Quote:ObMars: Do we have any sort of timeline for how the project will go, key events like the establishment of the magnetosphere? I've been assuming that the fully terraformed Mars is at least decades away even with the wave, but what does everybody else think?
Arg, I hate it when questions like this come up because then I start wondering...
Here's a quick 'Up to now' timeline I've just put together (referencing the FenWiki extensively):
Fall 2008 – Mars Terraforming Project begins.
Dec 2008 – Venus Terraforming Project begins
Jan 2009 – Port Phobos expansion begins.
Deimos becomes increasingly hollow as terraforming experiments continue.
Summer 2009 – Anticipation: Formal for the Venus and Mars Terraforming Projects are put together.
Sept 2009 – Venus Terraforming Project charter signed, mainly because Venus is almost entirely Senshi run.
Port Phobos expansion reaches final stage.
Deimos formally becomes MTP home base.
Dec 2009 – Port Phobos becomes busiest port in Fenspace.
Feb 2010 – Mars Terraforming Project charter finally signed by all parties. First of five magnetic field projector trial satellites is orbited.
March 2010 – Kandor-Con: Pardon Treaty clears the terraforming projects of violations of the Outer Space Treaty.
First Crystal City is orbited around Venus, and initial deployment of biomodded bacteria to convert atmosphere.
May 2010 – Magnetic field satellite trial finishes. Work started on next gen versions.
July 2010 – Carbon Dioxide farming begins in earnest on Venus.
Ultra High Resolution scans of Mars are completed.
Mining on Mercury starts
Aug 2010 – A downgraded and Handwavium prohibited NASA (among others) begins chartering various Fen for scientific duties (most famously the crew of Ptichka), as does various documentary companies.
Sept 2010 – The terraforming projects agree to avoid using Saturn for resources, going to the Kuiper Belt and Oort Cloud for water reserves.
Nov 2010 – First of six test comet drops occurs in southern Mars.
Initial trinity of Crystal Cities completed (Tokyo, Paris, and Seattle).
Dec 2010 – First Xavier-class Magnetosphere generator satellite orbited over Mars. One will be orbited each month until the constellation of 60 plus 10 spares is completed.
Feb 2011 – Second test comet drop on Mars, this time filmed extensively.
Mars orbital traffic becomes so extensive that MTP committee places Port Phobos in charge of orbital ATC duties. This is assisted by Starbase 1.
April 2011 – Initial deployment of oxy-generating bacteria on Mars.
Theonite first encountered.
May 2011 – Crystal Kyoto, last of the Crystal Cities, finishes outfitting and is deployed.
June 2011 – Third Martian test comet drop ends in failure when the comet disintergrates violently in upper martian atmosphere.
July 2011 – The Aukland near-miss causes the MTP to halt its test comet drops until it sorts out comet selection procedures and upgrades safety protocols.
Dec 2011 – MTP resumes test comet drops, but on a six month schedule instead of three.
March 2012 – Delays in getting resources from the Main Belt causes the Trekkies, Warsies, and Senshi to send investigative missions out to it to assist the Wizards.
May 2012 – SOS-con: Operation: Great Justice takes resources away from the terraforming projects, slowing them down.
With the delivery of the 16th Xavier sat, Mars has an official (if very weak) Magnetosphere again.
Jan 9 2013 – Crystal Osaka destroyed during anti-zwilnick activity.
June 2013 – VTP deploys the first of its solar mirrors.
Fifth (and last) test comet drop on Mars occurs.
Sept 2013 – Terraforming projects temporarily halted after attack on Serenity-con.
Jan 2014 – End of Boskone War. Terraforming projects resumed.
At this point how it goes is up to the Collective. I'm expecting being able to walk on Mars without a sealed pressure suit (but WITH a rebreather) around 2030. First crops maybe 2025? To help it along? First none sealed settlement around 2060.
VENUS on the other hand...
