahoo! Group on 1/16/2003.

Timeline for Universe 1

1953 James Watson & Francis Crick discover the structure of DNA

1957 Soviets launch Sputnik 1, first man-made satellite. Soviets launch Sputnik 2, putting a live dog in orbit (it dies after 7 days).

1958 NASA founded.

1959 Soviets launch first man-made satellite to orbit the sun. Soviets launch Luna 2, the first man-made object to hit the moon.

1960 America launches weather and spy satellites.

1961 Soviet Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin becomes first man in space, with 1 Earth orbit.

1963 Soviet Cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova becomes first woman in space, orbiting Earth 48 times.

1965 Mariner 4 takes close-up images of Mars

1967 Soviet Vladimir Komarov becomes first space fatality

1969 American Neil Armstrong sets foot on the moon. Mariner 6 and 7 return more images from Mars. The first gene is isolated at Harvard Medical School.

1971 Mariner 9 orbits Mars and maps the entire planet.

1976 Viking 2 discovers water frost on Mars

1989 Soviet/Intl Phobos 2 studies Mars surface, atmosphere, magnetic field.

1991 The first human clone is grown behind closed doors.

1994 Wealthy industrialists set up cloning cartels to provide an endless supply of donor organs, effectively making them immortal.

1995 Researchers at Duke University Medical Center transplant hearts from genetically altered pigs into baboons.

1996 America's Mars Global Surveyor studies Mars' surface, atmosphere, and magnetic field.

1999 Human population reaches 6 billion.

2000 NASA, The European Space Agency, and Japan's Institute of Space and Aeronautical Science create an open partnership called the Global Space Associates (GSA). International Space University is created.

2001 NASA begins implementation of the United Space Navy. Several members of the GSA tender their resignations.

2002 Geneticist Dr. James Adams blows the whistle on cloning cartels. Controversy leads to the release and registration of all clones and strict regulation towards further cloning.

2003 DLR (German Aerospace Center) and former GSA members establish the Selbständiges Weltraum-Konsortium (Independent Space Consortium).

2004 Clones start to show sociopathic tendencies, and are particularly bent on destroying their donors and assuming their roles. The cloning cartel starts a secret task force to uncover rogue clones and terminate them.

2005 USN Ship Eryx is destroyed by collision with space debris - all 39 hands are lost. Space Junk Reclamation Project is set into effect as GSA and United Nations regulate vessels in orbit, offer substantial salvage bounties on space junk. A small independent astronomy group headed by South American Guilherme Augusto discovers a new "miracle" element called Element X on Mars. Various agencies and private interests race to legally claim mining sites on Mars in what becomes misnamed the Martian Gold Rush. SpaceCorp Interstellar Technologies Inc is created from the foundations of the SWK and independent American companies.

2006 SpaceCorp wins mining rights to Valles Marineris canyon, develops space age material Polyaluminite from Element X. Element X is found nowhere else on Mars, much to the dismay of many prospectors.

2008 In answer to growing over-population crisis, SpaceCorp announces Martian Biosphere Project (which is essentially an extension of their mining colony, albeit a rather large-scale extension).

2009 SpaceCorp hires prominent physicist to head propulsion department (and Project: Spaceship Zero).

2011 Guilherme Augusto and friends expose SpaceCorp scandal and win back mining rights to Valles Marineris plus a substantial reparation fee from SpaceCorp, then sell the mining rights back to SpaceCorp.

2012 Cold fusion reactor replaces traditional power source used on space rockets

2016 Dr. Margaret Thokum wins the Nobel Prize for her work with artificial intelligence.

2018 SpaceCorp mines the last of Element X from Mars.

2019 First successful artificially intelligent robotic man ("RELIC") placed on board an active space ship.

2020 The deconstitutor is developed by Dr. Erin Kelly and Ulf Metzger. It is met with harsh public scrutiny.

2021 Bendall Field perfected. SpaceCorp sells Martian Biosphere in desperate bid to avoid bankruptcy.

2022 Human population reaches 7 billion. Ulf Metzger dies of Metzger's Syndrome.

2025 SpaceCorp launches Project: Spaceship Zero, which tests the world's first "Better-Than-Light" Drive.

You'll notice that everything up to the year 2000 corresponds with real life (yes, even the cloning bits). The timeline for universe 2 is a little less thorough. Note the difference that in Universe 2 SpaceCorp is created in 1951, whereas in Universe 1 it's created in 2005.

Universe 2 Timeline

thousands of years ago - hydronaut scouting party lands on Earth

1800's Children of the Sea Cult formed

1890 Omer Moss born

1945 WW2 ends - atomic bomb developed

1951 SpaceCorp created

1957 Probes launched to Pluto

1960 Children of the Sea cult

1967 Probe reaches Pluto, hydronauts detected, SpaceCorp nationalized, V10 rockets perfected, automatons begin influencing human technology

1968 fusion perfected

1970 Deconstitutor developed to clone humans. Cloning approved for use as soldiers. Mars Base 1 construction begins. Xenon drive perfected.

1971 Clones rebel. Atomic ray guns perfected, used by clone hunters. Ancient alien underground city discovered on Mars (hush hush).

1972 Mars Base 1 complete. Construction of Defense Belt begins.

1973 Conscription

1976 Defense Belt complete. SpaceCorp elite rocket to Mars and hide in underground city. Hydronauts reach earth and conquer.

1977 North American Freedom Fighters formed

1989 Human Underground Movement Network formed

2001 Hydronauts launch pre-emptive strike against world-wide underground resistance offensive

2021 Komitet ZaboBezopaznosti formed.

2025 Present.