Aerospace Research & Space Exploration (A.R.S.E.) Facilities.

Aerospace Research & Space Exploration (A.R.S.E.) Facilities.

While not prone to immense fleets of giant muscular starships suitable for invasions, Araxes does have its own space program.

Because most of Araxes’ interstellar travel utilizes the Imperium's Wormhole Network, the Desertborn mostly use interplanetary spaceships instead of interstellar starships.

That being said, Araxes has indulged in a modest number of Frigate and Transport Scale Transwarp and Hyperspace Capable interstellar vessels for its Outward Bound Programs for colonizing the nearby star systems and some outlying special star systems.

Araxes Desertborn takes advantage of their exceptional excavation to build many deep underground observatories and large scale experiments. Because of the size of these observatories, or because of the huge baselines of the arrays of said observatories, they are more sensitive than any starship based sensors.

The Deep Underground Neutrino Explorer (D.U.N.E., yes, that's right, I said it, HAH! Deal with it.), located two kilometres beneath the surface of the planet, a 1-kilometres square cube of ice is cored every 64 meters and tubes with photomultiplier tubes are inserted every 64 meters. This is used to monitor for neutrino’s, which are emitted in every form of FTL and also nuclear weapons and many (most) other exotic effects. There are eight such observatories on Araxes, allowing a wide baseline for greater sensitivity and resolution, and the ability to triangulate locations with greater accuracy. There is no starship based equivalent that is as sensitive or accurate. There are also several space based neutrino observatories taking advantage of various regoliths.

Deep underground under a few of the giant craters, are various large hadron particle colliders. Several hundreds of kilometres in diameter and using ultra high magnetic containment. A couple notable ones are over 1000 kilometres diameter. The Yasvi Large Hadron Collider is located in the penumbra protective shadow of the innermost moon of the Cryo Jovian Gas Giant Yasvi.

Deep underground, and hundreds of kilometres long, are Gravitational Wave Antennae. The Hel Gravitational Wave Antennae is 1600 kilometres long. They are essentially a T-shaped vacuum with a pair of laser beams carefully timed to check shearing from large gravitational disturbances. There are space based arrays of satellites which work on the same principle, but are several AU apart, scattered thoughout the three solar systems mostly in the Kuiper Belt and the Outer Scattering Disk.. They are key for detecting major extradimensional anomalies.

On thousands of isolated peaks throughout the planet are very simplistic Cosmic Ray Observatories, which monitor particles as cosmic rays impact against the magnetosphere and atmosphere of the planet. Almost all beam weapon activity can be monitored. This is also crucial for monitoring Centauvo particle events which occur when microscopic wormholes or a T.A.R.D.I.S. crosses into the atmospheric space of Araxes.

When meteors even as small as a grain of sand or any macroscopic object crosses the ionosphere of the planet at any appreciable velocity, it creates an ion trail tens to hundreds of kilometres long. Billions of such macroscopic transits every day planetwide, and at least one visible such trail visible to the naked eye overhead about every 10 minutes on average except for the hundred or so regular meteor showers. Using very simplistic radio telescopes which are essentially arrays of 60 metre diameter parabola shaped excavations covered with wire frame, these can be detected easily. A hundred such radio telescopes are embedded into the landscape throughout the planet are sufficient to cover the entire stratosphere of Araxes. The coordinating of the data from such a broad baseline allows for great accuracy of monitoring. No object enters or exits the atmosphere of Araxes without being detected, unless it travels at a ridiculously low speed.

Built up over 3000 years of continual testing, improvement and development, Araxes Desertborn seismic detectors are some of the most sensitive and the most robust you can find. Several hundred seismograph stations are scattered throughout the planet.

Araxes has two relatively small moons which only partially eclipse the sun now and then. Many lunar based communications stations and observatories. There are many satellites at the lunar Lagrangian L-2 Point which uses the moon the shield it against signal noise from the planet for very sensitive observations.

The Araxes-Mu Draco Alpha Lagrangian L-1 Point is an orbital metastable point between Araxes and Mu Draco Alpha, which always points towards Mu Draco Alpha. We have many solar observatory satellites there and a vast array of solar wind shield satellites, which are tiny satellites with electromagnets to deflect some of the immense solar wind and protect Araxes from the worst of solar storm activity. The L-1 is about 1.5 Million Kilometres from Araxes.

The Araxes-Mu Draco Alpha Lagrangian L-2 Point is an orbital metastable point on the far side of Araxes from Mu Draco Alpha, which always points away from Mu Draco Alpha. Many communication satellites and it is the closest that one is allowed to bring as armed warship to Araxes. The L-2 is about 1.5 Million Kilometres from Araxes.

There is a solar observatory at the Araxes-Mu Draco Alpha Lagrangian L-3 Point, also known as the Raghilda Orbit, exactly the same distance as Araxes is from Mu Draco Alpha, but on the opposite side of Mu Draco Alpha. Many deep space observatory satellites share the Lagrangian L-3 Point.

In the inner Hephastian orbit (also known as Icarus’ Orbit) as near to the sun Mu Draconis Alpha as we can get without systems melting are several solar powered antimatter factories we refer to as Antimatter Farms. Image by Steve Bowers.

There are abandoned mines and manufacturing facilities on the innermost Hermian Type World back when in a fit of rage, we imagined stripped the planet of its metals to construct a massive Dyson Swarm of reflectors to slowly move Mu Draconis out of the local space. There are also some arrangements where they can be used to induce giant solar flares like a weapon. On some days, I don’t think either one is a bad idea. We have several solar observatories there.

Out in the Inner Oort Cloud about 770 AU out, are a series of telescopes that exploit Solar Gravitional Microlensing of the sun. These remote solar solar lens telescopes exploit the potential magnifications and signal resolution improvement available there from being at the focal point of solar gravitational lensing. An impressive orbital telescope has a collection diameter of about 20 meters. The Solar Gravitic Lens Telescope has the equivalent collection diameter of about 10,000 kilometres. That is about a 100 Billion increase in brightness amplification and angular resolution of 1/Trillionth of a degree of arc.This is sufficient resolution to be able to listen in to radio transmissions from light-years away, or to be able to make out landmasses on planets with 1 kilometre resolution 4-lightyears away and 8 kilometre resolution 30 light-years away. We can even listen in on their ambient television and radio broadcasts if in the E/M spectrum. The solar gravitation lensing dramatically reduces the signal loss over a broad range of frequencies used for interstellar and interplanetary communications. The focal point of the gravitational lensing of the sun is a lens of such power that no reasonable technology could ever duplicate or surpass its power. Any given observational process would be increased in sensitivity by a factor of at least 32,000. The weird limitation is that it only allows you to detect things on the other side of the star. At 770 AU, we can detect signals that we could not from 1 AU. The lensing is more than just about signal resolution, it is about signal quality. One million times the signal fidelity, or one million fold reduction of signal loss.

Moving cargo from surface to orbit requires a great deal of energy. Utilizing a beam based launching system, the cargo 'shuttle' known as a lightcraft does not require to have a reactor or engine. The beam vaporizes the propellant launching the lightcraft to orbital capture altitude, for ship loading. This uses hundreds of times less energy than a traditional ship, so most ships are then loaded in space. Most of these are set up at the higher elevations along the equatorial regions, but are set up in situ in various locations to ease of access. Even a small seeq can manage a 700-kilowatt laser, which can move net 22 tons of cargo payload to orbit per hour.

Nonperishable low-value bulk materials, not worth the fuel pirates would have to use to steal it, are moved slowly thru the solar system using solar moths and occasionally magsail. Solar moth moves the cargo gradually to its destination, usually an orbital capture of one of the other planets. The solar moth uses a solar reflector to direct and concentrate the sun’s rays to vaporize propellant. Cargo typically takes several months to reach its destination and is aimed for orbital capture for retrieval. A large quantity of bulk mined ore from the asteroid belt and from the near planet meteor swarms are moved to their destination using this method. Very simple, very robust, and very low maintenance. It is very low cost, but not used for valuable cargo and is not suited to passengers.

Hundreds of thousands of meter-scale solar sails move sensors thru the solar system and transmit their telemetry, for scientific and security purposes.

A.R.S.E. has many unmanned orbital research stations around every major planetary body in the solar system, and a few notable but low staffed manned outposts on some of the terrestrial scale moons.

There are hundreds of Araxi space habitats in the Asteroid Belt, Kuiper Belt, Outer Scattering Disk, and Inner Oort Cloud. A.R.S.E. maintains a presence in 96 of the space habitats in the Asteroid Belt, one of which is at the closest distance to Araxes each month for easy exchange of personnel and supplies and trade goods.

Supplies between these solar system colonies is mainly via solar moth and occasionally MagSail. Transit is slow, but it is mostly low-value single tonnage nonperishables worth less that the fuel cost for pirates to bother with.