Animation for the Icarus probe presentation
Sometime around 20x0:
Planets definitively identified around Alpha Centauri A and B.
Infographic of planet’s orbits
Success of both Skylon and SpaceX, launch costs go down to 500$ per kg.
Skylon and SpaceX shorts, use excerpts from existing if we can get the rights
Space solar becomes competitive, development of near Earth space.
use excerpts from existing docs?
Watching Skylon take off from Jakarta in Malaysia, young Hana Tuah dreams of going into space.
On the other side of the world, Francis Benford goes to a SpaceX launch with his grandfather, in the south of Texas. They stay to watch the return and landing of the launchers first stages.
Fusion power breakthrough, some form of fusion goes beyond break even point.
Infographic
Direct energy conversion for fusion power is developed.
Infographic
Launch of the 500 A.U. probe
Scenes for the probe
-12 Planning begins for Icarus
Infographic of the mission
-8 Preparation on Earth
Earth launch pads, construction sites, Deuterium production site
-5 Construction begins in LEO
Various construction shots, some involving the two above characters who meet and wed in space.
-1 Move to LG2 and fueling
Shots at LG2
0 The probe leaves the moon’s orbit, the drive light is visible from the Earth’s surface for a few months.
Icarus under power
View from the Earth surface
2 Routine maintenance by the robots
Sequence of maintenance by robots
15 The drive and ship closing down for the long coast period
Deep space and cold
95 The rebirth and deceleration
View of probe approaching Alpha Centauri system
Our above characters, now very old, with their grandchildren
100 Exploration phase begins
105 Various planets explored, each with something interesting. One has water...
Death of main characters
12x Nuclear fuel exhausted, final shutdown of probe.
xxx Recovery by a future manned expedition.
Descendants of the main characters are involved
End
Comments:
(1) We need to figure out how far we want to take this. Is it just an animation to accompany the Project Icarus Final Report, or is it something more ambitious? It could be an entire serialized video show, in which case Robert’s company Podtrac might be able to sell ads in it to benefit Icarus Interstellar. (The recent podcast “Serial” has been a blockbuster success.)
(2) Perhaps we could do the technical aspects of the Alpha Centauri story, as a complement to the report, but with a few hints of expandability towards a complete story and other destinations, and see if anything comes from that.
(3) Earth would presumably be sending out other probes while the flagship probe is en route to Alpha Centauri. Presumably, these later probes will improve on the design of the first one somehow, thus achieving better performance. That would allow them to venture farther afield.
(4) The story needs more payout at the end in terms of discoveries. (Water!)
(5) If we pursue a more ambitious story, then we need more character development.
(6) If we pursue a more ambitious story, then where’s the conflict?
Follow-up Targets:
Tau Ceti (11.9ly) and Kapteyn’s Star (12.76ly) both have some really interesting exoplanets.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_nearest_terrestrial_exoplanet_candidates
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_nearest_exoplanets
http://phl.upr.edu/projects/habitable-exoplanets-catalog/data
(Note all the inconsistencies among those lists. Use multiple sources when researching this!)
There are several other stars within 12ly of Earth, though none other than Alpha Centauri has confirmed exoplanets (as of the end of 2014). Earth-sized rocky planets are still VERY difficult to detect, so it’s possible some of these closer stars DO host undetected Earth-sized planets.
http://www.astro.wisc.edu/~dolan/constellations/extra/nearest.html
Conflict Ideas:
Maybe some tension over where to send the second probe, or whether there should be a follow-up mission? Perhaps the politicians are talking about pulling the plug on the follow-up mission and/or the monitoring for primary mission, until something amazing is discovered. (Or maybe that hits just a bit too close to home. Goodness knows this is SOP for NASA now.)
What if some huge discovery (like life!) compels the characters to repurpose a later probe (meant for Tau Ceti) to instead take a manned crew to Alpha Centauri. (Tau Ceti is 11.9ly from Earth, so an unmanned vessel designed for a 100-year mission to Tau Ceti might work for a manned mission to Alpha Centauri.) Gives a motivation for a scientist among the characters. The timing is bad, though, because the discovery would presumably only come in at the end, so this is all perhaps a sequel.
Might be interesting to posit the Catholic Church as an investor in a manned follow-up mission after the discovery of life, with perhaps some reservations on the part of mission planners to include them. The Catholic Church’s representative could make for an interesting character.(specially if it was a woman, hehe…) That could also introduce conflict with other religions that also want to send representatives, but don’t get in on the ground floor and thus don’t make the cut.
Gotta’ have a love story in there somewhere...
International competition? Reminds me of “Contact”.
Anti-technology terrorists? Reminds me of “Contact” and “Lost in Space”.
“Last hope of humanity” was just done in the movie “Interstellar”.
Please, no last hope of humanity! (Michel) Seconded. (Robert)
A variation that might be interesting and that hasn't been done much is the possibility that there might be 2 competing projects, which would give the opportunity of highlighting different technologies, but add a lot of work!!
Another variation is that the two protagonists never get to space, for various personal reasons, (Jakarta being saved from the invasion of the sea being a possibility) nevertheless meet, and that one of their descendants is present at the end sequence.