TITechTemplate EN

TITechTemplate.displayName.Accelerando=Accelerando TITechTemplate.quote.Accelerando="Don't ever make the mistake of thinking a problem is solved. Defeating any enemy is like plucking your eyebrows - for every hair you remove, twelve more will show up to the funeral."
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<align=right>Email to SIS regarding the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq<align=left> TITechTemplate.summary.Accelerando=We consider our prospects in a galaxy apparently teeming with aggressive life. TITechTemplate.description.Accelerando=We have passed the point where we can consider changes to the human experience to be merely incremental - from this point on, they will be revolutionary, unprecedented, and even unknowable. Our changes will accelerate, as we cease to be a species making hesitant forays away from its homeworld and instead become one whose remote colonies become the forefront of its civilization. We should plan for this time of sweeping change as best we can. This begins with understanding that it is in our orbital habitats and planetary settlements where we will make the greatest leaps in science, technology and spacecraft manufacturing, and that those once-humble places are fated to become great nations themselves. Beyond our system lie countless worlds, any of which might well be home to life, whose intentions we cannot know. Thus, we must empower Earth's every off-shoot to not only to reach those distant worlds, but also to defend humanity against them, should it be required.

TITechTemplate.displayName.AdAstra=Ad Astra TITechTemplate.summary.AdAstra=The adoption of society-wide ambitions to dramatically increase humanity's presence in space. TITechTemplate.quote.AdAstra="Since humanity's earliest days, we have marveled at the mystery above our heads. With childlike wonder, we strove to understand it, yet still its truths elude us. So now we must go forth, into the mystery."
<align=right>{escapeLeader}<align=left>
<align=right>In an undated letter to his father<align=left> TITechTemplate.description.AdAstra=The march of technological progress alone cannot transform a species: we must dramatically further our ambitions too. If humanity is to truly ascend, our entire culture must actively pursue a future far beyond Earth's atmosphere. Even our education systems should be built around this - teaching our children not only the history of space travel, but also its boundless future. If science and mathematics are introduced early and emphasized often, the human race will, in time, no longer see space as the final frontier, but merely the next of many.

TITechTemplate.displayName.AdministrationAlgorithms=Administration Algorithms TITechTemplate.summary.AdministrationAlgorithms=Artificial Intelligence capable of autonomously directing operations both large and small. TITechTemplate.quote.AdministrationAlgorithms="Every conflict throughout history stemmed from man's anger, fear, greed or jealousy. Yes, it is the fount of love and faith and art, but perhaps, just perhaps, we are wrong to place the human heart upon such a pedestal."
<align=right>{escapeLeader}<align=left>
<align=right>Op-ed in the Gulf News<align=left> TITechTemplate.description.AdministrationAlgorithms=Now that we have developed functioning artificial intelligence, we can explore the many ways in which machine consciousness can enrich human society. One of the most obvious, and immediately appealing, applications is to hand the day-to-day running of our factories, nations, and off-world colonies to what are, in effect, all-knowing yet entirely selfless entities. They can administrate public services, they can regulate the markets, they can automate space traffic, they can safely operate and maintain hazardous deep-space reactors and mining facilities. In effect, they can direct almost every aspect of society while nevertheless remaining our faithful servants. Furthermore, they will be able to adapt to a changing galactic map faster than can the human brain. Our world-class software engineers are confident they have finally developed a reliable and safe beta version of what will surely be the first of many such AI administrators. Those leaders who feel most prepared for this new dawn may begin the roll-out at once.

TITechTemplate.displayName.AdvancedAtomicManipulation=Advanced Atomic Manipulation TITechTemplate.summary.AdvancedAtomicManipulation=Atom coupling enables the creation of ultra-strong nanostructures that otherwise cannot be fabricated. TITechTemplate.quote.AdvancedAtomicManipulation="What the doctor means is that he has convinced atoms to emulate a Spartan phalanx. Just as those ancient warriors locked their shields together to protect one another, these atoms combine into unbreakable armor."
<align=right>{destroyLeader}<align=left>
<align=right>Touring a classified R&D facility, somewhere in Tierra del Fuego<align=left> TITechTemplate.description.AdvancedAtomicManipulation=Atomic manipulation was conceived as far back as 1989, when a major computer firm successfully spelled out its own name in atoms using a scanning tunneling microscope (STM). Of particular interest to us is using STMs to bind individual atoms to different types of surfaces, creating new and artificial nanostructures, potentially of great strength, which otherwise could not exist. New and more powerful STMs can further refine these techniques, ultimately increasing the strength of the bonds while reducing the energy requirements.

TITechTemplate.displayName.AdvancedCarbonManipulation=Advanced Carbon Manipulation TITechTemplate.summary.AdvancedCarbonManipulation=Our forays into nanotechnology continue with the creation of new carbon allotropes. TITechTemplate.quote.AdvancedCarbonManipulation="Just imagine, Ifechi, how this world would change if we could mass-manufacture building materials in an instant. Homes built for mere pennies! Irrigation for every village! A brighter, fairer future for all..."
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<align=right>Excerpt from a letter to his partner while on assignment in Lagos<align=left> TITechTemplate.description.AdvancedCarbonManipulation=To build our way to the stars, we will require far more efficient resources than we have now. As the fourth most abundant element in the universe (and indeed the second most in the human body), carbon is a near-endless and highly-adaptable resource. By developing our understanding of carbon's properties and limits, we have become able to manipulate it at a molecular level. This will enable the creation of ever more impressive, yet ever more affordable, building materials and structures - both here on Earth and, eventually, throughout the galaxy.

TITechTemplate.displayName.AdvancedChemicalRocketry=Advanced Chemical Rocketry TITechTemplate.summary.AdvancedChemicalRocketry=Scientists exceed the boundaries of what is possible with our current generation of rocket engines. TITechTemplate.quote.AdvancedChemicalRocketry="In each of us, embers glow. Through meditation, prayer, and togetherness, these dim sparks will blossom into the roaring flames they were meant to be."
<align=right>{submitLeader}<align=left>
<align=right>Introduction to Module 2, Chapter 1 of the Burn Brighter improvement course<align=left> TITechTemplate.description.AdvancedChemicalRocketry=Since the middle of the 20th century and right up to the present day, rocketry has relied on old-fashioned chemical combustion. Fuel and oxidizer are mixed and ignited within a combustion chamber, creating a propellant that is then expelled to generate thrust. A tried and tested method, and one which remains as fundamental now as it did decades ago. However, we can improve our existing designs to be far more fuel-efficient and significantly safer. By using lighter materials and refining our propellants to become more stable, this classical method of propulsion can take us across greater distances at lower costs.

TITechTemplate.displayName.AdvancedFissionSystems=Advanced Fission Systems TITechTemplate.summary.AdvancedFissionSystems=Extremely powerful propulsion and power systems based on splitting the atom. TITechTemplate.quote.AdvancedFissionSystems="True innovation does not occur by forcing others to accept our opinions. It occurs when we combine multiple ideas to create something new. Something better."
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<align=right>Interview with the American Christian Television System<align=left> TITechTemplate.description.AdvancedFissionSystems=Though fission technology has advanced standard solid core to gas core systems, and enabled dramatic strides in both our spaceship drives and habitats, its efficiency remains hampered by energy loss, fuel inadequacies and other engineering limitations.

To overcome these shortcomings, we have at last designed a new advanced fission system that combines the magnetic confinement of our gas core reactors with the breeding capabilities of our molten core systems. By layering these two reactor systems around each other, we have created a central molten core breeding reaction that can slowly burn through a wide variety of fuel sources to generate power. This core is also enclosed within an ongoing gaseous reaction, which captures the neutrons from the molten reaction to sustain its own chain reaction. Solid-state energy collectors transform the energy released as electromagnetic radiation and charged particles from both reactions into usable electricity for the spaceship.

These advanced fission systems will carry us to the farthest corners of our solar system - and ever-closer to our alien visitors.

TITechTemplate.displayName.AdvancedHeatManagementConcepts=Advanced Heat Management Concepts TITechTemplate.summary.AdvancedHeatManagementConcepts=Scientists consider novel ways of containing and removing waste heat from our spacecraft. TITechTemplate.quote.AdvancedHeatManagementConcepts="You are a shining star. You are a burning sun. And within you burns an eternal flame. When that flame touches another, nothing in this world can stand in its way."
<align=right>{submitLeader}<align=left>
<align=right>Module 3, Chapter 4 of the Burn Brighter improvement course<align=left> TITechTemplate.description.AdvancedHeatManagementConcepts=One cannot simply open a window while on a spaceship. As such, there is no simple way of releasing the accumulated heat of several dozen human bodies and countless computer systems, reactors and weapons - but if it is not removed, anyone onboard will soon die of extreme heat prostration, while the ship itself will ultimately melt. Conduction, convection or radiation are the only possible means of thermal energy transfer, and of those only radiation is currently feasible within the empty vacuum of space. This means radiators, but unfortunately that means bulk, which is itself deeply undesirable. However, liquid droplet radiators appear to be the answer we need. By replacing a solid surface radiator with one that sprays cooling droplets (which are then recaptured and reused) across large, thin radiators, we can reduce the mass from approximately 1300kg to under 100 kg. This does require special liquids with a vapor pressure so low that they can resist evaporation before recapturing, but our latest breakthroughs in this field have resulted in droplet supplies that will last several decades before needing to be replaced. Meanwhile, theoretical future nano-materials will ultimately reduce both the size and the mass of the radiators.

TITechTemplate.displayName.AdvancedHydrogenContainment=Advanced Hydrogen Containment TITechTemplate.summary.AdvancedHydrogenContainment=Researchers look for new methods to contain unwieldy forms of spacecraft propellant. TITechTemplate.quote.AdvancedHydrogenContainment="One cannot simply squeeze a balloon into a tin can without one or the other bursting. Which itself depends upon which you make stronger, and which you make weaker."
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<align=right>Interviewed for "A History of Space Travel," BBC Radio 4<align=left> TITechTemplate.description.AdvancedHydrogenContainment=Every gram counts when it comes to spaceship design - mass is the enemy of movement. Unfortunately, that applies to the propellant itself - a vicious circle that means the more kilos of propellant a ship stores, the more propellant it needs. Past a certain point, this becomes infeasible, which is why the only real solution is to reduce propellant mass. Liquid hydrogen has the lowest mass and provides the best specific impulse - i.e. efficient thrust - of the propellants available to us, but its low density means that it requires enormous storage tanks and extreme refrigeration in order to prevent evaporation. So we must establish how to reduce hydrogen's storage density. New breakthroughs in cryo-compression have finally allowed us to increase a higher energy density without suffering undue boil-off, while magnetic fields enable our hydrogen storage tanks to maintain a much higher pressure without risk of disaster. Hydrogen remains a devilish substance to contain, to be sure, but these discoveries working in tandem will allow our spacecraft to carry far vaster quantities of it than ever before.

TITechTemplate.displayName.AdvancedMagnetics=Advanced Electromagnetism TITechTemplate.summary.AdvancedMagnetics=Advancements in electromagnetism bring us closer to deep-space travel, futuristic weaponry, and rapid interplanetary transport of resources. TITechTemplate.quote.AdvancedMagnetics="With each passing day, humanity shatters the boundaries of the possible. It is our certain destiny to move mountains at the touch of a button; we need only the will to do so. And your generous investment, of course."
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<align=right>Opening remarks from an Western Armories annual earnings call<align=left> TITechTemplate.description.AdvancedMagnetics=To meet the alien arrival in kind, we will require a paradigm shift in our own technology. We must reach the stars, both so that they can become a staging ground for the advancement and defense of humanity, and so that we can tap their remarkable resources for ourselves. In addition, to counter the advanced weapons our rivals might wield against us, we will require bleeding-edge armaments of our own.

Our scientists believe that the best way forwards is via magnetics on a hitherto unprecedented scale. Their tests have successfully demonstrated that precise sequential firing of a row of powerful electromagnets can grant incredible acceleration to a moving object. In time, they believe we will be able to apply this to a handheld weapon's projectile, to rapidly 'catapult' resources from deep space to our facilities, or to build spacecraft capable of boosting their propulsion to reach once-impossible speeds - and destinations. Furthermore, they theorize that powerful magnetic fields may be used to contain new and unstable forms of energy.

These latest advancements are but a gateway to a brighter future. We cannot yet wholly dispense with the old ways of propulsion, transport and containment, but certainly a reality where we can dramatically augment them with magnetic force is within reach. The doorway to tomorrow yawns open before us.

TITechTemplate.displayName.AdvancedMissileWarfareDoctrine=Advanced Missile Warfare Doctrine TITechTemplate.summary.AdvancedMissileWarfareDoctrine=New types of ship, carrying new types of armor and new types of weapon, require new types of missiles. TITechTemplate.quote.AdvancedMissileWarfareDoctrine="No matter what we do, no matter what we say, no matter how many appear to listen to us, mutual obliteration remains humanity's only end-game."
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<align=right> In his letter resigning from the U.N. Department of Peace Operations<align=left> TITechTemplate.description.AdvancedMissileWarfareDoctrine=Spacecraft design is not standing still, and so neither should missile design. As the craft we encounter develop more resilient armor, changing heat signatures, faster maneuvering, and more effective counter-measures, our own ships need a wider range of possible responses - including more destructive payloads and faster, yet less predictable, missile movement. Ultimately, nuclear torpedoes may be required to overcome the largest and most well-defended ships. To facilitate this, our weapon engineers have drawn up a raft of proposals on how to evolve the humble missile for the next age of space combat.

TITechTemplate.displayName.AdvancedNeuralNetworks=Advanced Neural Networks TITechTemplate.summary.AdvancedNeuralNetworks=The advancement of neural networks to increase output speed and computational power. TITechTemplate.quote.AdvancedNeuralNetworks="Any species capable of contacting us would have overcome the petty divisions that plague humanity, allowing them to call out as one voice. We should therefore use all the means at our disposal to demonstrate that we too are a united and harmonious race."
<align=right>{cooperateLeader}<align=left>
<align=right>Archival footage from the International Model U.N. debate
Topic: How should humanity respond in the event of first contact with aliens?<align=left> TITechTemplate.description.AdvancedNeuralNetworks=Modern neural networks are computational learning and predictive modeling systems, predominantly used for speech and image recognition, medical diagnosis, and even spam filtering. New advancements in this field draw from biotechnology, seeking to make them behave more like a human mind. This dramatically increases their range of applications, and renders them capable of recognizing and understanding far more of the world around them. What are, in effect, digital yet non-sentient brains can solve the previously unsolvable, whether it be deciphering the mysteries of the cosmos, curing the most stubborn of diseases, or simply easing many of the tiny burdens and inconveniences that complicate our lives, such as recognizing plants, directing air traffic, or generating text for video games. Importantly, these next-generation neural networks are also a crucial stepping stone towards true artificial intelligence.

TITechTemplate.displayName.AdvancedSuperconductors=Advanced Superconductors TITechTemplate.summary.AdvancedSuperconductors=We can push beyond materials' known electrical resistance for the purpose of energy storage and transfer. TITechTemplate.quote.AdvancedSuperconductors="Choose a card. Now blow on it. Perfect! Then tap my hand three times. Wonderful!
And just like that… the card… floats away."
<align=right>{appeaseLeader}<align=left>
<align=right>Home video of his daughter's third birthday<align=left> TITechTemplate.description.AdvancedSuperconductors=As we approach the theoretical limits of our energy and data transfer capabilities, it is necessary to adapt existing methods to keep up with our ever-increasing hunger for both power and information. Whether based on traditional BCS material, cuprates, or more recent ferropnictides, superconductive material can unfortunately only function at extremely low temperatures - an inherent ceiling that we now must shatter. By exploring more efficient, and far less cumbersome, methods of nitrogen-based cooling, we can now create superconductive substances that are several orders of magnitude more efficient than the current generation, able to conduct truly vast amounts of energy near-losslessly, even in room-temperature environments. Considering the ever-growing human dependence upon both data and electrical energy, such breakthroughs should be considered an absolute necessity for each and every society.

TITechTemplate.displayName.AntimatterContainment=Antimatter Containment TITechTemplate.summary.AntimatterContainment=Physicists develop ways to safely store antimatter in a system composed of normal matter. TITechTemplate.quote.AntimatterContainment="Each and every one of us here has at one time looked in the mirror and hated what we saw. But I tell you now, until you come to love the face that stares back at you, you cannot become something greater."
<align=right>{submitLeader}<align=left>
<align=right>Ticketed live-stream, "The New You."<align=left> TITechTemplate.description.AntimatterContainment=For all the breathless stories about mirror realities, antimatter is very real, and indeed is identical to matter in almost every way - save for that an antimatter particle's charge is exactly opposite to that of the corresponding matter particle. For this reason, antimatter is famously incompatible with matter, the two destroying each other in a fierce burst of energy should they meet. It is a pernicious problem to solve in a world made of matter, but with incredible dividends if overcome, for it is precisely the violent reaction between matter and antimatter that could power the engines and weapons of tomorrow. We have for some time been able to create antimatter, but key to further progress is to 'trap' antiparticles to safely store them by preventing their premature self-annihilation. Our recent breakthroughs in both magnetic fields and the direct manipulation of atoms have at last made this possible. Matter and antimatter particles can now be kept at opposite ends of a magnetic trap, nudged into place by oscillating electric fields - and towards each other when the time is right. The further refinement of such containment systems will doubtless soon lead to the creation of drives and reactors of incredible power.

TITechTemplate.displayName.AntimatterMassProduction=Antimatter Mass Production TITechTemplate.summary.AntimatterMassProduction=Antimatter, nature's ultimate battery, requires huge amounts of energy to produce in mass quantities. TITechTemplate.quote.AntimatterMassProduction="We squat upon a dying world, sucking it dry long past the point when it can still sustain us. And yet an entire galaxy of possibility beckons. Why are we so short-sighted? When will we see that there is nothing left for us here? #projectexodus"
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<align=right>His first and only Tweet<align=left> TITechTemplate.description.AntimatterMassProduction=A frustrating paradox: matter/antimatter-based reactors could solve our every power need, both on Earth and in space, but the creation of sufficient antiparticles in the first place requires vast amounts of energy, not to mention vast and costly machines. It is not, for instance, even remotely practical to install a 30m antiproton decelerator of the sort housed at CERN within every starship. Yet more problematic is that even our most advanced particle accelerators achieve only 0.01% efficiency in terms of converting electricity to antimatter, with the remainder becoming heat - as problematic as it is wasteful. The proposed solution is vast arrays of solar panels in space, powering antimatter factories whose output is then magnetically trapped, ready for transport to spacecraft and terrestrial reactors. In consequence, we have truly achieved the power source of tomorrow.

TITechTemplate.displayName.AntimatterPropulsion=Antimatter Propulsion TITechTemplate.summary.AntimatterPropulsion=Engineers innovate methods of directing the violent energy of antimatter reactions into space flight. TITechTemplate.quote.AntimatterPropulsion="Space is just, like, an endless, cosmic oil field, waiting to be drained by whoever's smart enough and rich enough to get there first. Black gold is back, baby, back!"
<align=right>{exploitLeader}<align=left>
<align=right>Impromptu comments made to paparazzi in the early morning hours outside a Long Street nightclub in Cape Town<align=left> TITechTemplate.description.AntimatterPropulsion=Now that we are able to generate antimatter on an industrial scale, we can at last investigate how to convert the incredible energies generated by matter/antimatter collision to high-speed space travel. Containment, rather than propulsion itself, has been the most pressing issue to address, for even the smallest unintended meeting between opposing particles could rip a ship apart. On both fronts, electromagnetic fields are once again our closest ally here, both containing and directing these destructive forces wherever we see fit. A further complication is that proton-antiproton collisions also generate gamma rays - deadly radiation, in other words. However, our prior breakthroughs in atomic manipulation enable us to create ultra-lightweight nano-materials to act as radiation shielding, both throughout the ship and within its crews' clothing. All of this means employing a near-preposterous degree of health and safety measures in addition to bleeding-edge technology, but the destination very much justifies the arduous journey - we will have the capability to travel, and harness, the distant stars like never before.

TITechTemplate.displayName.AntimatterWeaponry=Antimatter Weaponry TITechTemplate.summary.AntimatterWeaponry=Harnessing the explosive matter-antimatter reaction will allow us to create devastating missile weapons. TITechTemplate.quote.AntimatterWeaponry="One dollar. That's what Paul Tibbets' mother paid for him to look inside an airplane at a local fair. Decades later, he flew the plane that killed 70,000 in Hiroshima. He named it Enola Gay, after his mother. All because of that one dollar."
<align=right>{appeaseLeader}<align=left>
<align=right>From his second book, "Blood Money."<align=left> TITechTemplate.description.AntimatterWeaponry=Within a spaceship, the gamma rays generated by antimatter reactions are wildly undesirable. Within a weapon, it is the opposite - the violent explosion caused by matter/antimatter collision will damage armor, while the radiation will further harm any lifeform within it. As always with antimatter, however, the thorniest problem to solve is ensuring it only mixes with corresponding matter when we want it to - the destruction from an antimatter bomb or torpedo inadvertently detonated while in a ship's ammunition stores would be catastrophic. It is precisely this destructive potential we wish to harness - even without the gamma side-effects - as the self-annihilation caused by matter/antimatter reactions is such that mixing a mere half-gram of each releases 40 percent more energy than did the first atomic bomb. Of course, we will be using far more than half a gram for our forthcoming weapons: By suspending hydrogen and antihydrogen particles within an empty vacuum, constrained by a magnetic bottle, our scientists believe the risks are sufficiently mitigated to permit the production of antimatter-based explosives. This will herald a new era of cosmic warfare.

TITechTemplate.displayName.AppliedArtificialIntelligence=Applied Artificial Intelligence TITechTemplate.summary.AppliedArtificialIntelligence=Breakthroughs in adaptive software enable the automation of society and our deep-space operations. TITechTemplate.quote.AppliedArtificialIntelligence="Were some distant eye ever to gaze upon our world, it would see warehouse workers, denied bathroom breaks. Factory laborers paid pennies to assemble thousand-dollar phones. Children, dying in mines. Would it not question why we had not found smarter, kinder solutions?"
<align=right>{cooperateLeader}<align=left>
<align=right>In an interview with Wired magazine<align=left> TITechTemplate.description.AppliedArtificialIntelligence=Though our previously-developed neural networks approximate the function of a human brain, they remain, in essence, algorithms, and not a true intelligence in any meaningful way. The potential of digital consciousness is near-boundless - fully autonomous, code-based entities that can liberate humanity from the dangers and drudgery of construction work, mining, and maintenance, to name but a few. A world where robots and computers shoulder all our heaviest burdens. The myriad hazards of our operations in space make this more of a necessity than ever before - why endanger human life when a computer can do it for us? Yet the obstacle to progress has not been merely processing power and software refinement, but also safety - ensuring both that these AIs can indeed be entrusted with our lives, and that they cannot become self-aware enough to seek a higher purpose for themselves. Yet at last our software engineers are confident they have struck a happy balance, their prior breakthroughs in quantum computing giving rise to a wholly digital intelligence, capable of dutifully operating deep-space facilities without human intervention.

TITechTemplate.displayName.ArcLasers=Arc Lasers TITechTemplate.summary.ArcLasers=Arc laser designs offer range and efficiency improvements over first-generation laser weapon systems. TITechTemplate.quote.ArcLasers="Lightning was once feared as the anger of gods, until we learned how to harness its might for ourselves. Some say fear is conquered by courage, but I say it is conquered by knowledge."
<align=right>{escapeLeader}<align=left>
<align=right>From his recorded lecture series The Philosophy of Science<align=left> TITechTemplate.description.ArcLasers=We have reached once-impossible technological heights as a spacefaring race, yet the dangers we face have not dissipated.

To better protect ourselves from these, our researchers have designed a new evolution of directed-energy weapon: the arc laser. By replacing the old laser mediums, such as gas or crystal, with plasma, arc lasers can generate more intense beams, with greatly-improved efficiency. The plasma is contained using magnetic fields with a constant flow that - much like clouds in a thunderstorm - separates the ions within by charge, creating two poles. Once the poles have accumulated enough charge, a lightning arc surges through the plasma, releasing an intense burst of energy in the form of light - which the Arc Laser then weaponizes into a deadly pulse.

The true beauty of this technology is the rapid recharge rate of the plasma, creating a combat laser with greater efficiency and range than any previous generation.

TITechTemplate.displayName.PrinciplesofSpaceWarfare=Principles of Space Warfare TITechTemplate.summary.PrinciplesofSpaceWarfare=Military scientists develop doctrine governing the mounting of terrestrial weapon systems on our spacecraft. TITechTemplate.quote.PrinciplesofSpaceWarfare="Diplomacy has its place, but if you don't go into every situation prepared for the absolute worst case scenario, you might as well turn up wearing nothing but a smile."
<align=right>{resistLeader}<align=left>
<align=right>Leaked training video<align=left> TITechTemplate.description.PrinciplesofSpaceWarfare=The wild expanse of space invites humanity to stake its claim, but who can say what resistance we might face in the years and decades ahead - whether from threats as yet unknown, or from each other? It is territory that will, at times, require defense, as will any pioneers we send forth into it. In time, we will doubtless develop new types of weapons, specifically designed for space combat and without dependence upon cumbersome, finite, and volatile ammunition stores. In the shorter term, however, the most practical approach, for which we now have detailed and proven schematics, is to modify our existing weapons for effective use in space rather than on land or sea. There is much to consider, both practically - the effects of low and microgravity on velocity and targeting, safety of usage, armoring - and bureaucratically. We must establish not only the most potent methods of space warfare, but also the rules of space warfare. The apportioning of borders, the rights surrounding unmanned objects such as satellites, the usage of non-kinetic attacks, damage to the 'environment' of space, and that destruction of a ship or station might cost dozens, even hundreds of human lives. And so the doctrine now brought before us concerns not only how to effectively fight in space, but also the complex conditions to do so.

TITechTemplate.displayName.ArrivalCulture=Arrival Culture TITechTemplate.summary.ArrivalCulture=Sociologists study how knowledge of the aliens filters into human arts and everyday life. TITechTemplate.quote.ArrivalCulture="Forget the trappings of wealth and power. Everything that makes life special is already within you. By your mere existence, you are beautiful, vital, and irreplaceable."
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<align=right>Module 3, Chapter 3 of the Burn Brighter improvement course<align=left> TITechTemplate.description.ArrivalCulture=Since the days when we still believed the stars were our gods and ancestors, the human journey has been characterized by the individual's search for meaning. Yet our cultural evolution across millennia has brought us more questions than answers, as we attempt to reconcile our own brief lives with the bigger picture of human existence. Now our quest for self-actualization is confounded by the confirmation of life from other worlds. It is imperative that cultures across the globe accept the shocking truth that humanity is not, after all, the center of all things. We cannot stand still: now is the time to change our very way of life. Our artists must encourage others to reflect this new reality, our philosophers must re-examine what it means to be human, and our religious institutions must square seemingly insurmountable circles. The concept that humanity is but a grain of sand on a far vaster beach has moved from conjecture to near certainty: Every effort must now be made to adjust to the revelation that we are not the universe's only thinking beings.

TITechTemplate.displayName.ArrivalDomesticPolitics=Arrival Domestic Politics TITechTemplate.summary.ArrivalDomesticPolitics=Nations seek new ways to manage restive populations in light of the discovery of intelligent alien life. TITechTemplate.quote.ArrivalDomesticPolitics="You'd think a threat this big would finally make us abandon old grudges and band together, but humanity always finds a way to hurt itself, doesn't it?"
<align=right>{resistLeader}<align=left>
<align=right>Undated letter, recipient unknown<align=left> TITechTemplate.description.ArrivalDomesticPolitics=Whether embracing egalitarian ideals or enforcing authoritarian edicts, maintaining the cohesion of a nation is challenging work, and prone to collapse even during the natural ebb and flow of societal progression. As populations across the world contend with the new reality that an extrasolar species has turned its eye upon us, this challenge is far greater than ever before, and we can no longer look to our own history for solutions or predictions. Will these aliens bring enlightenment or extermination? Will their arrival herald a new age of opportunity, or result in a curtailing of freedom? And, most of all, how will each given nation respond to this unprecedented visitation? Each society's reaction to this seismic event will shape the destiny of every person within its hierarchy for decades to come. New policies, new laws, and a breathtaking amount of bureaucracy will be required if any semblance of order is to be maintained. The world's leaders must prepare accordingly.

TITechTemplate.displayName.ArrivalEconomics=Arrival Economics TITechTemplate.summary.ArrivalEconomics=Economists seek mechanisms to stabilize and harness the financial disruptions caused by the alien arrival. TITechTemplate.quote.ArrivalEconomics="Culture!?! Culture is nothing more than a qualitative marketing profile. Whether your line is boots, carbonated beverages, or civilian firearms, your job is to develop products that people will incorporate into their identities so deeply they can't see where their personality stops and our branding begins."
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<align=right>Remarks during conference call with senior product managers<align=left> TITechTemplate.description.ArrivalEconomics=As socially interactive creatures, humans have always relied on systems of exchange for goods and services. These systems have often found themselves affected by sweeping societal changes such as new alliances, advancement in technology, and looming conflict, but the confirmed existence of an extraterrestrial race may perhaps be the single most seminal of these moments. As speculation abounds regarding their intention and we contend with the possibility we are no longer an apex predator, the potential for riches or ruin has never been greater. Today's banking and investment systems were not designed to cope with such a sweeping change to Earth's place in the universe, both in terms of domestic adjustment to the alien arrival, and in terms of humanity's likely future amongst the stars. We must task our best economists with calming the startled markets, funding new ways of living, and ultimately laying the groundwork for deep-space society and commerce.

TITechTemplate.displayName.ArrivalGovernance=Arrival Governance TITechTemplate.summary.ArrivalGovernance=We explore ways to improve execution of law and policy in the new era. TITechTemplate.quote.ArrivalGovernance="All the old boundaries, the stratified lines of power, have been exposed as a fragile fiction by the aliens. Rights and authorities are awash. But we cannot forget that a person's daily struggles are only compounding; in this dangerous time, they still need food, medical care, and assurance that their labors will be meaningfully rewarded."
<align=right>{appeaseLeader}<align=left>
<align=right>Addressing the Association of Southeast Asian Nations<align=left> TITechTemplate.description.ArrivalGovernance=As national interests and publics grow increasingly aligned around responses to the alien arrival, and the boundary between Earth and space grows blurred, we have studied methods of human organization at great length, with the goal of best organizing our economy and people at the macro level to address the great challenge of our generation. But we should not lose sight that most people's everyday encounters with their government remain mundane, if laced with anxiety: When will my support check arrive? Will taxes take food from my family? Is that armed man in a uniform an ally, an obstacle, or a threat? In the end, good governance results from a million small interactions between people being conducted with, at a minimum, a measure of assurance that law and policy are not being carried out arbitrarily; that if one follows the state's rules, the state will not betray them and impose unnecessary suffering.

TITechTemplate.displayName.ArrivalInternationalDevelopment=Arrival International Development TITechTemplate.summary.ArrivalInternationalDevelopment=Economists study methods to raise living standards in the chaos of the alien arrival. TITechTemplate.quote.ArrivalInternationalDevelopment="Consider Mansa Musa, Mali's greatest emperor and perhaps history's wealthiest man. His African kingdom spanned over a million square kilometers, yet he achieved this not through conquest, but by bringing about a golden age of knowledge, construction, and culture."
<align=right>{cooperateLeader}<align=left>
<align=right>Addressing the U.N. Economic and Social Council<align=left> TITechTemplate.description.ArrivalInternationalDevelopment=With the confirmation of extraterrestrial life, not to mention the stepping up of our efforts to colonize space, international borders have become an increasingly antiquated notion. It is vital that the planet as a whole, and not the most powerful nations and organizations, prospers as we greet this new dawn, else millions of lives will be left behind. With that in mind, our economists and architects have drawn up a tranche of suggestions on how to raise up economically disadvantaged regions and to ensure they will benefit from the wider march of progress. New trade and travel routes (like the Suez Canal, but on a far grander scale) are the most important aspect of this, as it becomes increasingly necessary to generate colossal quantities of resources and technology, then carry it from shore-to-shore with minimal delay. There are many who hope such developments will be the final stepping stone towards a truly united Earth. Whether individual nations' and factions' vested interests will preclude this fond dream remains to be seen.

TITechTemplate.displayName.ArrivalInternationalRelations=Arrival International Relations TITechTemplate.summary.ArrivalInternationalRelations=Earth nations consider their alignments as alien ships traverse the Solar System. TITechTemplate.quote.ArrivalInternationalRelations="The differences in our languages are irrelevant, for we all grow closer to those near us in times of distress, creating community where once there was none. Today, I ask you to do just that, for humanity's future depends upon us all sharing one, unifying vision."
<align=right>{escapeLeader}<align=left>
<align=right>Ribbon-cutting ceremony at the first Project Exodus facility<align=left> TITechTemplate.description.ArrivalInternationalRelations=The balance of international power has always been a delicate thing. Resource scarcity, contested territory, conflicting ideologies, ancient allegiances, naked greed: these are but a handful of the factors that have shaped the course of human history. The addition of a sentient species of uncertain intent, hailing from worlds unknown, only serves to complicate international relationships even further. Old alliances are tested as new players seek to capitalize on the disruption, while individual nations' self-interest reigns supreme. Looming large above it all is the variable of the aliens themselves. Will they prove to be a common threat? Or will they tip the scales towards a fortunate few? If our world is to keep turning, its many nations must establish better ways of working together. After long and arduous negotiations, we now have a template for a new kind of international politics - checks and balances that will be essential to keep our planet relatively united in the face of such unprecedented change.

TITechTemplate.displayName.ArrivalLaw=Arrival Law TITechTemplate.summary.ArrivalLaw=Legal scholars wonder at the rules of the strange new normal, on Earth and in outer space. TITechTemplate.quote.ArrivalLaw="If some ancient race of brilliant, gentle snake-men suddenly crawled from the desert, they would have no rights, no protections! Any idiot with a rifle could turn a miracle into a pair of boots!"
<align=right>{appeaseLeader}<align=left>
<align=right>During a charged BBC Newsnight discussion about the refugee crisis<align=left> TITechTemplate.description.ArrivalLaw=Other species now walk amongst our own. This is a genie we cannot put back in its bottle. Whatever the long-term consequences of the alien arrival, we can never revert to a world where terrestrial humanity considers only its own needs, rights and behaviors. The creaking, ancient structures that are our laws, both national and international, were not designed with such an uncanny prospect in mind, and so there must now be a flurry of new edicts and powers. We must establish not just how we respond to our unexpected visitors, but also how and if we integrate the discoveries that arise from their presence in our lives. The implications for genetics alone necessitate an entire new field of law and ethics. Beyond that, there are also the endless complications of life in space - who can make claim to what, what borders there should be, and which technologies must be liberated from patents in order to benefit all mankind. We have thus commissioned the world's best legal minds to draft what is, in effect, a new international constitution; an eye-wateringly complicated starting point from which all the world's nations (and beyond) can begin to legislate for this anxious, bold new era.

TITechTemplate.displayName.ArrivalMassCommunications=Arrival Mass Communications TITechTemplate.summary.ArrivalMassCommunications=How the world responds to the aliens depends upon who builds the narrative around them. TITechTemplate.quote.ArrivalMassCommunications="You're kidding, right? I could set a puppy on fire on live TV, right, and it wouldn't change a bloody thing. That's how much they love me."
<align=right>{exploitLeader}<align=left>
Comments made to press following victory in a libel trial, 2016<align=left> TITechTemplate.description.ArrivalMassCommunications=Whoever controls the media, controls the mind. Though the platforms of mass media and debate have changed almost beyond recognition over recent decades, that essential truth remains the same. The arrival event has caused not just widespread panic, but also widespread opportunism - for many, the hysteria caused by this grandest of revelations is the ideal way to control hearts and minds. Conspiracy theories, ultra-nationalism, radicalization, and even misplaced religious awe abound, and it is important that cooler heads manage the message before society falls into greater division than ever before. Maintaining order and coordinating Earth's response to both this and any future visitations is crucial, and there is much to be gained from establishing new ways in which the world's leaders might address our species as a whole. It is increasingly likely that humanity will one day be dispersed throughout the stars, and if we are to retain any sense of togetherness, we will need effective lines of communication across worlds.

TITechTemplate.displayName.ArrivalPsychology=Arrival Psychology TITechTemplate.summary.ArrivalPsychology=How the human mind operates when facing an extreme and unfamiliar situation may ultimately determine the fate of our species. TITechTemplate.quote.ArrivalPsychology="One grabs a weapon. Another offers a hand to negotiate. A third falls prostrate, and a fourth runs. Only one of those chose the right, best response; what we're trying to understand is how to ensure we induce that response when the time comes."
<align=right>{destroyLeader}<align=left>
<align=right>Staff meeting with Humanity First morale officers<align=left> TITechTemplate.description.ArrivalPsychology=Where social scientists are examining the changes in people and their relations en masse, psychologists are studying the individual and its response to the alien arrival. Our brains, evolved and wired in the Stone Age to worry about things like food, predatory animals, and opportunities for mating, were having trouble enough adapting to a wired, bureaucratic world where the most dangerous threats - such as climate change - are neither immediate nor visible, and the presence of aliens among us is overloading our already taxed minds. Will aberrant behaviors increase as humans become hopeless and adopt an every-man-for-himself approach to the world? Will we be able to widen our concept of our tribe to all of humanity as our differences fade in comparison to the aliens? Understanding how our minds have been shaped by evolution and culture to deal with this strange new stimulus from the stars will lead to the self-awareness we need to shape our collective response.

TITechTemplate.displayName.ArrivalSecurity=Arrival Security TITechTemplate.summary.ArrivalSecurity=Experts seek balance between public safety and individual freedoms in this time of paranoia and fear. TITechTemplate.quote.ArrivalSecurity="That senator's demand that we deploy rifle companies to patrol the suburbs for aliens is foolish for so many reasons, not the least of which is that they may not be sent home when this is over."
<align=right>{resistLeader}<align=left>
<align=right>Private correspondence<align=left> TITechTemplate.description.ArrivalSecurity=Many believe that unseen enemies are infiltrating our society for their own ends, and are manipulating governments and individuals into doing their bidding. How can we function if neighbors don't trust authorities, much less each other? Reasonable precautions may be framed as government overreach or worse, an alien conspiracy. Overzealous or frightened officials may themselves overreact to perceived threats of mundane origin, leading to a loss of faith, radicalization, or even tit-for-tat episodes of violence. Each nation's security apparatus faces a choice: try to maintain public faith through openness and consistent and fair application of law, or to enact draconian measures under the mantra of keeping the public safe from the alien threat.

TITechTemplate.displayName.ArrivalSociology=Arrival Sociology TITechTemplate.summary.ArrivalSociology=The realization that another intelligent species has evolved will have a profound effect on how humans respond to each other. TITechTemplate.quote.ArrivalSociology="You contain multitudes. Every breath you take may contain atoms of Tutankhamun, or Christ, or Asimov. For any human to think of themselves as intrinsically apart from others is absurd: we are, all of us, made from each other."
<align=right>{submitLeader}<align=left>
<align=right>Module 2, Chapter 1 of The Infinite You self-improvement course<align=left> TITechTemplate.description.ArrivalSociology=It is one thing to legislate the world's response to this alien dawn; it is quite another for us, as both individuals and communities, to adapt to what is, in effect, a species-wide existential crisis. Our behaviors will inevitably change, now that we know the sky is a gateway to the unimaginable. Countless organizations will spring up to cater to new technologies, new desires, and new fears. Borders will crumble, and new ones will arise. There will be mobs, there will be cults, there will be despots, and, most of all, there will be countless souls in need of support and guidance. Plotting the likely path of the coming societal change is necessary before we can meaningfully prepare for it. The world's leading sociologists, psychologists, and behaviorists have formed a symposium to understand and predict what is to come, and from there we can plan effective policies, treaties, laws, means of planet-wide communication, and, optimistically, hitherto undreamed of ways to ensure humanity can stand together as one in the days to come.

TITechTemplate.displayName.AugmentedReality=Augmented Reality TITechTemplate.summary.AugmentedReality=Computer-enhanced overlays of human sensory information with applications in construction, military operations, and communications. TITechTemplate.quote.AugmentedReality="Information is our greatest weapon, bar none. If we know enough about what we're fighting and where, we can win wars before even a single shot has been fired."
<align=right>{resistLeader}<align=left>
<align=right>From her thesis at the Joint Services Command and Staff College<align=left> TITechTemplate.description.AugmentedReality=Augmented reality (AR) distinguishes itself from its virtual counterpart in that it overlays digital information and imagery onto a real-world environment - essentially annotating reality. Its potential applications include marketing, cross-culture communication, navigation, and even soldiers understanding the lie of the land and the capabilities of the foes they face with but a glance. In short, AR is the bright promise of instant access to all human knowledge in any given situation. As we devise new forms of wearable technology and refine the algorithms that drive them, so too can we expand the uses of AR to better prepare our military, keep our populace both informed and entertained, and more rapidly train the coming generation of space-travelers.

TITechTemplate.displayName.Biotechnology=Biotechnology TITechTemplate.summary.Biotechnology=Scientists adapt evolved biological systems to serve human ends. TITechTemplate.quote.Biotechnology="Then they can clean, or cook, or restock supplies. If they're eating my food, sleeping in my beds, and using my latrines, they'll damn well have to work for it."
<align=right>{exploitLeader}<align=left>
<align=right>Discussing opening residences for diamond miners' families<align=left> TITechTemplate.description.Biotechnology=Biotechnology involves the modification and implementation of living organisms in the name of improving the human experience. Though the terminology is relatively new, the field itself has existed for as long as humans have relied on agriculture and animal domestication. The earliest forms of biotechnology include cross-breeding and artificial selection, and it has since come to encompass medicine, textiles, and fuel. Modern biotech makes changes on a cellular and even molecular level, but with the same key intent - improving upon Mother Nature, and bending her further to humanity's will. In the face of the challenges and opportunities posed by the alien arrival, we must push the boundaries of biotech further than ever before. Our latest breakthroughs enable us to create and refine new forms of life, intended to meet humanity's ever-growing need for food and fuel, to fight disease and ease suffering, and to restore our planet's health. Naturally, potential applications for biological warfare are also a consideration.

TITechTemplate.displayName.CarbonNanotubes=Carbon Nanotubes TITechTemplate.summary.CarbonNanotubes=The mass production and implementation of ultra-strong, lightweight carbon allotropes. TITechTemplate.quote.CarbonNanotubes="When faced with a large problem, we must think small. Look to the mongoose, fearlessly striking down the king cobra, or to the Eurasian stoat, killing prey nearly ten times its mass."
<align=right>{cooperateLeader}<align=left>
<align=right>From her guest lecture at Tsinghua University<align=left> TITechTemplate.description.CarbonNanotubes=By furthering our research into the manipulation of carbon atoms, we can now create a new nanostructure that is both far stronger and far lighter than metal. Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are a new, artificial molecule, consisting of chemically-bonded carbon atoms rolled into a cylinder mere nanometers in diameter. To the naked eye, sufficient quantities of CNTs resemble a powder - one that can then be incorporated into other materials, such as plastics. One of the more obvious applications of this is ultra-lightweight armor and shielding - CNTs can possess 400 times the tensile strength of steel, yet only one-sixth the density. CNTs will thus be of particular benefit to humanity's conquest of the stars. It is believed that they could reduce craft weight by some 30%, while their astounding resilience and thermal deflection properties will greatly ease the pain of orbital re-entry, to name but one of the longstanding problems now potentially solved. There is, in addition, significant potential for the containment of volatile energies, as CNTs are also highly chemically- and radiation-resistant. Wide-scale implementation of carbon nanotubes will be a true game-changer for humanity's future.

TITechTemplate.displayName.CleanEnergy=Clean Energy TITechTemplate.summary.CleanEnergy=Further refinement of fusion fuels, married to clean energy policies, birth a new age of near-unlimited power. TITechTemplate.quote.CleanEnergy="We destroy everything we touch, yet we cannot stop ourselves from touching more. We are so lost, Ifechi. So very lost."
<align=right>{appeaseLeader}<align=left>
<align=right>From an email to his partner, location unknown<align=left> TITechTemplate.description.CleanEnergy=In many ways, every single one of our incredible discoveries made since we first discovered that we are not alone in the universe has led to this. Boundless energy, meeting humanity's every need for decades, perhaps even centuries to come, but without harming the world or the skies around us. As much as we look to other worlds, Earth is our home, and one in need of protection - from ourselves, perhaps more than any other threat. Fusion fuel - specifically, a further refinement of Deuterium-Helium-3 fusion - is key here, as it steps away from any need for steam and turbines, in favor of solid energy collectors, constructed from emission-free nanomaterials, and also releases no neutron radiation. Ultra-dense Deuterium, laser-compressed to be over 100x times as dense as our previous fusion fuel pellets, enables the generation of vast amounts of clean, safe power from the smallest of sources, and can be easily-transported effectively anywhere we might wish. But an age of clean energy for all is a matter of policy as much as it is a matter of technology. These fusion solutions must be shared with all human society, with the poorest nations and colonies as well as the wealthiest, rather than hidden behind a walled garden of patents and licensing costs. Once we take this step, we will at last be able to begin the healing of our suffering homeworld.

TITechTemplate.displayName.ClimateChangeMitigation=Climate Change Mitigation TITechTemplate.summary.ClimateChangeMitigation=Following the move to clean energy, we develop technologies to cool the Earth and reduce the CO2 in its atmosphere, and thus stabilize its climate. TITechTemplate.quote.ClimateChangeMitigation="He who controls the water controls the world. That's where we're headed now. But hell, even I know that a dying world isn't really one worth controlling."
<align=right>{exploitLeader}<align=left>
<align=right>From his Wall Street Journal op-ed, "Renewables: From Bogeyman To Golden Goose."<align=left> TITechTemplate.description.ClimateChangeMitigation=Thanks to clean fusion energy, carbon-based nanomaterials, and the development of alternative, genetically-designed food sources, the damage we wreak upon our home daily may be drastically reduced. But reversing the changes - the shrinking ice shelves, the floods and the droughts, the unstable inland weather - caused by decades of fossil fuel usage and industrial farming will require further action. Our climate scientists have devised a raft of measures to ameliorate the issues and to gradually bring down Earth's temperature. These include so-called "space clouds:" releasing floods of one-micron particles into the stratosphere, where they will reflect a portion of sunlight, and thus enable the planet to cool. Additionally, our research into biotech and cybernetics now enables the creation of artificial trees, which will scrub carbon dioxide from the atmosphere far more efficiently than can our diminished rainforests. These are the culmination of our prior breakthroughs in almost every field, and they will ensure that our world is fit for human life for centuries, even millennia to come.

TITechTemplate.displayName.Coilguns=Coilguns TITechTemplate.summary.Coilguns=Magnetic mass drivers offer better performance than railguns. TITechTemplate.quote.Coilguns="The reason that conflict stains human history is because something in our nature causes us to hate our neighbor. Yet we have learned to overcome that urge, that fear. We must remain conscious, however, that a galactic neighbor may initially behave as thoughtlessly we once did."
<align=right>{cooperateLeader}<align=left>
<align=right>From her TEDGlobal talk, "Preparing for First Contact and Beyond"<align=left> TITechTemplate.description.Coilguns=A superficially similar, but nevertheless distinct, electromagnetic weapon to railguns, the coilgun (or Gauss Rifle, named for the great German mathematician), once again rewrites what was previously thought possible. Coilguns as a concept have existed for decades, but until now they have struggled to match the kinetic force of even an airgun. Thanks to further refinement of the electromagnetic technologies used in our mass drivers, this limitation has evaporated. While a railgun operates by passing current along one side of its barrel and then back down the other, our newest weapon houses an array of coils along its length, which are turned on and off in rapid and precise sequence, creating powerful electromagnetic attraction that accelerates projectiles to incredible velocities.

Essentially, the coils rapidly pull projectiles through their center, whereas a railgun pushes its slugs along the rails in its barrel with great force. Railguns suffer from extreme wear and tear as a result, which imposes certain limitations on how powerful they can be without tearing themselves apart. A coilgun's coils, by contrast, do not come into physical contact with their projectiles, which in turn enables us to feed them far greater amounts of electrical power, without the same likelihood of reduced efficiency or eventual self-destruction.

In short, a railgun is the brute force approach to electromagnetic warfare, while a coilgun is a costlier but far more refined solution. Used correctly, it is a truly devastating weapon.

TITechTemplate.displayName.ColonyHabs=Colony Habs TITechTemplate.summary.ColonyHabs=Scientists explore methods of building and managing surface bases that will house significant populations. TITechTemplate.quote.ColonyHabs="Even the air in these is a product of labor and machines and energy, so I think setting up a subscription package would be in order."
<align=right>{exploitLeader}<align=left>
<align=right>Chairing a Western Armories board meeting<align=left> TITechTemplate.description.ColonyHabs=Now that we are able to safely settle significant numbers of personnel on other worlds, the push towards full colonization can begin. In time, our neighboring planets can become true homes to humanity, rather than mere outposts. As terraforming remains an impossible dream, we cannot hope to bestow a breathable atmosphere upon other worlds - as such, our colonies remain restricted to pressurized domes and underground tunnels. It is the latter that will house the population, in order to protect them from the radiation of cosmic rays and solar proton storms. The limitation until now has been providing sufficient openness to support a growing population, as well as the need for massive shipments of construction materials from Earth. Thanks to developments in space mining and orbital construction, we are at last able to build, transport, and install enormous, modular subterranean chambers that - unlike the cramped corridors of yore - provide both individuals and families with sufficient space and privacy. Meanwhile, heated surface domes grow crops, and vast man-made ice fields provide water at scale. This is an undertaking like never before, and all who choose to join these colonies must learn to live without many of the comforts of humanity's homeworld, but our engineers and architects all agree: large-scale, multi-generational planetary colonies are finally possible. From these, we can eventually expand to the outer planets - and beyond.

TITechTemplate.displayName.Cybernetics=Cybernetics TITechTemplate.summary.Cybernetics=New breakthroughs in the merging of man and machine may set the course of humanity's future. TITechTemplate.quote.Cybernetics="Our technology could be used to end hunger, poverty, and disease. Yet, rather than raising up our entire species, it is widening the chasm between those with access and those without."
<align=right>{appeaseLeader}<align=left>
<align=right>Conclusion of his speech to the U.N. Global Summit on Responsible Technology Proliferation<align=left> TITechTemplate.description.Cybernetics=Considered equal parts art and science by its practitioners, cybernetics is the fusion of biology and technology - in other words, mechanically and digitally augmented humans. The endgame of cybernetics is to make all external devices obsolete, for all the tech we need will be within our very flesh. Continued breakthroughs in this field will enhance the mind as much as the body. Optical and cranial augmentations granting instantaneous, 24/7 access to all the knowledge one might ever need, a consistent state of augmented reality, and even the potential for humanity to become a fully-networked species. Meanwhile, our bodies can be improved, to become stronger, more resilient and capable of feats once considered the lurid fantasies of superhero fiction. If we choose to pass through the many doors opened by cybernetics, humanity will truly evolve - perhaps more so than at any time since we first left the trees.

TITechTemplate.displayName.DeepSpacePropulsionConcepts=Deep Space Propulsion Concepts TITechTemplate.summary.DeepSpacePropulsionConcepts=Physicists study the feasibility of new, high-energy propulsion systems to explore the Solar System. TITechTemplate.quote.DeepSpacePropulsionConcepts="Of course there was an accident. Frankly, I'm surprised it took this long. Just get the recovery crew in there to salvage the gear ASAP. Worry about the bodies later - the delays are costing us."
<align=right>{exploitLeader}<align=left>
<align=right>Internal memo regarding the DWKY mine collapse<align=left> TITechTemplate.description.DeepSpacePropulsionConcepts=Leaving Earth is one thing. Colonizing nearby worlds is another. Reliably and rapidly traversing the infinite expanse of space is yet another, and perhaps the toughest of these nuts to crack. Our current spacecraft and engines are capable of no such thing, at least not for any useful length of time; the major stumbling block is fuel, with our current sources constrained both by storage and propulsion limitations. It is a problem the world's finest engineers and physicists have long labored to solve, and they now believe that a pathway to next-generation propulsion systems is open to us. Efficiency is the foremost avenue of their exploration - increasing the speed and longevity of propellant, while reducing wear and damage to our ships' drives and nozzles. Now that the essential concepts are established, our researchers believe there are three possible paths to tread: electromagnetic, electrostatic, or electrothermal propulsion. Each has its own advantage and will depend upon prior discoveries in other fields.

TITechTemplate.displayName.DeepSystemSkywatch=Deep System Skywatch TITechTemplate.summary.DeepSystemSkywatch=We monitor our entire Solar System in near real time. TITechTemplate.quote.DeepSystemSkywatch="How could one so young, coddled as you are by the modern world, begin to understand what war is? I did what had to be done. Closing your eyes and wishing the monster away only makes you an easier meal."
<align=right>{destroyLeader}<align=left>
<align=right>Closing statement from his trial for alleged war crimes during Operation Condor<align=left> TITechTemplate.description.DeepSystemSkywatch=Living with the certainty we are not alone requires we change from observing the cold worlds our outer Solar System when it suits some scientific purpose to actively monitoring them as an intelligence-gathering operation, like sentinels on the watchtower. With Earth and space stations constantly in motion, doing so requires an integrated network of sensors and analysts ready to investigate whether a transient blip is a small and simple chunk of nickel and iron on a grand journey through the universe, or an alien spacecraft coasting toward Earth.

TITechTemplate.displayName.DesignerLifeforms=Designer Lifeforms TITechTemplate.summary.DesignerLifeforms=Genetic engineers learn to build lifeforms with specific purposes. TITechTemplate.quote.DesignerLifeforms="There's a them, and there's an us. Always has been, as much as we kid ourselves that somehow we've become more enlightened over all these years of blood and suffering."
<align=right>{resistLeader}<align=left>
<align=right>SIS correspondence<align=left> TITechTemplate.description.DesignerLifeforms=Now that we can readily bend genomes to our will, we can achieve so much more than merely changing life: we can create it. Genetic editing at an embryonic level can bring about livestock able to thrive in hostile environments, fast-spreading terraforming flora, lab-grown food sources, new bacteria-based pharmaceuticals to combat new diseases, and even pets designed to be as charming and obedient as the imagination allows. Most of all, these human-designed species will help make life in space and on distant worlds not just survivable, but even pleasant. They may even ultimately be able to turn back the tide of climate change, and save the Earth itself.

TITechTemplate.displayName.DeuteriumDeuteriumFusion=Deuterium-Deuterium Fusion TITechTemplate.summary.DeuteriumDeuteriumFusion=We take the first step towards using the energy of suns to meet our escalating power needs. TITechTemplate.quote.DeuteriumDeuteriumFusion="It is a miracle of engineering and physics, yes. But, romantically, standing next to a heavy hydrogen fusion reactor is the closest you'll ever get to a star."
<align=right>{cooperateLeader}<align=left>
<align=right>Public Lecture Seeing the Wonders of Engineering and Science at the Xi'an Jiaotong University<align=left> TITechTemplate.description.DeuteriumDeuteriumFusion=With just the naked eye (presuming we are far enough away from artificial light sources), we can glimpse millions of stars, burning in far distant galaxies. Their enduring fire is the end-product of multiple fusion reactions deep within their rolling mass of plasma. For decades, science has sought the key that would unlock this boundless energy source, and enable us to replicate it within a lab. But until now, we have been unable to contain the extreme temperatures and pressures required to safely generate and sustain man-made stars.

Now, however, our engineers have achieved the previously impossible - a reactor that can hold the power of a protostar, kept in check by a combination of superconducting magnets and experimental nanomaterials. A protostar's power stems from its capability to fuse two deuterium atoms - or burning deuterium - to helium3. While the young star uses its mass and gravity to reach the necessary extreme conditions for such a process, our reactors press the fuel together using magnetic and electric fields, as well as lasers.

With the power of a tiny sun burning in the heart of our every spaceship and habitat, we will be able to reach and colonize the farthest reaches of our solar system.

TITechTemplate.displayName.DeuteriumHelium3Fusion=Deuterium-Helium-3 Fusion TITechTemplate.summary.DeuteriumHelium3Fusion=A largely aneutronic fusion means more lightweight reactors for our spacecraft. TITechTemplate.quote.DeuteriumHelium3Fusion="This is not a war over resources or politics. This is a war to determine the future of humanity. It is imperative that we show them - show anyone - what it really means to fight us."
<align=right>{destroyLeader}<align=left>
<align=right>comments at the launch of the Indómita spacecraft<align=left> TITechTemplate.description.DeuteriumHelium3Fusion=If we wish to stand equal to other star-faring races, we must continue to overcome the limitations of our current technology. One of the foremost such limitations has, for the longest time, been the amount of radioactive material created by our reactors. But now, building upon our knowledge of advanced electromagnetic fields and deuterium-tritium fusion reactors, we have finally overcome this problem.

Unlike our prior fusion reactors, the deuterium-helium-3 fusion process does not produce neutron radiation. Its lone high-energy reaction product, a proton, can be easily captured by our electric and magnetic fields, enabling us to harness its momentum with solid energy collectors. By moving away from heating water and creating steam to run turbines, this new reactor technology can reach unprecedented efficiency - and in turn power a new generation of spaceships and habitats, faster and larger (respectively) than before.

Even this breakthrough is a mere stepping stone towards our ultimate goal: truly harnessing the power of the sun. The next era of fusion reactors will use protons as their fuels, freeing us from the constant struggle to harvest deuterium.

TITechTemplate.displayName.DeuteriumTritiumFusion=Deuterium-Tritium Fusion TITechTemplate.summary.DeuteriumTritiumFusion=Physicists at last achieve positive net energy from the fusion of two hydrogen isotopes. TITechTemplate.quote.DeuteriumTritiumFusion="I don't care if there are two ways or two hundred ways to filter deuterium from seawater. Just tell me which one's cheapest, and which one won't get us sued again."
<align=right>{exploitLeader}<align=left>
<align=right>Board of Directors meeting, Cape Chemicals Inc.<align=left> TITechTemplate.description.DeuteriumTritiumFusion=By building upon our knowledge of nuclear fusion technologies and nuclear fission processes, we have been able to turn the greatest disadvantage of fusing two hydrogen isotopes, namely deuterium and tritium, into its greatest benefit. On paper, the neutron radiation created by this fusion reaction is deeply undesirable. However, our researchers have designed a reactor chamber that generates a measure of its own fuel through an engineering marvel called a tritium breeding blanket.

While deuterium - rare as it is - can still be harvested from seawater or other hydrogen sources in space, its radioactive brother, tritium, has to be created through bombarding lithium with neutrons. By designing a lithium layered coating - the breeding blanket - on the inside of the reactor chamber, we can use the neutrons released during the fusion to create new tritium fuel, while the reactor is running.
This novel and effective design will allow this reactor to last longer and with less fuel consumption than any other reactor design so far. At the same time, it can protect spaceships and habitats alike from the dangers of neutron radiation. And yet, our journey to harness fusion energy is far from over. This success paves the way for other fusion concepts, such as fusing deuterium with itself, or reaching further by fusing helium and deuterium.

TITechTemplate.displayName.Diamondoids=Diamondoids TITechTemplate.summary.Diamondoids=Materials scientists construct diamond-like carbon compounds for use in armor and construction. TITechTemplate.quote.Diamondoids="Maybe you've seen the films. Sadistic drill instructors demanding the impossible of poor, good-hearted men. You think it's inhumane. You think it won't be like that here. But by God it will, because even one weak link gets everyone killed."
<align=right>{destroyLeader}<align=left>
<align=right>Training rebels in guerrilla warfare techniques in Nicaragua<align=left> TITechTemplate.description.Diamondoids=Our prior accomplishments in the creation of new nanostructures yields perhaps their ultimate dividend: a synthetic molecule harder than diamond, at a fraction of the weight, and which can be manufactured at truly colossal scale. Diamondoids exist in nature already, first discovered in 1933 as hydrocarbon clusters extracted from crude oil. Their remarkable rigidity as well as thermal and chemical stability, has long made them a source of scientific curiosity, but with the successful synthesis of diamondoids in the lab, the incredible now becomes possible. With the mass production of this nanomolecule, we can create a diamond-like substance 50 times stronger than steel, but its exceptional purity means it sheds all of diamonds' flaws - not to mention the cost. This is no mere armor plating. Ultimately, we may well construct entire ships out of diamondoid, fitted with nanometer-scale components and sensors, while their extreme heat resistance will enable the containment of even the most volatile forms of energy.

TITechTemplate.displayName.DirectedEnergyWarfareDoctrine=Directed Energy Warfare Doctrine TITechTemplate.summary.DirectedEnergyWarfareDoctrine=Developing tactics and techniques for lasers and similar spacecraft weapon systems. TITechTemplate.quote.DirectedEnergyWarfareDoctrine="The damage from a bullet is not caused by the projectile itself, it is caused by the energy of the impact. Energy weapons just cut out the middleman."
<align=right>{resistLeader}<align=left>
<align=right>Technical weapons briefing<align=left> TITechTemplate.description.DirectedEnergyWarfareDoctrine=Warfare has existed since the dawn of humankind. Our most devastating weapons and strategies were born in times of drastic change and uncertainty. Never has that been more true than today.

While they might liberate us from the need for projectiles, our initial laser weapons remain relatively weak despite their huge energy needs, and thus it is critical that we evolve the technology behind them. These rays, made either of extremely intense light or highly focused particle beams, will circumvent traditional armor and burn organic matter. More than anything, this is a matter of efficiency - less heat and less dissipation over distance means harder-hitting impacts.

The particle cannons and combat laser systems that we believe further research into energy weapons will birth may drastically change the landscape of warfare - not only in space, but also here on Earth.

TITechTemplate.displayName.DirectedSpaceResearch=Directed Space Research TITechTemplate.summary.DirectedSpaceResearch=We develop methods for research into specific fields in low-g and weightless environments. TITechTemplate.quote.DirectedSpaceResearch="It is tempting to think of our expansion into the stars as simply the continued evolution of human knowledge. Yet the truth is that it will spawn new fields of science, entirely new schools of thought. It is not a mere step forward - it is to pull the rug from under everything we thought we knew."
<align=right>{escapeLeader}<align=left>
<align=right>From his Master's thesis at Oxford<align=left> TITechTemplate.description.DirectedSpaceResearch=Our research into how to support human existence in space and on neighboring worlds continues apace, but true progress will only come once we think beyond the rudiments - not only how to survive, but how to become something more. How can we turn micro-gravity to our advantage? How will society best function when the vast and empty void, rather than land, separates our species? How can we study what lies beyond our own solar system? What can we learn from the aliens themselves, from their biology and their technology? How do we protect our cosmic interests from current and future threats? These are just some of the many questions our scientists are keen to answer. Leaving Earth's orbit en masse will be the single greatest endeavor in human history: only through science can we truly make a success of it.

TITechTemplate.displayName.ElectromagneticPropulsion=Electromagnetic Propulsion TITechTemplate.summary.ElectromagneticPropulsion=Physicists design rockets that use electromagnetic fields to accelerate propellant. TITechTemplate.quote.ElectromagneticPropulsion="Science would tell us that we are nothing more than vibrating atoms. 'Everything in life is vibration,' as Einstein put it. I put it to you that he was a duplicitous charlatan."
<align=right>{submitLeader}<align=left>
<align=right>Eternal Source introductory video<align=left> TITechTemplate.description.ElectromagneticPropulsion=Classic rockets throw a volatile mix of chemicals together and ride the reaction through space, an effective but inefficient and risky system of propulsion. But we have other forces at our disposal, and it is to electromagnetism that we now look instead. We propose to use this force to accelerate ions - or potentially larger masses - to generate thrust. Ultimately these systems can provide an extremely efficient form of travel, preventing the need for vast sums of propellant and tankage, but at a cost of the high thrust available to chemical rockets. These systems offer the potential to put the near planets and asteroids within reach.

TITechTemplate.displayName.ElectrostaticPlasmaConfinement=Electrostatic Plasma Confinement TITechTemplate.summary.ElectrostaticPlasmaConfinement=Physicists develop mechanisms to contain fusion plasma via static electric fields. TITechTemplate.quote.ElectrostaticPlasmaConfinement="I brought you on board, doctor, because I believe you're the only one who can pull this off. The good news is that, if I'm wrong, there'll be no-one left to tell me about it."
<align=right>{resistLeader}<align=left>
<align=right>Engineering briefing<align=left> TITechTemplate.description.ElectrostaticPlasmaConfinement=By utilizing static electric fields to contain a fusion reaction, this form of fusion power directly heats its fuel, bypassing most of the energy loss found in other types of fusion power. The relatively simple nature of turning charged particles into power makes this method of particular interest for power systems. While not able to achieve extremely high power outputs possible in other types of fusion, it still promises lightweight and efficient reactors for our spacecraft.

TITechTemplate.displayName.ElectrostaticPropulsion=Electrostatic Propulsion TITechTemplate.summary.ElectrostaticPropulsion=We develop thrusters that use static electric fields to accelerate propellant. TITechTemplate.quote.ElectrostaticPropulsion="Colleagues, Mars and the near asteroids will be in reach without us having to ignite nuclear fires."
<align=right>{cooperateLeader}<align=left>
<align=right>speech at a C9 league summit<align=left> TITechTemplate.description.ElectrostaticPropulsion=Of the many factors that have kept humanity tethered to our home planet since we first sent a man to space all those decades ago, the foremost is fuel demands. Any deep space propulsion system needs to manage its fuel as efficiently as possible to allow for long distance travel.

Now, by using electrostatic fields, our researchers believe they have found a workable solution. This novel thruster concept employs an elegant array of electrostatic fields to guide and accelerate the fuel. The fuel is pushed through an almost frictionless system of pipes to gain velocity. Once it has reached the desired velocity, the fuel is expelled through thrusters, pushing the spaceship forward. The beauty of these thrusters is the tunability of the electrostatic fields, which allows the spacecraft to select just the right amount of acceleration for any maneuver. Even though the current design allows accurate control over the spaceship's thrust, our engineers believe that, in time, we will be able to push the fuel velocity even further using high-energy electrostatic fields.

TITechTemplate.displayName.ElectrothermalPropulsion=Electrothermal Propulsion TITechTemplate.summary.ElectrothermalPropulsion=Scientists pursue rockets that use electromagnetic fields to generate plasma that in turn heats a propellant. TITechTemplate.quote.ElectrothermalPropulsion="Sounds like you want to use a space heater to push a spaceship. That can't be terribly strong, so I hope it's bloody cheap."
<align=right>{exploitLeader}<align=left>
<align=right>Technical board meeting, Cape Chemicals Inc.<align=left> TITechTemplate.description.ElectrothermalPropulsion=Truly traveling among the stars has been an unreachable fantasy for mankind for many decades. However, with the invention of high-power electromagnets and superconductors, and the advent of new concepts for deep space propulsion, this dream draws ever closer to reality. Our researchers have finally made good upon one of these concepts: electrothermal propulsion.

This rocket design offers faster and more powerful thrust than any conventional combustion system. By using electromagnetic fields to generate an energetic plasma, we can significantly increase the temperature of bulk propellant. The propellant turns into hot gas, which is in turn ejected from a craft's nozzle to create thrust. All our current designs use medium-weight molecules, but our scientists believe that, by changing the propellant to lighter gases such as hydrogen or helium, we can ultimately increase the range of these rockets even further. These expected high-energy electrothermal propulsion systems would allow us to extend our reach deeper into the solar system.

TITechTemplate.displayName.ExtendedSpaceSurvival=Extended Space Survival TITechTemplate.summary.ExtendedSpaceSurvival=Medical science seeks long-term treatments for survival in enclosed low-gravity environments. TITechTemplate.quote.ExtendedSpaceSurvival="A life spent merely enduring is a life spent waiting for death. Allow yourself to become the flame that pushes back the darkness - the flame that others will flock around."
<align=right>{submitLeader}<align=left>
<align=right>From her foreword to Simon Carnegie's 2017 non-fiction bestseller, How To Lead: Small Steps, Big Changes<align=left> TITechTemplate.description.ExtendedSpaceSurvival=Long-term existence beyond Earth's atmosphere creates problems far beyond the simple need for oxygen and food. Extended space-flight is terrible for the human body, not least due to microgravity. We have been able to mitigate this to some extent, but dealing with it in the longer term requires a more aggressive response. Over the months and years, muscles atrophy, bones become brittle, eyesight deteriorates, and even the effects of ageing are accelerated. Then there is prolonged exposure to radiation, and the more minor, yet still aggravating risks of deformed fingernails, kidney stones, and gout. This is not to mention the psychological effects: the simultaneous loneliness and lack of privacy as well as the constant, gnawing terror of a systems failure or hull breach.

The same issues will perpetuate even on land, should we settle on planets with no or minimal atmospheres. Thus, if human society is to exist either off-world or in planetary colonies, all of these problems must be solved. Thankfully, we now have proposals for a raft of easily mass-produced treatments, supplements, and technologies to mitigate the worst of these effects in the short term and, in the longer term, to breed a next generation of future spacefarers who are biologically more resistant to the sheer brutality of life in space.

TITechTemplate.displayName.FallofEmpires=Fall of Empires TITechTemplate.summary.FallofEmpires=Borders are rewritten so peoples and cultures seize the right of self-determination. TITechTemplate.quote.FallofEmpires="Things fall apart. The center cannot hold. Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world, the blood-dimmed tide is loosed ... Yeah, yeah, yeah. We really don't need Yeats' defeatism right now."
<align=right>{resistLeader}<align=left>
<align=right>Private correspondence regarding media coverage of the Resistance<align=left> TITechTemplate.description.FallofEmpires=For millennia, Earth has been divided into sprawling kingdoms. Some fall, others rise, others merge or fracture; the great and slow wave of change cannot be turned back even in more conventional times. No matter how great a world power may once have been, it cannot hope to survive the seismic transformations brought about by the absolute certainty that we are not alone, and the inevitable expansion of humanity far beyond historical borders of land and sea. If we are to survive all that is to come, we must accelerate this decline. These ancient and unwieldy empires only hold us back, for they are ships too slow to turn, and the few who lead them cannot possibly reflect the needs and desires of the many. Now that the fragmentation of smaller nations into independent states has begun in earnest, it is time to fell the giants, to dismantle the old regimes so that their people are free and nimble enough to chart their own course into tomorrow. Whether the new powers that will rise from the ashes are robust enough to usher the children of Earth through the many challenges the galaxy will present them remains to be seen...

TITechTemplate.displayName.FissionPulseDrives=Fission Pulse Drives TITechTemplate.summary.FissionPulseDrives=We propel spaceships with controlled nuclear detonations. TITechTemplate.quote.FissionPulseDrives="Some say swords to plowshares is mere sentiment. But here we are, using our nuclear bombs to explore the far reaches of space, rather than doom our own home."
<align=right>{appeaseLeader}<align=left>
<align=right>Advocating for global nuclear disarmament on CNN<align=left> TITechTemplate.description.FissionPulseDrives=Riding into space on nuclear explosions was proposed as early as 1947 - long before we knew that we were not alone in the universe. However, we lacked the advanced materials to contain and effectively direct the violently explosive power required for a successful launch.

Now, by using our solid core nuclear fuel and ultra-strong nanomaterials, we have at last designed a spaceship drive that employs small, directed nuclear blasts as its propellant. Crucially, this occurs with only minimal radioactive fallout when used near the Earth's atmosphere. Each detonation is directed by a cannon-type exhaust in the propulsion module of the spaceship, so that the full force of the explosion hits the absorber plate. This plate is equipped with shock-absorbing nanomaterials that transfer the force of the blast to the rest of the ship as smooth, sustained acceleration, sufficiently so that reaching the further-flung moons and planets of our solar system becomes significantly more feasible.

It may also be that, by merging this latest breakthrough with our prior research on molten and gas core fission, even more advanced pulse systems will soon be possible.

TITechTemplate.displayName.FleetLogistics=Fleet Logistics TITechTemplate.summary.FleetLogistics=We establish how to better manage and maintain vast numbers of spacecraft as we spread further across the solar system. TITechTemplate.quote.FleetLogistics="Sure, I've seen those shows too. All those starships politely doing whatever some distant admiral tells them to do. All those worlds quietly minding their own business. It's all a dream, boy. Nothing but a foolish dream."
<align=right>{destroyLeader}<align=left>
<align=right>In an email to his 14-year-old nephew<align=left> TITechTemplate.description.FleetLogistics=Our solar system should not be thought of as merely some larger version of our world; it is a vast expanse of space, unbound by border and landmass. The practicalities of patrolling and securing it, whether from threats beyond or threats within, are far beyond anything ever experienced on Earth. In even the rawest form, it requires more ships, and more ships means more coordination and more maintenance. Thus, our next move is to ensure ships can take care of themselves - and each other - rather than being wholly dependent upon distant stations to repair and restore them. The proposals are ready now, and only once they are actioned can our ships truly hope to survive whatever unexpected slings and arrows the galaxy might throw at them.

TITechTemplate.displayName.GasCoreFissionSystems=Gas Core Fission Systems TITechTemplate.summary.GasCoreFissionSystems=Gaseous uranium hexafluoride undergoes fission and is cooled by hydrogen propellant, providing thrust. TITechTemplate.quote.GasCoreFissionSystems="The word 'atom' stems from the ancient Greek atomon, which means 'uncuttable.' And yet, here we are, creating energy by splitting the atom - cutting the uncuttable."
<align=right>{escapeLeader}<align=left>
<align=right>Keynote Speech at the annual The Space Society conference<align=left> TITechTemplate.description.GasCoreFissionSystems=Molten core fission systems still rely on heat conversion and turbines to generate electricity or thrust, which is not the most efficient way to harness power.

Our new gas core fission systems use gaseous uranium hexafluoride as fuel, contained within the reaction chamber using superconducting magnets. Thanks to this powerful yet precise containment field, the fission reaction never touches the chamber walls. This enables us to place highly-efficient solid-state energy collectors around the reactions and thus capture their energy. These collectors transform the electromagnetic radiation and charged particles from fission reactions directly into electricity.

Additionally, this reactor design uses gaseous hydrogen as both reactor coolant and propellant - igniting it within the reactor chamber and pushing it out through the drive cone. As with prior breakthroughs, gas core fission enables more sustainable habitats far away from Earth, as well as more powerful spaceship drives. Even so, this is far from the end of the road for fission-based technologies.

TITechTemplate.displayName.Genies=Genies TITechTemplate.summary.Genies=We edit the genome to create stronger, healthier, and smarter human beings. TITechTemplate.quote.Genies="We need men who know no fear. We need men who don't let wounds slow them down. We need men who don't need sleep. Most of all, we need men who don't ask questions."
<align=right>{destroyLeader}<align=left>
<align=right>In an email to the Vice Chief of Staff of the United States Army<align=left> TITechTemplate.description.Genies=And so we reach the end-game of genetic modification: a new evolution of human beings. One immune to so much of what would kill a normal man. One that can survive the cruelties of deep space and the harshest of distant worlds. One that will live almost forever. One capable of feats of both strength and intellect beyond anything our species has ever before attained. One that, if we so will it, is little short of superhuman. This is possible now not only due to our countless breakthroughs in the field of genetics, but also in machine learning - for only a machine could map and then edit the 6 billion characters that make up an entire human genome, time and again. This is truly the dawning of a new age of humanity, for those brave enough to embrace it.

TITechTemplate.displayName.GreatNations=Great Nations TITechTemplate.summary.GreatNations=Unified nations spanning continents can bring massive economic and military power to bear on their rivals. TITechTemplate.quote.GreatNations="They'll all be so busy fighting down here that they won't even realize we've already built ourselves an empire up there."
<align=right>{escapeLeader}<align=left>
<align=right>Comments made to investors ahead of the launch of the Emirates Mars Mission<align=left> TITechTemplate.description.GreatNations=The greater the divisions between the nations of the world, the greater the potential for someone - or something - to exploit them. Discord only makes us weaker, at a time when all the peoples of the world should stand together in the face of seismic change. It is time to put the petty conflicts of yesteryear aside, and for states and nations to group together into new super-powers, with the resources and togetherness required both to adapt to the alien dawn and to successfully colonize neighboring worlds. While no nation wants to give up its culture or history, there are those who are inherently sympathetic to each other and those inherently allied against the creeds of others. The right policies and the right treaties would ensure national identities are respected even as borders crumble. Lessons too must be learned from the past, if we are to avoid the disruptive nationalist movements and extreme partisanship of recent decades.

The road to these super-states will not be an easy one; there will need to be untold referendums and elections, not to mention chaos in the financial sector and from newly-unbound freedom of movement. But the end will justify the torturous means. The alien arrival - visitors from not just another nation, but another world entirely - means that traditional geographical boundaries have lost almost all relevance. Continent-wide super-nations sharing a singular vision, thus representing our greatest hope of facing down tyranny - whether from elsewhere in our world, or from others far beyond it.

TITechTemplate.displayName.HeavyPulsedPropulsion=Heavy Pulsed Propulsion TITechTemplate.summary.HeavyPulsedPropulsion=We use large explosions from nuclear fission to propel spacecraft. TITechTemplate.quote.HeavyPulsedPropulsion="Sun Tzu said: 'The art of war is a matter of life and death, a road either to safety or to ruin.' Soon, very soon, we will follow this road across the stars, and face our final destiny."
<align=right>{destroyLeader}<align=left>
<align=right>Troop address, prior to Operation "Crack of Doom"<align=left> TITechTemplate.description.HeavyPulsedPropulsion=When Project Orion - the first attempt to conceptualize a starship powered by atomic explosions - began in 1958, it was considered to be the longest of shots. However, since realizing the first fission pulse drive, we have refined its design and overcome countless limitations, both foreseen and unforeseen.

Our new heavy pulsed propulsion system combines the raw power of nuclear bombs with the energy efficiency and precision of our advanced fission systems. By generating energy through the dual-core principle of the advanced fission system, we can use the molten core circuit for precise maneuvering of our spacecraft, while the nuclear pulse drive provides powerful thrust for rapid travel between worlds. The drive system has been upgraded to include a new delivery method and absorber plate, which grants near-perfect control of each nuclear blast, transforming its vast and destructive force into smooth, sustained acceleration.

This heavy pulsed propulsion drive is the crowning jewel of nuclear rocket science. It may even take us beyond the borders of our own solar system and see us rise to become equals in the eyes of those who dwell there.

TITechTemplate.displayName.HighEnergyElectromagneticPropulsion=High-Energy Electromagnetic Propulsion TITechTemplate.summary.HighEnergyElectromagneticPropulsion=Physicists improve on electromagnetic thrusters to extend spaceship range. TITechTemplate.quote.HighEnergyElectromagneticPropulsion="It is not about who hits hardest. It is about who moves fastest. Though even that will get you killed if you have not planned exactly what to do once you get there."
<align=right>{destroyLeader}<align=left>
<align=right>In an interview with the U.S. Southern Command magazine Diálogo<align=left> TITechTemplate.description.HighEnergyElectromagneticPropulsion=With electromagnetic propulsion now a proven success, we can explore how to refine it further. While our electromagnetic drives can never achieve the thrust of chemical rockets, we can make them have a measure of more power for less mass, and also more energy-efficient, reducing the need for huge radiators. Advances in room-temperature superconductors and other materials will allow us to contain and direct energetic plasma as well as solid masses as we develop the next generation of exploration and transport space ships. The sky won't be the limit much longer.

TITechTemplate.displayName.HighEnergyLasers=High-Energy Lasers TITechTemplate.summary.HighEnergyLasers=Engineers develop powerful directed energy devices with potential as weapons and in the ignition of nuclear fusion. TITechTemplate.quote.HighEnergyLasers="This little light of mine, I'm gonna let it shine. This little light of mine, I'm gonna let it shine. This little light of mine, I'm gonna let it shine..."
<align=right>{submitLeader}<align=left>
<align=right>From a home video of her teaching Sunday School<align=left> TITechTemplate.description.HighEnergyLasers=For generations, laser weapons have been a science-fiction staple, but their development for military application has been hampered not purely by their extreme energy requirements, but also thermal blooming. A laser heats the air it passes through, and the subsequent change in air density in turn causes a continued beam to defocus and lose strength. To compound the problem, the beam will bend towards cooler air, which has blighted previous prototypes with poor accuracy.

The most obvious response is to further concentrate the beam, but this simply makes the air around it even hotter, and thus perpetuates the issue.

At last, however, scientists have been able to perfect lasers, which fire in brief, high-power pulses rather than a sustained "ray." While thermal blooming is not an issue in the airless vacuum of space, light (and therefore strength) dissipation over great distances very much still is. As we develop next-generation energy technologies, far more devastating laser weapons for use both within and beyond our skies will become eminently possible.

TITechTemplate.displayName.HighTemperatureSuperconductors=High-Temperature Superconductors TITechTemplate.summary.HighTemperatureSuperconductors=Scientists develop superconductors that can operate in extremely hot environments. TITechTemplate.quote.HighTemperatureSuperconductors="Few things clear your mind and focus your output as effectively as a sharp blast of cold. As a 'thank you' for being part of our course, please enjoy a 25 percent discount on any of our in-home cryo chambers."
<align=right>{submitLeader}<align=left>
<align=right>From the welcome email to her Burn Brighter course<align=left> TITechTemplate.description.HighTemperatureSuperconductors=Superconductors are substances that transmit electricity without resistance, and therefore, without energy loss. They are thus essential for the extreme energy requirements of the groundbreaking technologies humanity has developed in response to the alien arrival. Alas, superconductors are historically limited to very low temperatures. For decades, even our most pioneering ones could only function below -220F. It was not until the early 2020s that superconductivity even at room temperatures became possible, achieved by forming a crystalline compound of carbon, hydrogen, and sulfur, but even then its applications were infuriatingly limited. At last, however, we have developed a compound capable of superconductivity even at the high temperatures found in harsher extrasolar environments, and with only minimal energy loss. An equally important breakthrough is effective shielding from the magnetic fields so fundamental to our spacecraft and their weaponry, but so disruptive to superconductivity. This offers astounding potential for even greater advancements in deep-space propulsion and combat.

TITechTemplate.displayName.ImprovedShipbuildingTechniques=Improved Shipbuilding Techniques TITechTemplate.summary.ImprovedShipbuildingTechniques=Engineers develop ways to build lighter, larger spacecraft. TITechTemplate.quote.ImprovedShipbuildingTechniques="Sir Francis Drake didn't defeat the Spanish Armada by building even bigger ships. He won by overwhelming them with smaller, lighter boats. It's as true today as it was in 1588: if your ship is too slow to turn, you're doomed."
<align=right>{destroyLeader}<align=left>
<align=right>From a letter to his uncle, during the Salvadoran Civil War<align=left> TITechTemplate.description.ImprovedShipbuildingTechniques=No matter the craft, and no matter its engine, mass is the foremost obstacle to efficient space travel. The more mass there is to move, the slower it will move - but less mass need not necessarily mean smaller ships. Indeed, it is larger ships we require, to transport more resources and to carry more crew and more colonists. The best approach here is to greenlight designs for orbit-to-orbit craft, which do not land on any planet, moon or asteroid. This removes the need for landing gear, ablative heat-shielding, large wings, and the countless other specialized equipment required for take-off and landing, and thus enables far larger cargo and habitat areas. Shuttles will ferry personnel and cargo to and from our stations and colonies, while strategically-placed fuel and propellant depots further reduce what the ships need to carry themselves. In combination with advances in more lightweight materials, the net result is we can build far larger craft than ever before, without unduly impacting their ability to travel between worlds.

TITechTemplate.displayName.InSituResourceUtilization=In Situ Resource Utilization TITechTemplate.summary.InSituResourceUtilization=We explore methods to refuel spacecraft away from Earth without requiring hefty refinery complexes. TITechTemplate.quote.InSituResourceUtilization="All of us here take water for granted, each and every day. Yet, no matter how humanity might evolve over the centuries to come, one thing will never change - everything we are and everything we do depends upon water."
<align=right>{cooperateLeader}<align=left>
<align=right>Lecture at Xi'an Jiaotong University<align=left> TITechTemplate.description.InSituResourceUtilization=As we establish more of a presence in space, the costs of transporting resources into - and beyond - orbit rapidly become prohibitive. Thus, it is imperative that we harvest more of what we need from space, rather than from Earth. Water is the foremost essential, as it can be separated into oxygen and hydrogen, which in turn can be used for creation of fuel, propellant, and a breathing mix for personnel and plants - not to mention also serving as coolant and radiation shielding. Fortunately, we are now confident that we can obtain sufficient water from the ever-shadowed poles of Luna, our own moon, in combination with mining it from asteroids. Beyond that, Phobos and Deimos, the moons of Mars, will provide all the water - and therefore fuel - we need to further our conquest of the solar system.

TITechTemplate.displayName.IndependenceMovements=Independence Movements TITechTemplate.summary.IndependenceMovements=Seeking ways to liberate downtrodden peoples from their oppressors. TITechTemplate.quote.IndependenceMovements="Every form I have to fill in, every ass I have to kiss, every pointless safety standard I have to meet is time I'll never get back. I say strangle these leeches with their own red tape, and let the profits flow."
<align=right>{exploitLeader}<align=left>
<align=right>Advocating for the dissolution of the EU on Fox News<align=left> TITechTemplate.description.IndependenceMovements=For some, the alien arrival is a golden opportunity to unite the globe and seize tomorrow as one species. For others, existent power structures are exactly what stand in the way of a brighter future - be it the perpetuation of social inequality or too many archaic rules and regulations precluding rapid progress. As our world teeters on the brink of this new age, local frustrations are reaching a boiling point, with many lands and cultures desiring to be freed from the oppressive yoke of governments that control them. As the great powers struggle to formulate their response to a rapidly changing universe, now is the exactly right time to encourage and assist smaller countries as they pursue independence, particularly those which are kept under the boot-heel of oppressive regimes. Technology, training, money, and even weapons - all of these will be required. The intervention plans are ready - they need merely be enacted. And from tiny acorns, mighty oaks grow - these smaller-scale independence movements could well be the beginning of the end for the world's superpowers.

TITechTemplate.displayName.IndustrializationofSpace=Industrialization of Space TITechTemplate.summary.IndustrializationofSpace=Setting up profitable and sustained space-based production and monetization lines. TITechTemplate.quote.IndustrializationofSpace="You'd be better off surrendering than sitting around on your backsides, waiting for supplies from home. If you don't know how to use what you find in the field, you've lost before you've even begun."
<align=right>{destroyLeader}<align=left>
<align=right>Quoted in his official biography "Five Moves Ahead," (cancelled before publication)<align=left> TITechTemplate.description.IndustrializationofSpace=There is almost no prospect of exploring, let alone settling, the further-flung depths of our solar system until we can free ourselves from a dependence upon Earth-based supply lines. We must be able to produce all that we need for ships, colonies, and mining facilities locally - which is to say, in space rather than solely upon a planet's surface. There is an abundance of minerals beyond Earth's orbit, some of which we can currently mine, and some of which we cannot. We now have plans for effective micro- and zero-g factories that can function with a relatively minimal human presence, able to turn the raw materials of asteroids and moons into almost anything we might create on Earth (including more such factories), often at a fraction of the cost, but at many times the scale. Yet this is not only a matter of production, but also of trade and transport - laws and treaties that dictate what is shared with whom, for what cost, and via which approved shipping routes. Space is no longer some cosmic frontier town: it is time that it became a thriving and essential part of our economy.

TITechTemplate.displayName.InertialPlasmaConfinementTechniques=Inertial Confinement Fusion TITechTemplate.summary.InertialPlasmaConfinementTechniques=Physicists ignite self-sustaining fusion reactions by using directed energy to compress nuclear fuel. TITechTemplate.quote.InertialPlasmaConfinementTechniques="Yes, it's true that this technology could be a godsend, but from Nobel to Oppenheimer, history teaches us that unchecked human instinct will cause even the most well-intended concept to go disastrously awry."
<align=right>{appeaseLeader}<align=left>
<align=right>Oral argument at the U.N. Ethical Proliferation of Technology summit<align=left> TITechTemplate.description.InertialPlasmaConfinementTechniques=By applying energy evenly across the surface of its fuel pellet, high-energy lasers force the outer layer of the fuel to explode, meet its resistance, and reverse its direction inwards. The resultant compression shockwaves compress the fuel to the point of creating a fusion reaction. Interestingly, our biggest strides in this field were not in the reaction itself, but in adapting materials to contain the fusion reaction over the long term. Changes in heat-dissipation techniques, as well as innovative means to dispose of radioactive neutrons, have made inertial confinement fusion a viable option for keeping up with the ever-increasing energy demands of a space-faring species.

TITechTemplate.displayName.InfraredCombatLasers=Infrared Combat Lasers TITechTemplate.summary.InfraredCombatLasers=Our first weaponized laser system for spacecrafts has high accuracy but rapidly loses power over range. TITechTemplate.quote.InfraredCombatLasers="The light that fills our skies connects the past of distant worlds to our present. It is a time machine, and an eternal reminder that Earth is neither the beginning nor the end of existence."
<align=right>{escapeLeader}<align=left>
<align=right>Keynote speech at Oxford University to celebrate the International Day of Light<align=left> TITechTemplate.description.InfraredCombatLasers=Since the invention of the device for "light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation," otherwise known as the laser, in 1960, our scientists have developed many ways to harness the power of light. Now, we have reached another milestone in the history of lasers: the first infrared combat laser.

This weaponized laser system uses tightly-focused, extremely intense infrared light pulses to burn through most known materials. It is only due to the coherence - both in space and time - of laser light that we are able to bundle it so efficiently. These lasers use solid-state crystal rods to generate ultra-short pulses of infrared light. Through laser seeding technology, in which we use a smaller laser to shape the larger laser pulse, we can generate reliable infrared pulses with the same power output.

Even though laser systems can be precisely aimed, the infrared light dissipates over long distances, making this weapon most effective in short to medium range combat. Due to the long wavelength of infrared lasers, they are not very effective within our planet's atmosphere. However, our scientists see the potential for new combat laser designs using visible light in our future, which would significantly increase their versatility.

TITechTemplate.displayName.IntegratedEarthSpaceEconomy=Integrated Earth-Space Economy TITechTemplate.summary.IntegratedEarthSpaceEconomy=Outer space changes from a colony to an economic partner with Earth. TITechTemplate.quote.IntegratedEarthSpaceEconomy="Every time I have to pay a tariff, I feel as though one of my children has suddenly died. Why do we let them walk all over us like this?"
<align=right>{exploitLeader}<align=left>
<align=right>CNN interview<align=left> TITechTemplate.description.IntegratedEarthSpaceEconomy=The balance of power has, perhaps inevitably, shifted. Where once our space pioneers were dependent on Earth's support to survive, now humanity all but depends upon the resources and technologies that only the hardy denizens of space, and the other worlds, can provide. And so the deal must change, lest - as Earth's history dictates - there will be first resentment, and then conflict. The time has come to declare that our remote colonies are vassals and glorified factories no longer, and instead shall henceforth be treated as equal partners, no longer beholden to our demands and each given their own place at the negotiating table. Only once humanity's every distant offshoot works and trades in harmony will we be ready for what our brave new future holds.

TITechTemplate.displayName.InterplanetaryPolities=Interplanetary Polities TITechTemplate.summary.InterplanetaryPolities=The speed of light's limitations on our communications require granting a measure of independence to our off-Earth colonies. TITechTemplate.quote.InterplanetaryPolities="One would think that the master most despised is the one who stands over us, whip in hand. But no, it is the unseen and distant master, issuing his uncaring edicts from afar, whom we most yearn to overthrow."
<align=right>{appeaseLeader}<align=left>
<align=right>Arguing for the independence of Hong Kong on CNN<align=left> TITechTemplate.description.InterplanetaryPolities=If there is one lesson to be learned from the history of human society's colonization of distant lands, it is that remote rule proves only sustainable under absolute tyranny, and all the bloodshed that entails. A growing desire for independence from a far-off homeland is inevitable, and conflict in the pursuit of it a given. This will be just as true for our off-world colonies as it was for America and Africa centuries ago. If we do not establish a workable solution now, Earth-bound humanity and space-based humanity may well become locked in a cold war spanning light years. The need, then, is to establish policies, laws, and systems by which our colonies are beholden to their homeworld (particularly in terms of sharing off-world resources with it), yet free to make their own day-to-day decisions, choose their own leaders and defend their own borders.

No matter the breakthroughs we might make in the speed of data transfer, it seems unlikely that we will cross the light barrier within the near future. For governance to depend upon waiting for answers that take hours, days, or weeks to arrive would be a slow suicide for both sides. If we are to remain one humanity, even as we slowly spread across the cosmos, we must ensure our colonies are self-sufficient, content, and therefore, loyal now, not later.

TITechTemplate.displayName.KineticsWarfareDoctrine=Kinetics Warfare Doctrine TITechTemplate.summary.KineticsWarfareDoctrine=Military planners develop tactics around magnetic weaponry. TITechTemplate.quote.KineticsWarfareDoctrine="One would not send a swordsman to fight a tank. Neither should we voyage into the unknown armed with only the primitive tools of self-defense we cling to here on Earth."
<align=right>{escapeLeader}<align=left>
<align=right>From the investment pitch deck for FutureSpace LLC.<align=left> TITechTemplate.description.KineticsWarfareDoctrine=The next frontier in space warfare is magnetic weaponry, lending velocity to a round not via combustion, but via electromagnetic acceleration. Even despite there being no air to slow a gunpowder-based bullet's passage, such rounds simply cannot reach the speeds required to effectively punch through an armored hull at great range. Magnetic weapons overcome this limitation (and replace explosive-based rounds with far cheaper, yet potentially larger, solid metal slugs) by 'pushing' their rounds through an electromagnetically-charged barrel, thus imparting far more kinetic energy upon their rounds at the moment of firing. The result is harder-hitting weapons, requiring only an electrical power source to function. With proof of this concept now established, additional breakthroughs in the field of magnetics will enable us to develop powerful, spacecraft-mounted railguns. Ultimately, we also hope to replace metal slugs with energy-based rounds.

TITechTemplate.displayName.MagneticForceManipulation=Magnetic Force Manipulation TITechTemplate.summary.MagneticForceManipulation=Physicists learn to manipulate magnetic fields to achieve specific objectives. TITechTemplate.quote.MagneticForceManipulation="Technically, he's more of a super-villain, but he's still my favorite. He's a survivor, he's uncompromising, and he does whatever he must to achieve what he believes in. Cool helmet, too."
<align=right>{destroyLeader}<align=left>
<align=right>Responding to a text message from his 12-year-old nephew<align=left> TITechTemplate.description.MagneticForceManipulation=Human fascination with magnetism dates backs millennia, from the ancient Greeks where the name is derived, to descriptions in the Sushruta Samhita where lodestones are used to remove arrows from wounded soldiers. While we have been able to create magnets, or empower existing ones, it is only now that we are able to actively influence the direction and amplitude of that force. By exerting control on the magnetic force itself, we will be able to control increasingly dangerous reactions and materials. Advances in this field will allow us to pursue several distinct avenues of theoretical energy production and confinement.

TITechTemplate.displayName.MagneticNozzles=Magnetic Nozzles TITechTemplate.summary.MagneticNozzles=Using shaped magnetic fields as rocket nozzles will unlock a new generation of high-power drives. TITechTemplate.quote.MagneticNozzles="Our atoms do not truly touch one another. Like the clouds in the sky, they have no hard boundaries. All they can do is move close enough to influence each other."
<align=right>{cooperateLeader}<align=left>
<align=right>From a guest lecture at the University of Cambridge<align=left> TITechTemplate.description.MagneticNozzles=A magnetic nozzle serves the same purpose as a solid nozzle, which is to say it ejects a plasma jet into the vacuum of space in order to achieve propulsion. However, it achieves this contactlessly, and thus avoids the inefficiency and system damage inherent to forcing hot, high-pressure plasma along the walls of a solid nozzle. This new form of nozzle operates by using electromagnetic fields to magnetize the electrons within the plasma, confining their expansion while guiding them downstream, where ultimately their internal energy is efficiently converted into directed kinetic energy. All of this has for some time been feasible to a limited degree in the lab, but it is only now, thanks to our remarkable breakthroughs in electromagnetics, that we can now make magnetic nozzles feasible within the confines of a spacecraft. Thanks to their dramatically increased thrust, efficiency, longevity, and low mass, new and far more powerful types of drives and reactors can become a reality.

TITechTemplate.displayName.MagneticPlasmaConfinementTechniques=Magnetic Plasma Confinement TITechTemplate.summary.MagneticPlasmaConfinementTechniques=Researchers learn to control high-temperature plasmas with magnetic fields. TITechTemplate.quote.MagneticPlasmaConfinementTechniques="I'm not interested in baby steps. Our enemy isn't going to wait for us to catch up. What I want from you is the most devastating force you can possibly imagine, placed in the hands of our soldiers today."
<align=right>{destroyLeader}<align=left>
<align=right>Weapons facility inspection, location undisclosed<align=left> TITechTemplate.description.MagneticPlasmaConfinementTechniques=Plasma consists of charged particles — specifically, positive nuclei and negative electrons — that can be shaped and confined by magnetic forces. Like iron filings subjected to magnets, these particles will follow a magnetic field's guidance, enabling us to both contain and direct the boiling, deadly forces within. The magnetic field lines act like an invisible bottle, and can isolate the plasma from any solid walls around it, thus preventing it from burning right through them. Magnetically-confined plasmas can reach temperatures ten times hotter than the heart of the sun, and as such could be used to generate untold megawatts of energy - whether that be to accelerate a spacecraft to ever-greater velocities, or to deal unstoppable death to our enemies.

TITechTemplate.displayName.MassDrivers=Mass Drivers TITechTemplate.summary.MassDrivers=Engineers develop electromagnetic catapults that are viable as weapons and payload launch systems. TITechTemplate.quote.MassDrivers="We laud the Romans for assimilating rather than exterminating other nations, but we should not forget that their siege weapons were terrible things to behold. History is littered with accounts of opponents simply surrendering as they watched Roman catapults approaching their walls."
<align=right>{destroyLeader}<align=left>
<align=right>From a guest lecture at VNGRD Engineer Officer Candidate School<align=left> TITechTemplate.description.MassDrivers=No matter the technological advancements we might yet make, our ability to voyage through the stars will be inherently limited by what the human body can endure. Mined resources are not, however, at risk of liquefied internal organs during high-speed space transit. Mass Drivers employ electromagnetic acceleration to essentially hurl unmanned cargo through space at breathtaking speeds, charging and then firing their payloads in the manner of a catapult. Albeit one fueled by vast amounts of electricity and capable of firing its shots across millions of kilometers.

While mass drivers are not a new concept, our latest breakthroughs enable us to instantaneously feed them far greater quantities of energy than ever before, thus enabling the rapid, long-distance transport of exponentially greater masses. The most immediate practical application of Mass Drivers is to ferry essential and precious materials mined from asteroids and other heavenly bodies back to Earth with a minimum of delay. This technology will bring about a sea-change in our ability to replenish and grow our local resource stores. Further research should be able to refine and even miniaturize the concepts behind mass drivers, in the hope of integrating them into weapons capable of truly devastating punch.

TITechTemplate.displayName.MilitarizationofSpace=Militarization of Space TITechTemplate.summary.MilitarizationofSpace=Military planners establish doctrine on preventing and engaging in direct conflict beyond Earth's atmosphere. TITechTemplate.quote.MilitarizationofSpace="It is only a matter of time before this rush for gold turns red. To staunch the flow of blood, other nations will send their own armed envoys. It is in our best interests to be gone before that happens."
<align=right>{escapeLeader}<align=left>
<align=right>Overheard from a conversation with his sister<align=left> TITechTemplate.description.MilitarizationofSpace=The threat of force is often more powerful than the force itself. Absent clear borders, human expansion into space will bring with it a host of dangers. Overzealous neighbors, extremist terrorism, and the threat of piracy all loom before us. It is necessary to create a reliable system of command and control, alongside the armaments necessary to enforce it, if we are to have any hope of maintaining dominion of newly acquired resources and facilities in orbit and beyond. Protection, and if necessary preemptive defense, must be prioritized.

TITechTemplate.displayName.MindandMachine=Mind and Machine TITechTemplate.summary.MindandMachine=Code and thought intermingle, becoming indistinguishable. TITechTemplate.quote.MindandMachine="Empathy is not a muscle. You either possess it or you do not. It is those who do not who most limit human potential. If only there were some way to make them care, truly care, then everything would change in an instant."
<align=right>{appeaseLeader}<align=left>
<align=right>Keynote at sensitivity training seminar for undisclosed social media corporation<align=left> TITechTemplate.description.MindandMachine=Cybernetics and artificial intelligence have, until now, represented parallel forks of humanity's technological evolution. Yet it has been apparent for some time now that true ascension of our species lies in the merging of the two - augmentation of our bodies to such an extent that our very nature is changed. Minds that can out-calculate a super-computer, with the ability to understand and analyze any situation, any threat in an instant. The leap that has made this possible, as opposed to the faltering and unreliable approaches of the past, is not ease of use and safety, but rather the development of software-based intelligence that truly understands how humans think, and thus can effectively parse the endless stream of data into primarily sensory information that we can innately understand. Some may use the outmoded term 'cyborg' to describe the human test subjects that will result from the new, prototype neural implants and cranial interfaces born of this breakthrough, but in truth they will make us so much more than that - and so much more than human.

TITechTemplate.displayName.MissileWarfareDoctrine=Missile Warfare Doctrine TITechTemplate.summary.MissileWarfareDoctrine=Military scientists adapt self-guiding missile systems for spacecraft combat. TITechTemplate.quote.MissileWarfareDoctrine="Do not seek to be the elephant. Become instead the mosquito, which pierces its mighty hide, which laces its blood with disease, and which cannot be swatted away by its feeble tail.
<align=right>{destroyLeader}<align=left>
<align=right>As quoted in his (unpublished) biography "Five Moves Ahead."<align=left> TITechTemplate.description.MissileWarfareDoctrine=Even as we explore new forms of weapons with which to protect our interests in space, we would be foolish to abandon the humble missile. While a missile can be out-run or dodged far more easily than most other weapons, it has the singular advantage that it can pursue an enemy craft, and will deliver the same payload regardless of distance. In order to successfully overwhelm any point-defense system intended to ward off our missiles, our engineers have focused their efforts in two directions. The first is mass; our ships will need to carry many, many missiles, so a new, lightweight construction mitigates that issue somewhat. Secondly, there is computing and targeting; we will need systems to ensure that our missiles fire and converge from multiple and unpredictable directions, and 'understand' which areas of a ship to best target. By comparison, our new missiles' multispectral guidance systems proved relatively straightforward. It is, after all, hard to lose track of something as noisy (in terms of thermal, visual, and radio output) as a manned spacecraft.

TITechTemplate.displayName.MissiontoJupiter=Mission to Jupiter TITechTemplate.summary.MissiontoJupiter=We prepare to explore the moon system of the Solar System's largest planet. TITechTemplate.quote.MissiontoJupiter="Never forget that the true power in any kingdom is not the man on the throne, but instead those who quietly stand at his shoulders."
<align=right>{resistLeader}<align=left>
<align=right>"Data in the Shadow of War."<align=left> TITechTemplate.description.MissiontoJupiter=Jupiter itself is an impossible target for colonization, being it is a gas giant. There is no real surface on which to land craft or build infrastructure, and the radiation and gravity are antithetical even to the construction of floating stations. Its dozens of moons are another matter entirely. It is the four known as the Galilean satellites that are considered our best prospects for larger-scale settlement - and as a staging ground for further expansion. Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto are large enough and solid enough to support infrastructure, although most are nevertheless extremely hostile to life. Jupiter's gravity is fierce, while its radiation belt, which blasts Io and Europa, is approximately a million times more deadly than Earth's; an inadequately protected human would, sadly, perish within days of arrival. However, breakthroughs in super-dense shielding will make some degree of long-term habitation possible.

Callisto, however, exists outside the Van Allen belt, and thus would require comparatively minimal anti-radiation measures. The similarly icy Europa and Ganymede remain worthwhile targets, due to the presence of subsurface oceans, and the potential to create artificial air pockets far below the frozen surface. The dry, turbulent Io is a far less appealing prospect; however, its volcanic environment could be a potent source of energy and rare minerals as we strive to reach the outer worlds.

TITechTemplate.displayName.MissiontoMars=Mission to Mars TITechTemplate.summary.MissiontoMars=Scientists study exploration and colonization of the red planet. TITechTemplate.quote.MissiontoMars="It takes so very little for one tribe of humanity to look upon a second tribe as The Other. Think of what will happen once hundreds of millions of kilometers lie between us."
<align=right>{cooperateLeader}<align=left>
<align=right>"Distributed Humanity"<align=left> TITechTemplate.description.MissiontoMars=Though it is scarcely an appealing home, there is no better prospect within our solar system for eventual colonization than our crimson neighbor, Mars. It lacks a breathable atmosphere, the radiation risk from both galactic cosmic rays and solar energetic particles is extreme, the soil is flooded with toxins, and the low gravity will weaken both bones and muscles and cause cardiovascular problems. Then there is the cold, and the minimal supply of water... And with travel each way also taking months, at least until such time as we have made profound progress in spaceflight technology, only the bravest and hardiest pioneers would dare take this chance. Yet if humanity is ever to explore the stars, or settle on further-out planets, or to trace our alien visitors to their own homeworld, there is simply no choice other than Mars. In terms of temperature, sunlight, and simple proximity, no other planet in our system comes close. Our scientists are now confident that the settling of a limited number of highly-trained personnel will be possible, thanks to a combination of highly complex life-support systems and certain cyanobacteria capable of photosynthesis even on Mars' hostile surface. The latter, grown at sufficient scale, can generate both food and oxygen locally, and allow the propagation of more complex organisms. It is from these starting blocks that long-term life on Mars will begin.

TITechTemplate.displayName.MissiontoVenus=Mission to Venus TITechTemplate.summary.MissiontoVenus=We prepare to explore Earth's accessible but hellish near-twin. TITechTemplate.quote.MissiontoVenus="The final frontier proved a bit underwhelming, no? 'Veni, vidi, vici' is great, but how do you say 'I leased it at triple market rate' in Latin?"
<align=right>{exploitLeader}<align=left>
<align=right>Comments to CNN<align=left> TITechTemplate.description.MissiontoVenus=The surface of Venus is among the most inhospitable in the Solar System, with a crushing, poisonous atmosphere rendering it impossible to colonize. But its orbits receive a wealth of sunlight to support power-efficient stations, and it serves as a stepping stone toward colonizing the sunburned iron cannonball further inward: Mercury.

TITechTemplate.displayName.MissiontotheInnerPlanets=Mission to Mercury TITechTemplate.summary.MissiontotheInnerPlanets=Researchers pursue means to explore Mercury. TITechTemplate.quote.MissiontotheInnerPlanets="Never be afraid to burn, for it is only within that fiery crucible that our true selves are forged."
<align=right>{submitLeader}<align=left>
<align=right>From the concluding chapter of her Burn Brighter course<align=left> TITechTemplate.description.MissiontotheInnerPlanets=Full colonization of the innermost world of our solar system must remain a pipe dream, for the alternately burning and freezing landscape of Mercury could not possibly support more than the briefest human existence. However, there is some hope for limited settlement in the permanently shadowed craters which litter the planet's poles, which we believe also may contain deposits of frozen water. But the true gain in enabling our fleets to reach the Sun's closest planet would be its sheer abundance of resources. Some 70 percent of Mercury is composed of metal that could support our development in space, and its proxmity to the Sun means our solar power stations will have abundant generation for our habs.

TITechTemplate.displayName.MissiontoSaturn=Mission to Saturn TITechTemplate.quote.MissiontoSaturn="The online shopping guy and the electric car guy can squabble over Mars all they like, but that's just selling humanity short. Trust me, we can do so much better."
<align=right>{escapeLeader}<align=left>
<align=right>During an appearance on The Late Show<align=left> TITechTemplate.summary.MissiontoSaturn=We look to explore the icy moons of the ringed planet. TITechTemplate.description.MissiontoSaturn=Like its larger neighbor, Jupiter, the gaseous Saturn cannot support any infrastructure, let alone life. However, it does boast considerable quantities of deuterium and helium-3, both of great interest as a fusion energy source. In addition, some of the moons within Saturn's vast and icy rings are extremely promising for human habitation, particularly the largest, the aptly named Titan, which possesses all the elements required to sustain life. Despite its extreme cold and the nitrogen-based atmosphere, there may be no better target for colonization in the entire solar system. The smaller Enceladus is also a prime candidate for long-term settlement. All of this is not even to mention that there is far less radiation in the Saturnian system than around Jupiter, and therefore, a far easier life for those who choose to dwell there. Saturn is a great and arduous distance to travel, but as well as the abundance of resources and potentially inhabitable land, from Saturn's moons we can launch ourselves to the outer worlds and closer to wherever these extraterrestrials truly hail from.

TITechTemplate.displayName.MissionToSpace=Mission To Space TITechTemplate.summary.MissionToSpace=We learn how to live and thrive in a vacuum. TITechTemplate.quote.MissionToSpace="The Surah al-Baqarah teaches that in the creation of heaven and Earth, a wise people may find the signs of Allah. Let us heed those words and join together, as we take our search into the stars."
<align=right>{escapeLeader}<align=left>
<align=right>From his Khutbah at the First Conclave of Muslim Astrophysicists<align=left> TITechTemplate.description.MissionToSpace=Existing in space is a different animal than merely traversing it. If we plan to go from tourist to resident, we must adapt. Logistics requires resupply missions planned months in advance, while engineering must cope with long-term exposure to solar radiation and the rigors of equipment maintenance in a vacuum. Likewise, our psychologists must develop a training regimen so personnel are able to maintain peak performance in an environment where "up" and "down" do not exist.

We have, of course, been able to travel into space for some time, but now we must establish how to do so easily, regularly, and cost-effectively, and in far greater numbers than ever before. This renewed mission to space thus entails a mission to change many of our most fundamental preconceptions. Yet all these hardships are entirely necessary, for only once we are comfortably beyond Earth's orbit can we hope to explore, exploit, and ultimately even settle upon neighboring worlds - and, in time, perhaps far beyond.

TITechTemplate.displayName.MissiontotheAsteroids=Mission to the Asteroids TITechTemplate.summary.MissiontotheAsteroids=Mining the thousands of small bodies interior to Jupiter's orbit could fuel the rapid industrialization of space. TITechTemplate.quote.MissiontotheAsteroids="If it isn't ours, it's somebody else's. And if it's somebody else's, sooner or later they'll use it against us. That's why we have to take it, whether we need it or not."
<align=right>{destroyLeader}<align=left>
<align=right>Quoted in his official biography "Five Moves Ahead," 2015 (cancelled before publication).<align=left> TITechTemplate.description.MissiontotheAsteroids=Between Mars and Jupiter are a trove of rocks full of valuable elements. They fall into three broad categories: Stony asteroids contain some metals along with rare fissiles, carbonaceous asteroids are sources of volatiles, and metallic asteroids are rich in both base and noble metals. Chances of water increase when asteroids are located further from the sun. While much further away than the Moon and Mars, an asteroid's negligible gravity will allow us to construct catapults far more cheaply.

TITechTemplate.displayName.MissiontotheMoon=Mission to the Moon TITechTemplate.summary.MissiontotheMoon=Earth's companion offers a number of nearby sites to colonize. TITechTemplate.quote.MissiontotheMoon="Trillions of dollars, just sitting up there, yet still the regulators drag their heels. Maybe it's time I treated the President to another golfing weekend..."
<align=right>{exploitLeader}<align=left>
<align=right>Leaked private correspondence<align=left> TITechTemplate.description.MissiontotheMoon=We may feel we know our nearest neighbor well, yet our visits to it were far apart and fleeting. The moon is a natural staging ground for missions to other worlds in the Sol system, as well containing boundless resources of its own. So it is high time we attempted longer-term habitation upon its barren surface. The rare earth metal deposits and water housed there would be of significant benefit to both lunar colonization and orbital construction efforts, freeing us from the need to expensively and slowly transport critical resources from Earth. The moon may not seem as enticing a trophy as Mars, Venus or beyond, but we would be foolish to squander the wondrous opportunities it presents us with. Untangling decades of international regulation concerning its exploitation will be no easy matter, however.

TITechTemplate.displayName.MissiontotheOuterPlanets=Mission to the Outer Planets TITechTemplate.summary.MissiontotheOuterPlanets=Exploration and exploitation of the icy worlds beyond Saturn will bring us closer to reaching the alien base. TITechTemplate.quote.MissiontotheOuterPlanets="Only when we can look our enemy in the eye can we understand why he is not so different from ourselves. Then, only then, can we hope for peace, Ifechi."
<align=right>{appeaseLeader}<align=left>
<align=right>From a letter to his partner while stationed in Rwanda<align=left> TITechTemplate.description.MissiontotheOuterPlanets=There is much still to learn about the farthest and coldest reaches of our solar system, but, if we can reach them, both Uranus and Neptune offer hope for colonization - or, at least, their moons do. Around Uranus, the satellites Miranda, Ariel, Umbriel, Titania, and Oberon offer potential for habitation, while the frozen nitrogen surface of Triton, Neptune's largest moon, likely conceals a subsurface ocean. Beyond Neptune's orbit is the Kuiper belt and the Outer Oort cloud, which contain billions, perhaps even trillions of ice-rich objects. We speculate that, amongst that great assembly, we will find all the ingredients required for life. The outer planets and beyond are also an abundant source of deuterium and helium-3 with which to meet our fuel needs - all the better to push even further outwards, and finally locate the origin of our alien visitors.

TITechTemplate.displayName.MolecularAssemblers=Molecular Assemblers TITechTemplate.summary.MolecularAssemblers=Self-replicating nanomachines, able to build a variety of remarkable substances at a molecular level. TITechTemplate.quote.MolecularAssemblers="Back on the farm, if something broke they didn't have some fancy machine to fix it, and they couldn't wait for some repairman to stop by. So they did it all themselves, with their own weather-worn hands."
<align=right>{submitLeader}<align=left>
<align=right>Interview from the podcast Eighth Chakra<align=left> TITechTemplate.description.MolecularAssemblers=Molecular assemblers - machines by which we can move and place reactive molecules with atomic precision - are a branch of nanotechnology that is essential to progress on a number of fronts. One is technological: the creation of ultra-resilient, self-repairing armor that can withstand even the heaviest assaults, and low-mass capacitors that can store and release incredible amounts of power. Another is biological: arranging specific strings of amino acids in order to assemble protein molecules, and therefore alter, or even create, living organisms. To do this, we will require vast, dedicated nanofactories, which our scientists now believe can be built by a single, self-replicating molecular assembler, thus almost wholly removing any dependence upon either personnel or resource shipments. Once these automated factories are established, the possibilities are near-endless.

TITechTemplate.displayName.MoltenCoreFissionSystems=Molten Core Fission Systems TITechTemplate.summary.MoltenCoreFissionSystems=Molten core fission systems generate energy by harnessing fission reactions of molten salts through liquid metal coolant. TITechTemplate.quote.MoltenCoreFissionSystems="Unless you too want to be showered in liquid lead, make damn sure the coolant circuit doesn't break again. Oh, and see to it that these… statues of your predecessors are removed."
<align=right>{exploitLeader}<align=left>
<align=right>Introductory briefing for the new chief of engineering<align=left> TITechTemplate.description.MoltenCoreFissionSystems=Our current solid core fission reactors are reliant upon water and steam to generate electricity, which has proven to be an inherently inefficient design.

To address this shortcoming, the next generation of fission systems instead use both liquid fuels and molten metal as the coolant and heat absorber. These reactors are designed to generate - or breed - a portion of their fuel from a variety of sources, such as natural uranium and thorium, or even recycled radioactive waste and plutonium. The liquid fuel is a solution of these sources and molten salts, which slows the released neutrons of the fission reaction so that they can breed more fuel or sustain the chain reaction. The released energy is captured as heat through a second loop of molten lead as coolant. These reactors have two major benefits. First, they can generate more energy due to the high thermal conductivity of the metal coolant. Second, the lower operating pressures of both the fuel and the coolant make the design far safer than high-pressure water-cooled reactors.

These two advantages allow our spaceships and habitats to be safer. Together with their ability to breed portions of their fuel, these reactors can run longer on less fuel, opening a new pathway into the distant regions of the solar system. It is also the stepping stone to using gases as nuclear fuels, and developing even more advanced fission systems.

TITechTemplate.displayName.NetworkedGlobalDefense=Networked Global Defense TITechTemplate.summary.NetworkedGlobalDefense=We become capable of constructing systems that can predict and defend against simultaneous, sustained assault in multiple regions of the world. TITechTemplate.quote.NetworkedGlobalDefense="Stop your hypocritical hand-wringing! You think only of the minor threat at the time I quashed it, and not of the insurmountable threat it would have become had I not."
<align=right>{destroyLeader}<align=left>
<align=right>Statements made during his war crimes trial<align=left> TITechTemplate.description.NetworkedGlobalDefense=It has long been the case that geographically-dispersed forces gain an enormous competitive advantage thanks to a networked system of intelligence sensors and precision weapons, which together serve to increase the speed of command. But these changed times, and our rapidly-changing world, require a dramatic evolution of even this so-called full-spectrum dominance. We must be able to respond to any threat that arises not only as one army, or one nation, or even one continent, but as one world. Using our many breakthroughs in quantum computing and communication, we can build defensive systems capable of instantaneous and lethal response, anywhere on the planet - and, indeed, anywhere in the skies above it.

TITechTemplate.displayName.NetworkedPropaganda=Networked Propaganda TITechTemplate.summary.NetworkedPropaganda=We study ways to shape public opinion in the Internet's many-speak-to-many environment. TITechTemplate.quote.NetworkedPropaganda="Fake news, misinformation ... It doesn't matter what they call it. The simple truth is that the powerful do it, and the powerless cry about it. And that is why the powerless will never, ever become the powerful.
<align=right>{exploitLeader}<align=left>
<align=right>During a billionaires-only clubhouse discussion<align=left> TITechTemplate.description.NetworkedPropaganda=If not controlling, then at least influencing hearts and minds is a growing necessity in this most turbulent of ages. With old loyalties transformed and new sympathies forged by the alien arrival, international borders - or indeed planetary ones - simply will not present any barrier whatsoever to the spreading of a message. The advent of cybernetics offers startling opportunities in this field too - we are now testing experimental new implants that entirely remove the old need for devices and screens and cables, enabling the near-instantaneous sending and receipt of messages and videos to anyone, anywhere.

The potential for organizing movements, for crowd-sourced initiatives and for the mass coordination of aid to people in need is endless, but so too is the potential for exploitation. Not simply in terms of marketing and advertising - there are those who would use it to slowly, perniciously bend others to their will, to encourage coups or to destabilize their opponents through sustained, direct-to-the-senses misinformation campaigns. But this new era of mass communication is a genie that cannot be returned to its bottle - to the victor, the spoils.

TITechTemplate.displayName.Neutronics=Neutronics TITechTemplate.summary.Neutronics=Physicists develop ways to deliver neutrons where they are wanted and keep them out of places where they are not. TITechTemplate.quote.Neutronics="You'll frown at my ignorance and romanticism, but look, if one good thing comes out of all this mess, it's getting to tell my kids that every spaceship has a tiny star at its heart."
<align=right>{resistLeader}<align=left>
<align=right>Private correspondence following a tour of Los Alamos National Laboratory<align=left> TITechTemplate.description.Neutronics=Neutrons - neutral subatomic particles that along with protons and electrons make up most atoms in the universe - have their uses. Beams of neutrons can trigger nuclear reactions that propel our spacecraft and also serve as weapons. But many fission and fusion reactions also produce wild neutrons that are a danger to the humans relying on those reactions. Powerful new computers have enabled us to model neutron behavior with precision previously unavailable to us. This in turn lets us build new devices to control them, and lightweight shielding to protect fragile life from them. We also see pathways to the ultimate prize: trapping and storing ultracold neutrons for long periods of time, preventing their usual rapid decay. This would allow us to use them as extremely efficient catalysts, but we'll need to develop new understandings of materials science before we can proceed.

TITechTemplate.displayName.NextGenerationAerospace=Next-Generation Aerospace TITechTemplate.summary.NextGenerationAerospace=Aeronautical engineers explore reusable suborbital and single-stage-to-orbit craft. TITechTemplate.quote.NextGenerationAerospace="You're jerking my chain, right? There's no way in hell that I'm spending millions on sending a rocket into space if we just let half of it sink to the bottom of the ocean."
<align=right>{exploitLeader}<align=left>
<align=right>When asked by SABC News about whether he intended to join the billionaire space-race, 2021<align=left> TITechTemplate.description.NextGenerationAerospace=For too long, our efforts to venture beyond Earth have been inherently wasteful affairs. Every rocket jettisons multiple stages, each of which contains its own engines, propellant, and other equipment, during its passage into space. This is obscenely expensive, and also a source of increasingly problematic orbital debris fields. If we are to launch more spacecraft, more often, using them as we use airplanes, we must develop reusable vessels. While partially reusable vessels have flown in the past, new refinements in parachutes and airbags now allow the recovery of every stage. Because even this remains highly inefficient, our engineers have prototyped a far superior alternative - a single-stage-to-orbit, or SSTO, craft, which expend no major hardware during their flight. This has been achieved partly by advances in materials and construction techniques, which enable the craft to survive hypersonic flight and multiple orbital re-entries, and partly by improving mass-ratio sufficiently to carry both copious amounts of propellant and a crew/cargo payload all the way to orbit, without any need to separate. With this achieved, we can begin to think about reaching space as an almost everyday pursuit.

TITechTemplate.displayName.NuclearFissioninSpace=Nuclear Fission In Space TITechTemplate.summary.NuclearFissioninSpace=We try out decades-old proposals for fission reactors and propulsion systems for space. TITechTemplate.quote.NuclearFissioninSpace="In 1954, the Americans built the first nuclear-powered submarine, and changed the course of naval warfare. Now, it is upon us to become the creators of the first nuclear-powered spaceship. It is upon us to define warfare in space."
<align=right>{resistLeader}<align=left>
<align=right>From a speech made while opening the Churchill Shipyards<align=left> TITechTemplate.description.NuclearFissioninSpace=Since we discovered nuclear fission in 1938, we have used this knowledge both to give and to take - to build power plants and weapons of mass destruction alike. With every passing decade, our understanding of the forces that rule the universe grew, and we were able to refine this process further. However, until now reactors needed the pull of gravity in order to contain the chain reaction, and to keep the water flowing. Without that flow, nothing happens - for fission heats water, water becomes steam, steam turns turbines, and turbines generate energy.

Now, combining our new concepts for deep space propulsion with our decades of experience in nuclear fission, we are able to stabilize the first nuclear reaction in space. With our new reactor designs, we no longer need gravity to collect the energy released by splitting atoms. Our new containment systems ensure a safe, sustained chain reaction in zero-g.

Thanks to this achievement, our fission-powered spacecraft can now reach the darkest and furthest corners of our solar system. Nuclear reactors will power ships, weapons, and habitats, enabling us to harness countless resources far beyond our homeworld's atmosphere and meet the aliens in the vast openness of space, rather than bound to our own soil. Furthermore, these new technologies will help us to build the next generation of solid fission systems and explore the even greater energy potential of nuclear fusion in space.

TITechTemplate.displayName.NuclearFusioninSpace=Nuclear Fusion Methodologies TITechTemplate.summary.NuclearFusioninSpace=We explore harnessing nuclear fusion for power and propulsion technologies. TITechTemplate.quote.NuclearFusioninSpace="Our advances in science and technology can be the key to the gates of heaven, but also to the gates of hell. We must choose wisely every time, or we may never choose again."
<align=right>{appeaseLeader}<align=left>
<align=right>Speech at the U.N. Science Summit<align=left> TITechTemplate.description.NuclearFusioninSpace=Ever since we gazed upon the burning sun in our sky, we have wondered how its light and power are created. As early as 1920, scientists theorized about the sheer endless possibilities of nuclear fusion. Now, with the countless challenges and opportunities presented by the arrival of life from outer space, it is imperative that we realize this dream of unprecedented energy.

We have finally developed a concrete path to make the impossible possible: controlled nuclear fusion. By using powerful magnets and lasers, we have refined the technology to push smaller atoms together so that they fuse into heavier elements. The trick to nuclear fusion is to overcome the repelling force that prevents atoms from fusing on their own. This allows the binding nuclear force to take over and merge the atoms together. When fusing lighter atoms into heavier ones, we observe Einstein's famous law making itself once more inarguable: energy and mass merge together to create something new, while releasing excess energy. It is this burst of released energy that is key to meeting the steep power requirements of deep-space habitats, but also of our ever more demanding spaceship drives and weapons.

Our scientists believe this breakthrough will help to level the playing field in the vast reaches of space. Now that the fundamentals of off-world fusion reactors have been proven possible, they predict that we shall soon see reactors running on two potent hydrogen isotopes, deuterium and tritium, but we must also master at least one of several confinement schemes to control and direct the massive energies we are creating. Once accomplished, the versatility of this energy source will surely know no bounds.

TITechTemplate.displayName.OrbitalFighters=Exoatmospheric Fighters TITechTemplate.summary.OrbitalFighters=We develop small combat craft able to reach Low Earth Orbit from the surface. TITechTemplate.quote.OrbitalFighters="The ocean of history is littered with armadas sunken by the weight of their purported power. I'm not interested in a massive battle axe, I want a perfectly balanced knife."
<align=right>{destroyLeader}<align=left>
<align=right>Fundamentals of Orbital Warfare<align=left> TITechTemplate.description.OrbitalFighters=The sheer difficulty of boosting a massive armored warship out of Earth's gravity well, and the utter lack of survivability of something like an armed space shuttle, have collectively to date precluded us from considering any kind of combat-capable surface-to-orbit craft. We have instead focused on assembling our spacecraft away from Earth's surface. But advancements in propulsion and lightweight materials have made small combatants a viable option for near-Earth orbits. These exo-atmospheric fighters, or "Exofighters," would be boosted from Earth surface using traditional rocket stages, launched from jetliner-sized mothership aircraft, or take advantage of new single-stage-to-orbit capabilities to reach a combat area in a Low Earth Orbit. After an engagement, they then would return to Earth and land like an airplane at a long airstrip.

Because of the significant ground support required for these craft, they will be nation assets under an executive faction's command, built via national investment and hangared at launch facilities on Earth. They will be able to join battles in any Earth interface orbit, or initiate combat on their own against targets in those orbits. Upgrades in chemical and solid-core nuclear propulsion, small solid-core nuclear reactors, armor, targeting computers, ECM, and missiles will enhance their capabilities.

TITechTemplate.displayName.OrbitalShipbuilding=Orbital Shipbuilding TITechTemplate.summary.OrbitalShipbuilding=The construction of zero-g assembly facilities for non-atmospheric craft. TITechTemplate.quote.OrbitalShipbuilding="Mum's last years were a blur of doctors and treatments. By that point, every movement was painful. The one thing she loved was her aquatic therapy. Whenever I was home on leave, I'd take her to the pool for hours. Weightless. Smiling. Free."
<align=right>{resistLeader}<align=left>
<align=right>Response to SIS psychological evaluation question "What gives you strength in difficult times?"<align=left> TITechTemplate.description.OrbitalShipbuilding=The old rules of aerospace cease to be when there is less "aero" and more "space." Craft built for the purpose of traveling, transporting, and fighting in space have greater allowance for design versatility when friction and drag are no longer an issue; materials can be more dense and designs can be more utilitarian. This does mean, however, that ships built for space must be built in space, at least if we are to avoid time-consuming and costly haulage from Earth, not to mention finding room for the colossal factories. Once the sizable initial investment is complete, orbital shipyards will provide an essential anchorage from which commerce, construction, and combat vessels alike will be born.

TITechTemplate.displayName.OrbitalRingHabs=Orbitals TITechTemplate.summary.OrbitalRingHabs=A second generation of space habitats can hold hundreds of personnel. TITechTemplate.quote.OrbitalRingHabs="We've all gaped in awe at those images of the Earth as seen from space. Beautiful. Divine. But if you saw that same sight every time you looked out the window, wouldn't you grow to hate it?"
<align=right>{escapeLeader}<align=left>
<align=right>Guest appearance on the podcast "Thinking Bigger".<align=left> TITechTemplate.description.OrbitalRingHabs=With the rudiments of long-term space existence now established, it is time to raise the stakes. More personnel, more improvements to their quality of life, and far more reliability and autonomy - further reducing the need for shipments from Earth. Even if we settle on other worlds, permanent waypoints in the space between them are a necessity if we are to efficiently transport craft, resources, and people between those worlds, and to oversee the many trade routes that spawn from such expansion. It is size that we must now address. Each resident requires a minimum volume of 17 cubic meters of personal space if they are to remain sane for more than a few months, but for orbital existence to become a long-term, large-scale prospect, we must now significantly exceed this baseline. Larger habs and more personnel also mean more of everything else, of course, more oxygen, more food, more medical supplies. Clustered and expandable micro-gravity modules, linked by arterial floataways, have been deemed the most practical approach for now, but once we move from scores of trained personnel to thousands of civilians, we will need not only larger habitats, but also a means of generating gravity.

TITechTemplate.displayName.OrbitalTorusHabs=Ring Habs TITechTemplate.summary.OrbitalTorusHabs=We develop the means to build huge space structures that contain thousands of people. TITechTemplate.quote.OrbitalTorusHabs="The world forever turns. That, we cannot change. What we can do is ensure we turn towards each other, and never away - that we embrace all our tomorrows united and unafraid."
<align=right>{submitLeader}<align=left>
<align=right>From the blurb to her book "Unity: 8 Simple Rules For A Better Humanity"<align=left> TITechTemplate.description.OrbitalTorusHabs=Now that we can not only build colonies in space, but also have the technology and medicines to make long-term habitation relatively safe for those who live within them, the time has come to consider humanity's space future on a far grander scale. We now have designs for habitats that can support not just hundreds, but thousands of souls; entire societies who will never know what it is to feel real land beneath their feet. These will consist of not only military and scientific personnel, but also families, children - new generations who will lead humanity even further into the stars. As such, comfort and quality of life - leisure, exercise, education - is paramount. To achieve that, we will need far more space and, to address the many health complications and inconveniences of zero-g, a semblance of gravity. The clustered, micro-gravity modules of yore cannot provide this, and so our engineers have devised a radically different design - the ring habitat. Nick-named 'donuts' for their bloated appearance, these rings both resemble and behave like vast wheels, their outer rims forever rotating upon great spokes - a process which creates gravity within those outer rims. The spokes themselves, and the hub they join to, remain in zero-gravity, and thus house the likes of spaceports, reactors, and storage. Life on board a Ring is not life on Earth, but it does at least approximate it - and, crucially, these vast cosmic donuts will enable us to truly found a human civilization in space.

TITechTemplate.displayName.OurSpaceFuture=Our Space Future TITechTemplate.summary.OurSpaceFuture=As our presence in space grows, we consider what changes a hybrid space-terrestrial society may bring. TITechTemplate.quote.OurSpaceFuture="Believe and accept that there are other souls out there - created by the divine, as we ourselves were. It is our mission, our duty, and our privilege to join with them - a meeting of minds across the stars."
<align=right>{submitLeader}<align=left>
<align=right>From a Xenobaptist propaganda leaflet,
five months before the Night of Cleansing Flame<align=left> TITechTemplate.description.OurSpaceFuture=There can be no going backwards now; humanity has both a military and an industrial presence in space, not to mention ever-growing numbers of personnel for whom a life on Earth is an increasingly distant memory. It is time to double-down on this, to no longer think of ourselves as an Earth-bound species. This means establishing new forms of law, order, and communication to govern land, airspace, and space alike, which will create untold turbulence as our new, hybrid society grows accustomed to it. In turn, this requires specially-trained forces, to defend against threats both internal and external. We now have concrete proposals on how to achieve this - and, once it is realized, we can think in earnest about founding true, and increasingly sizable, off-Earth societies.

TITechTemplate.displayName.OutpostHabs=Outpost Habs TITechTemplate.summary.OutpostHabs=Constructing long term essential modules for a permanent presence in space. TITechTemplate.quote.OutpostHabs="There are two types of people in this world: those who only think of home, and those who think only of leaving home."
<align=right>{escapeLeader}<align=left>
<align=right>From a long-defunct online dating profile<align=left> TITechTemplate.description.OutpostHabs=While we have long been able to provide a few months of off-world comfort to a small handful of highly-trained astronauts, the time has come to strive for something longer-term - and even indefinite. Our newly-developed, first generation outpost habitats are the product of engineering built on decades of experience in the most hostile corners of the Earth. A far cry from our earliest ventures, which were exclusively designed for scientific research, this new breed of space station is built for versatility - to provide off-world homes for dozens of souls, and from more walks of life than astronaut and engineer. Aside from essential life support and power functionality, the outposts are designed with a space future in mind. Each outpost, already a marvel in its own right, is capable of being further customized, depending on each one's specific mission requirements.

TITechTemplate.displayName.ParticleCannon=Particle Beams TITechTemplate.summary.ParticleCannon=High-energy particle accelerators that can be used to induce all manner of atomic reactions. TITechTemplate.quote.ParticleCannon="From gigantic atom smashers to household television tubes, particle accelerators are versatile tools. Practically, I see no reason why they could not be weaponized. Ethically is perhaps another matter."
<align=right>{cooperateLeader}<align=left>
<align=right>Scientific testimony during a hearing by the Central Military Commission in Beijing<align=left> TITechTemplate.description.ParticleCannon=The technology to focus a chaotic bit of matter into a well-defined, directed beam of atoms has been around for decades, but the next generation of particle accelerators employs pulsed lasers or electron afterburners within a plasma to transfer vast energies to the target particles. This reduces the size and energy requirement for accelerators dramatically; the kilometer-sized linear colliders and loops of today will soon fit in our labs and spacecraft.

The applications are many: Compact particle accelerators can be used in propulsion systems to trigger desired nuclear reactions. As weapons, they can wreak havoc on electronics and soft targets, but they will initially only be useful at extremely close range. Eventually, we may be able to use them in space-based colliders to help produce a hugely powerful energy storage medium - antimatter.

TITechTemplate.displayName.PhasedArrayLasers=Phased-Array Lasers TITechTemplate.summary.PhasedArrayLasers=Advanced laser weapons, nicknamed phasers, use AI-managed mirror arrays to allow targeting at extreme ranges. TITechTemplate.quote.PhasedArrayLasers="The simple truth is that any spaceship is just a large, metal balloon filled with air: Once pierced, it has lost all its wonder."
<align=right>{destroyLeader}<align=left>
<align=right>Fundamentals of Orbital Warfare<align=left> TITechTemplate.description.PhasedArrayLasers=We have now reached what is considered to be the pinnacle of combat laser technology. These novel phased-array lasers, quickly christened as "phasers" by engineers, have exceeded all previous expectations.

They employ second-generation arc lasers, together with an improved, AI-guided mirror system, in order to attain the extreme ranges that have previously eluded our energy weapons. The AI for these mirror systems has been trained on millions of hours of ship combat data, which enables it to predict enemy ship maneuvers based on even the smallest adjustment of course. These predictions, together with an ultrafast response time of mere nanoseconds, allow the AI to perform high-precision shots at moving targets, even at extreme distances.

This is the zenith of laser weapons - little, if anything, will be able to stand against it.

TITechTemplate.displayName.PhotonicComputing=Photonic Computing TITechTemplate.summary.PhotonicComputing=Replaces conventional electron-based computing with super-high-bandwidth photons. TITechTemplate.quote.PhotonicComputing="Sisters and brothers, I remind you the Lord said, 'Shall the axe boast over him who hews with it, or the saw magnify itself against him who wields it?' It is our destiny, our right, to embrace the marvels He has seen fit to provide us. The Enemy would have you believe this is playing god, but nay. We are taking dominion of our world, and claiming our rightful place at His right hand."
<align=right>{submitLeader}<align=left>
<align=right>From her first official Xenobaptist sermon, three weeks before the Night of Cleansing Flame<align=left> TITechTemplate.description.PhotonicComputing=Our current computing devices depend upon passing a current through increasingly tiny microchips, but the laws of physics present barriers we cannot circumvent. The road to the future is not paved in processors shrunk by a handful more nanometers, but instead in light - using photons - rather than electrons. By replacing electronic data transfer and storage with photonic, or optical, equivalents, we can dramatically increase both the speed and efficiency of our computational capabilities. Though optoelectronic hybrids exist, these systems lose nearly 30% of their energy, due to the inefficiency of signal conversion. Wholly optical circuits remove this inefficiency, and thus can process algorithms at a speed beyond the reach of traditional devices, while consuming far less energy. At last, we have our first working photonic chip. This is the breakthrough we have long needed - one that will ultimately birth an even brighter future of quantum computing and true artificial intelligence.

TITechTemplate.displayName.PlasmaWeapons=Plasma Weapons TITechTemplate.summary.PlasmaWeapons=Self-sustaining magnetic fields allow plasma - gas as hot as the core of a star - to be weaponized and used as devastating projectiles. TITechTemplate.quote.PlasmaWeapons="There is nothing, nothing we humans will not turn into a weapon if we can. Each fresh discovery we make only speeds us closer to destruction."
<align=right>{appeaseLeader}<align=left>
<align=right>"Blood Money."<align=left> TITechTemplate.description.PlasmaWeapons=Now that we can use magnetic fields to both safely contain superheated gases and propel rounds from fearsomely powerful kinetic weapons, the logical next step is to weaponize plasma. Plasma rounds can burn through even the heaviest armor - not to mention heat it up to such an extent that anything within will roast - but because the revised electromagnetic weapons our engineers have devised never come into physical contact with their hotter-than-the-sun projectiles, there is no risk of damage at the user-end. The trouble is that, once a plasma round is released from its weapon, it will almost immediately expand to a diameter of some five thousand kilometers - i.e. dissipating so rapidly as to be effectively useless unless fired at point-blank range. Physical jackets strong enough to contain the rounds are obviously an impossibility, but, by building upon previous electromagnetic breakthroughs, a temporary, self-sustaining magnetic field powerful enough to contain plasma's internal pressure until kinetic impact is now plausible. We can now build weapons almost nothing could hope to defend against.

TITechTemplate.displayName.PredictiveGenetics=Predictive Genetics TITechTemplate.summary.PredictiveGenetics=Improves modern medicine via advances in personal genomics and translational bioinformatics. TITechTemplate.quote.PredictiveGenetics="If these results are accurate, we're about to upend the entire medical system. Not a soul outside this room can hear about it until we're certain our patents are watertight. And once they are, the golden age begins. Gentlemen, we are about to profit from life itself."
<align=right>{exploitLeader}<align=left>
<align=right>Minutes from Sangoma Pharmaceutical's quarterly board meeting<align=left> TITechTemplate.description.PredictiveGenetics=Humans have long chased immortality, or at least some way to meaningfully delay the reaper's arrival. Although predictive genetics is no Philosopher's Stone, it is an enormous leap towards the prolonged sustainment of our lives, as well as dramatically improved quality of life during our later decades. Stemming from its foundations in the Human Genome Project, the latest advancements in predictive genetics will, in time, allow medical personnel to identify and correct for markers associated with complex diseases ranging from Type 2 Diabetes to the most obscure genetic disorders - and even most cancers. When combined with innovative analytics and cutting-edge AI, humans can expect to live longer, healthier lives. Once the nations of the world take full advantage of these latest developments, all but a few of the diseases and disorders, which have blighted our species since we first crawled from the oceans, will soon be things of the past.

TITechTemplate.displayName.AneutronicFusion=Aneutronic Fusion TITechTemplate.summary.AneutronicFusion=Breakthroughs in aneutronic fusion reactions make our reactors more fuel- and cost-efficient than ever before. TITechTemplate.quote.AneutronicFusion="Our technology is but a mirror of ourselves. When we reach for fusion - the power of the sun - we reach for the light that guides our path through the darkness."
<align=right>{submitLeader}<align=left>
<align=right>from Seeing The Light Podcast<align=left> TITechTemplate.description.AneutronicFusion=Successive generations of fusion technologies have lifted us far above the gravity well of our home planet, and enabled us to reach - and exploit - neighboring worlds. Thanks to deuterium-helium-3 fusion, the gulf between us and them has grown ever-smaller. However, deuterium is ultimately too scarce a fuel source to indefinitely sustain our expansion into space.

By building upon our understanding of deuterium-helium-3 fusion, our researchers have made a significant breakthrough - sustainable aneutronic fusion reaction, with strikingly low fuel costs. The fusion of a proton and boron, and that of hydrogen and lithium-6, are the keys. Even despite their higher ignition temperature, both protons and boron are far more abundant in the solar system than deuterium. Our latest solid energy collectors can in addition harness this reaction efficiently, as they lose no energy to neutron radiation - all energy is instead released as electromagnetic radiation.

This new breed of fusion reactor will create more power at lower costs, and with less shielding required, thus paving the way to larger habitats and stations, and sleeker ships with more powerful drives. Yet, this is just the beginning of our quest to harness the power of the stars themselves.

TITechTemplate.displayName.Superalloys=Superalloys TITechTemplate.summary.Superalloys=We design and assemble resilient metallic alloys from the atom up. TITechTemplate.quote.Superalloys="With all due respect, there are only two things that really matter here: Getting wherever we need to be fast, and not getting ourselves killed in the process."
<align=right>{resistLeader}<align=left>
<align=right>Research Proposal Review Conference for the U.K.'s Defense and Security Accelerator<align=left> TITechTemplate.description.Superalloys=The discipline of metallurgy has taken something of a back seat in materials science as research into carbon nanotubes, diamondoids, and other carbon allotropes have leapt into the fore. But advances in predictive chemistry and nanoscale atomic manipulation also offer the ability to develop new alloys that feature combinations of metals and other materials found neither in nature nor in industrial-era furnaces. More prosaic elements as iron, aluminium, nickel, and cobalt can be arranged in synthetic patterns, and rarer elements like rhenium, tungsten, and hafnium can be added as strengtheners to these new substances. End products vary but may offer previously unknown levels of heat resistance, tensile strength, and durability in hostile environments. This can lead to advances in areas ranging from armor and heat shielding to plasma containment and weaponry.

TITechTemplate.displayName.ProtonProtonFusion=Proton-Proton Fusion TITechTemplate.summary.ProtonProtonFusion=By mastering the ultimate form of fusion reaction, we will tame the power of the sun. TITechTemplate.quote.ProtonProtonFusion="It was Bertrand Russell who defined the distinction between knowledge by description and knowledge by acquaintance. Soon, so very soon, our understanding of distant worlds will not stem from mere readings and photographs, but instead from walking upon alien soil."
<align=right>{escapeLeader}<align=left>
<align=right>From press briefing materials for Project Bifrost<align=left> TITechTemplate.description.ProtonProtonFusion=Since the beginning of the modern age, we have reached for the stars above. And since the revelation that there is indeed life on other worlds, we have sought their knowledge for ourselves. To achieve this, we will also need to claim the power of the sun for ourselves - to be specific, recreating the fusion chain that occurs within the heart of a star. Since the day we first accomplished nuclear fusion in space, we have created ever-stronger electromagnetic containment fields, we have designed multilayered reactor chambers, and we have developed ever more potent fuel sources.

By combining all these advances, we have at last mastered the most energetic fusion reaction in the universe: proton-proton fusion. Using a complex, yet elegant, web of electromagnetic fields, we press the protons together in our reactors, mimicking the extreme pressures and temperature of a sun, and fuse the protons into helium atoms. This reaction releases its massive energy as pure electromagnetic radiation and electrons. Both of these can be harvested by solid-state collectors, then transformed directly into energy. This breakthrough thus enables the construction of breathtakingly efficient fusion reactors, and will allow humankind to spread its wings like never before.

TITechTemplate.displayName.QuantumComputing=Quantum Computing TITechTemplate.summary.QuantumComputing=Devices able to process billions of operations at once transform the possibilities of computing. TITechTemplate.quote.QuantumComputing="The cat is in the box. The cat is alive. The cat is dead. The cat is not in the box. All cats ever born are in the box. The box does not exist. The box is a cat. You are the cat."
<align=right>{submitLeader}<align=left>
<align=right>From her social media video "THE TRUTH!!!!!," since delisted due to suspected use of banned substances during recording<align=left> TITechTemplate.description.QuantumComputing=A regular computer stores information as a series of zeroes and ones. No matter the data - be it a spreadsheet, an image, a video, a game - it all boils down to ones and zeroes. In that respect, even our most advanced devices are simply an evolution of the humble pocket calculator, despite being made up of transistors almost as small as an atom. Quantum computing is a profound change from this age-old approach, in that it can store information as both a zero and one at the same time. While this is a headache-inducing concept on paper, in practice what it means is that a quantum computer can perform multiple operations simultaneously, whereas even our best supercomputers process calculations one by one. In a single operation, a quantum computer can compute what would require a million million million million million calculations on a regular computer. This means breathtakingly complex results measured in milliseconds, shattering the hard barriers imposed by traditional and even photonic computing. Now that our hardware and software engineers have finally lifted quantum computers out of the realm of mere theory and into mass production-ready reality, we will soon be able to build devices able to deal with the near-infinite variables inherent to running off-world colonies and planetary-wide defense systems, generating true artificial intelligence and even deciphering the aliens' own advanced technology.

TITechTemplate.displayName.QuantumEncryption=Quantum Encryption TITechTemplate.summary.QuantumEncryption=Unbreakable cryptography methods enable unhackable, rapid communications even at incredible distances. TITechTemplate.quote.QuantumEncryption="Believe me, these bastards have already read everything humanity's ever written. If we don't come up with some way to talk without them listening in, we've got less chance of survival than a hummingbird in a hurricane."
<align=right>{resistLeader}<align=left>
<align=right>Encrypted Signal message to Resistance scientist Philip Rhodes (D.O.B. 2.27.77, SSN 078-05-1120) on 11.14.22 at 17.42, from 4.824167,7.033611<align=left> TITechTemplate.description.QuantumEncryption=Given that we will need to transmit highly-sensitive and hugely complex information through space potentially monitored by any number of forces unknown, making our data truly secure is an absolute imperative. We need truly unbreakable encryption, to ensure any communication cannot ever be read by anyone other than its intended recipient. It is our recent breakthrough in quantum computing that makes this possible - but it is this very same breakthrough that has made the need greater than ever before. With its ability to perform potentially billions of calculations simultaneously, a quantum computer could crack even our most complex encryption systems in a heartbeat. New, quantum-generated encryption methods are thus required, to ensure covert operations remain covert and to ensure our colonies and spacefaring vessels are safe from calamitous interference. Quantum key distribution has now been identified as the best path forwards, taking advantage as it does of the highly unpredictable behavior of subatomic particles to generate encryption keys without further slowing long-distance transmissions. For whoever can most successfully implement this, a truly unhackable future awaits.

TITechTemplate.displayName.Railguns=Railguns TITechTemplate.summary.Railguns=First-generation magnetic weapons use magnetized rods to propel heavy slugs at enemy targets. TITechTemplate.quote.Railguns="We can speculate about where these bloody things came from until the cows come home, but right now all that matters is whether or not we've got something that can put a bullet square between whatever the hell they call eyes."
<align=right>{resistLeader}<align=left>
<align=right>Comments made during a confidential videocall, shortly after first contact<align=left> TITechTemplate.description.Railguns=The future of weaponry is one without gunpowder, where electricity alone powers each killing shot. Railguns employ the foundational technology behind mass drivers to propel their projectiles at staggering speeds - with kinetic force to match. Our previous breakthroughs in electromagnetics have been refined to allow a remarkable degree of miniaturization. By flowing current through an elongated, magnetically-permeable rifle barrel (the sides of which are the titular "rails"), we can accelerate projectiles without the need for any explosive - achieving muzzle velocities far beyond even our most powerful explosive-based firearms.

This is of great benefit to both impact and range. In consequence, slugs fired from these new railguns are able to pierce the densest of armor at extreme distances. The degree of energy involved does raise significant issues with regard to heat and recoil (railguns kick like the proverbial mule), but the more severe limitation is durability, due to the sustained physical contact required between high-velocity rounds and the rifle's charged barrel.

Our researchers are, however, confident that subsequent discoveries in this field will bring about far more durable, and in turn far more powerful, electromagnetic weaponry. In the meantime, there is surely little that can stand against a railgun for long.

TITechTemplate.displayName.SelfRepairingSoftware=Self-Repairing Software TITechTemplate.summary.SelfRepairingSoftware=Software engineers develop quasi-AI capable of evaluating and improving its performance in its programmed tasks. TITechTemplate.quote.SelfRepairingSoftware="Enjoy your wealth and status while you can, my friends, because it is your certain destiny to eventually put yourself out of a job."
<align=right>{cooperateLeader},<align=left>
<align=right>Presenting the CSDN (Chinese Software Developer Network) "AI Outstanding Case Practice" award<align=left> TITechTemplate.description.SelfRepairingSoftware=Code has bugs and inefficiencies. Bugs must be fixed, and efficiency improved. This has been the way of things for decades because code is written by humans. All that is set to change, thanks to the creation of the first software that is, if not actually self-aware, able to detect, fix, and improve upon its own flaws, as well as expand its capabilities as required. This is the natural evolution of our previously established neural networks, achieved by the software constantly monitoring and correcting itself, in effect learning from every mistake or unexpected result. Beyond the initial programming, the requirement for human intervention or oversight is already dramatically reduced, but ultimately we hope to achieve total automation - not just of highly-specialized tasks, but potentially of almost every aspect of our society.

TITechTemplate.displayName.SettlementHabs=Settlement Habs TITechTemplate.summary.SettlementHabs=Second-generation surface bases capable of hosting hundreds of personnel. TITechTemplate.quote.SettlementHabs="Home is wherever you lay your head, it is said. If only this were true. Home, as far too many of us know, is only where no one is trying to destroy all that you hold dear."
<align=right>{appeaseLeader}<align=left>
<align=right>Comments made during a BBC World Service interview, during civil wars in the Balkans<align=left> TITechTemplate.description.SettlementHabs=Our Outpost Habs have been a successful proof of concept; this means the time has now come to begin housing humans on other worlds in unprecedented numbers. This is not merely a question of construction, but most of all one of safety; even the slightest error, oversight or malfunction could cost hundreds, even thousands of lives. If we are to proceed from mere research outposts and towards something resembling a society, we need to think in the longer term. Oxygen-generation is paramount, as are sustainable food and fuel sources - but privacy, leisure, and education will also become ever-more pressing concerns. Thus, we must build habitats at scale, designed to be modular and expandable. While this remains early days for the spread of humanity beyond Earth's orbit, these nascent settlements can prepare other planets for eventual full colonization.

TITechTemplate.displayName.Skywatch=Skywatch TITechTemplate.summary.Skywatch=The consolidation and advancement of aerospace surveillance systems. TITechTemplate.quote.Skywatch="The trick is not to look directly at what you're trying to see. Offset your focal point somewhere to the side of where you think you noticed the movement. At night, the center of your vision doesn't work as well as during the day. I won't try to explain the science to you. What matters is you'll see whatever is out there before they see you."
<align=right>{destroyLeader}, Chief Training Advisor<align=left>
<align=right>To ACDEGAM conscripts; Antioquia, Colombia<align=left> TITechTemplate.description.Skywatch=The span of time humanity has spent in space is dwarfed by the span of time humanity has been interested in it. Earliest records of the telescope date to the turn of the 17th century, with regular advancement made every century thereafter. It therefore follows that, on the shoulders of programs such as SETI, we consolidate our resources into a unified observation and surveillance program so we can maintain active, constant surveillance on the nearer parts of the Solar System.

TITechTemplate.displayName.SolidCoreFissionSystems=Solid Core Fission Systems TITechTemplate.summary.SolidCoreFissionSystems=These fission reactors use solid fuels made of heavy radioactive elements to generate energy. TITechTemplate.quote.SolidCoreFissionSystems="We will never know if Lise Meitner and Otto Hahn even dreamed that their discovery of nuclear fission would one day be used to build spaceships. Let us hope, nevertheless, that we would have made them proud."
<align=right>{cooperateLeader}<align=left>
<align=right>Keynote Speech at Spaceport Summit<align=left> TITechTemplate.description.SolidCoreFissionSystems=When nuclear fission was discovered in 1938, few would have believed that we would one day use it to launch mankind into the vast endlessness of space. And yet, based on our foundational work in achieving nuclear fission in space, we now have created the first generation of solid core fission systems to power both habitats and spaceships.

By using solid fuel made of heavy, radioactive materials, such as uranium dioxide or plutonium oxide, we can create a reactor that sustains the chain reaction even in zero-g. The first fission reaction is activated by bombarding the solid fuel with slow-moving neutrons to overcome the binding nuclear force that holds the nucleus of an atom together, releasing a flood of neutrons and energy as it breaks apart. This released energy is captured as heat by pressured water cooling systems designed for space.

This is an advancement that will enable new and larger habitats beyond Earth's orbit, and spaceship drives more powerful than ever before possible. Future fission systems will likely employ molten or gas core fuels, which our researchers believe will put us on a more even footing with the alien visitors.

TITechTemplate.displayName.SpaceAgriculture=Space Agriculture TITechTemplate.summary.SpaceAgriculture=The implementation of farming techniques in a micro and null gravity environment. TITechTemplate.quote.SpaceAgriculture="My family had this farm in Mississippi. You name it, they grew it - corn, soybeans, cotton ... There was so much to do, day and night. It wasn't the life I wanted, but it did teach me that you have to work hard if you want to nurture a living thing into the very best version of itself."
<align=right>{submitLeader}<align=left>
<align=right>Interview from the podcast Eighth Chakra<align=left> TITechTemplate.description.SpaceAgriculture=It is inconvenient, cumbersome, and risky to send copious amounts of food on every manned flight, while for our stations to remain dependent on supply drops from Earth is short-term thinking in the extreme. It is paramount that space-based personnel can grow their own food, even in environments with little-to-no gravity and a hostile atmosphere. Closed Ecological Life Support Systems (CELSS) are our best hope here; in other words, a sealed loop, which creates both food and oxygen, while requiring only light, power, and human personnel. The carbon dioxide exhaled by the latter is transformed into oxygen by plants, while their urine and waste-water is recycled into drinking water, and their excrement and food waste is used to grow the nutrient-rich plants. Such systems have been pursued without success for decades, but the creation of a new strain of fast-growing, protein-rich algae has finally yielded the breakthrough we need. In time, we will be able to vary our astronauts' diets by introducing leafy plants and even fish farms, which will make long-term off-planet habitation that much more comfortable.

TITechTemplate.displayName.SpaceAssaultDoctrine=Space Assault Doctrine TITechTemplate.summary.SpaceAssaultDoctrine=Military planners investigate strategies for seizing space assets intact. TITechTemplate.quote.SpaceAssaultDoctrine="Truly, I would love to believe that we will comport ourselves better on other worlds than we do here, but I am not naive. There will, I am afraid, be blood."
<align=right>{escapeLeader}<align=left>
<align=right>During the first Project Exodus security briefing<align=left> TITechTemplate.description.SpaceAssaultDoctrine=It is neither cheap nor easy to construct facilities in space, or on other worlds. As such, we would be foolish to simply raze any pre-existing structure we might encounter during a military operation. Building upon all our former strategies and technologies concerning non-terrestrial infantry, we are now able to stage larger and better-trained fighting forces, able to seize as well as destroy sizable enemy assets. This in itself will require new facilities, new equipment, and new forms of training, but the net result will be that we will have soldiers as adept in space as we do on land.

TITechTemplate.displayName.SpaceCommerce=Space Commerce TITechTemplate.summary.SpaceCommerce=We allow private enterprises to explore mining, construction, trade, and settlement interests in space. TITechTemplate.quote.SpaceCommerce="If we're not willing to spend whatever it takes to make sure that every one of those rocks has our name on it by this time next year, we might as well give up now."
<align=right>{exploitLeader}<align=left>
<align=right>DWKY Industries internal memo<align=left> TITechTemplate.description.SpaceCommerce=Inevitably, private businesses have taken a keen interest in humanity's expansion into space. Mining rights are particularly in demand, while other firms bid to build factories, and even commercial habitats. Careful regulation and the assignment of contracts and trade routes are thus necessary to achieve something never before attempted - transport goods and resources, in bulk, between Earth and space, and from station to station. This nascent commercialization of the solar system is, of course, but a stepping stone towards a true, shared economy between Earth and space, allowing private enterprises to claim their stake can only accelerate the process.

TITechTemplate.displayName.SpaceMedicine=Space Medicine TITechTemplate.summary.SpaceMedicine=Doctors design short-term treatment and long-term therapies for space environments. TITechTemplate.quote.SpaceMedicine="What we're doing is dangerous - people are going to get sick or hurt. It would be madness to pretend otherwise. The best thing we can do is ensure our failsafes are simple enough that even the least skilled among us can implement them under the worst of circumstances."
<align=right>{escapeLeader}<align=left>
<align=right>Briefing the senior medical team of Project Exodus<align=left> TITechTemplate.description.SpaceMedicine=Space is hell on the human body. Micro-gravity stresses our bodies to a near-breaking point, and that is even before taking into account the sheer complexity of treating unexpected illness or injury within a cramped and closed environment with finite resources. When the human body no longer has to fight against Earth's gravity, it will suffer reduced muscle mass, strength, and aerobic capacity. Exercise can mitigate this, but cannot address the weakening of our bones - and the risk of even a slight impact causing terrible breakage. Fortunately, we have now made great strides in addressing the bone density issue. Where previously calcium supplements to re-strengthen bones carried too high a risk of causing kidney stones, a breakthrough in slow-release, subcutaneous capsules has been proven to keep bones sturdy even over months-long flights, and without side effects. The efficacy over years or even decades is another matter, but in combination with targeted, strength-building exercise regimes and future refinements to the treatment, we are confident of solving both this and other such problems.

TITechTemplate.displayName.SpaceMiningandRefining=Space Mining and Refining TITechTemplate.summary.SpaceMiningandRefining=We develop methods to extract and refine space resources in airless and low-gravity environments. TITechTemplate.quote.SpaceMiningandRefining="We cannot just send up a bunch of diggers and hope for the best - even dirt doesn't behave the same way up there. One might as well build a house upon a pile of rice."
<align=right>{escapeLeader}<align=left>
<align=right>From his irregular newsletter, "Preparing For Tomorrow."<align=left> TITechTemplate.description.SpaceMiningandRefining=Hauling raw materials up Earth's gravity well is the very opposite of a long-term plan. In order to spread further into space, we must be able to obtain at least some of what we need from space. Fortunately, nearby asteroids have no shortage of minerals and rare metals, from which we can begin to construct ships and facilities in space. Iron, carbon, aluminum, copper, oxygen, nitrogen, and water will be most urgently required, but gold and platinum will be readily available too. But one cannot mine in space as one would on Earth. For one thing, low or micro-gravity mean mined resources cannot tumble neatly into containers or be automatically gravity-separated by type, while structures cannot be directly built upon the surface.

And so it is that the first method devised to address this is a distinctly unglamorous one - a system of long (up to 1 kilometer) cables and collection bags to tether equipment to an asteroid, and to prevent mined resources from simply floating away. This is an important start, but truly mass-mining will require far more advanced solutions - and the capability to do and use more in situ form, rather than depend on what Earth can send.

TITechTemplate.displayName.SpaceNavies=Space Navies TITechTemplate.summary.SpaceNavies=Military leaders discard terrestrial notions of command in favor of a new organizational paradigm. TITechTemplate.quote.SpaceNavies="Conflict in space doesn't have an exact analogue in terrestrial warfare, although our instructors keep trying to explain it like it does. Armoured warfare where the tanks are all sliding around on ice? A submarine engagement with nowhere to hide? Air combat where there's no gravity to overcome, or air to bank against? Trying to come up with a universal metaphor will lead to wrong assumptions and broken ships. Teach the physics and the decision sets they imply. Our crews can handle it."
<align=right>{resistLeader}<align=left>
<align=right>Email to United Nations Space Academy commandant<align=left> TITechTemplate.description.SpaceNavies=Perhaps the earliest conflict in space was not between two nations but between two branches of the armed forces, the air force and the navy. Air forces made the initial claim on the domain, treating it as a slightly higher extension of their role in the air. But as launches evolved into missions and then into long-term deployments, spacecraft become spaceships, and different routines take hold. Officers must stand watch; crew must live and work together for months or even years. But shipboard life doesn't fully mirror that of wet navies, either, with ships laid out like buildings and long periods of null gravity. Our officers and crew are learning and adapting, building new tactics and procedures, and a new culture.

TITechTemplate.displayName.SpaceResearch=Space Research TITechTemplate.summary.SpaceResearch=We develop specialized methodologies for conducting research in zero-g and planetary environments. TITechTemplate.quote.SpaceResearch="I am humbled to have been chosen for this once-in-a-lifetime experience. The things they can do up here are simply incredible. Their studies on the long-term effects of microgravity are fascinating, while the strides being made in combustion could revolutionize energy production back on Earth."
<align=right>{cooperateLeader}<align=left>
<align=right>Video interview from a field trip to the International Space Station
Excerpted from the documentary Teenage Prodigies<align=left> TITechTemplate.description.SpaceResearch=Dating back to early space research efforts on board Mir and the International Space Station in the late 20th century, advances in biology, physics, and chemistry have expanded the human understanding of concepts otherwise impossible to explore under normal terrestrial conditions. As space travel - and longer-term space habitation - becomes more commonplace, we can study and ultimately respond to the myriad effects of micro-gravity on the human body, improve methods of growing food and generating oxygen, and even experiment with new power sources. Initially, this will involve the expansion of our orbital space stations, but as further breakthroughs are made, we will be able to move ever-further away from Earth's embrace.

TITechTemplate.displayName.SpaceTourism=Space Tourism TITechTemplate.summary.SpaceTourism=Businesses aimed at bringing the wealthy and the curious into space facilities will serve to fund other endeavors. TITechTemplate.quote.SpaceTourism="Where I come from, we have zef culture. It means you're poor but you got style. If we want this thing to make money, we need to zef this place up. If we put in enough windows, we can serve people cat food and have them sleep on shipping crates. The less we spend, the more we earn, nè?"
<align=right>{exploitLeader}<align=left>
<align=right>Recording submitted as evidence in the Pyrefest Solar Hotel lawsuit<align=left> TITechTemplate.description.SpaceTourism=Hot on the heels of any pioneers are the entrepreneurs, hungrily chasing a new frontier filled with danger, wonder, and opportunity in equal measure. As we refine our methods of space travel and habitation to become faster, safer, and most of all cheaper, there will undoubtedly be a cadre of those keen to turn the black into gold. From honeymooners to retirees, whether a spring break or a corporate retreat, now is the prudent time to invest in and regulate for an infrastructure that will allow humanity at large - and not just the super-rich - to experience the world beyond their sky. The vast profits to be reaped from the resultant slew of consumer transports, sightseeing tours, and orbital hotels can then be funneled into our other expansion efforts, as well as serving as something of a dry run for long-term human existence in space.

TITechTemplate.displayName.Supercapacitors=Supercapacitors TITechTemplate.summary.Supercapacitors=To power the weapons of tomorrow, we combine the power storage of a battery with the rapid charging and release of a capacitor. TITechTemplate.quote.Supercapacitors="It's not about who has the biggest gun. Sometimes it's not even about who's got the most guns. Often, it simply comes to down to who can reload fastest."
<align=right>{destroyLeader}<align=left>
<align=right>Quoted in his official biography "Five Moves Ahead" (cancelled before publication)<align=left> TITechTemplate.description.Supercapacitors=Unlike a chemical battery, an electrostatic capacitor charges almost instantly and does not readily wear out, but can only contain a minute quantity of energy. As our power needs snowball, we require a best-of-both-worlds solution: the capacity of a battery and the charging speed of a capacitor. The primary obstacle until now has been one of mass. A capacitor with storage to rival that of our largest batteries would require prohibitively enormous and heavy metal plates.

It is our recent discoveries in the field of carbon manipulation that can resolve this. We can both reduce the width of the insulating barrier between the two conducting plates at a molecular level, therefore, reducing the supercapacitor's overall size, and we can coat the plates in new, porous nanomaterials that effectively increase the surface area without increasing the plate size. In short, rather than swell our capacitors to unworkable sizes, we instead increase their effectiveness at the atomic level. Several of these arranged in series will replicate the capacity of a battery, while retaining their lighting-fast storage and release of energy, which in turn will feed the vast power requirements of our next-generation weapons.

TITechTemplate.displayName.SuperconductingMagnets=Superconducting Magnets TITechTemplate.summary.SuperconductingMagnets=Scientists devise super-cooled magnets entirely free from electrical resistance, and thus able to generate far more efficient - and powerful - fields than ever before. TITechTemplate.quote.SuperconductingMagnets="Every child adores playing with magnets, yet most adults pay them no heed. Foolish, really, for one day they will become the very bedrock of our society."
<align=right>{cooperateLeader}<align=left>
<align=right>In an interview with Wired magazine, 2016<align=left> TITechTemplate.description.SuperconductingMagnets=Electromagnetics have become the cornerstone of our technological progress, but as it becomes necessary to contain and direct ever-greater forces, we in turn must generate far stronger magnetic fields. Our newly-designed superconducting magnets operate very similarly to existing electromagnets, but have effectively zero resistance to electricity. No resistance means no heat generation and no energy loss. This efficiency means much more power, which, in practical terms, means magnetic fields should allow us to contain hydrogen without adding extra mass to our ship systems. The effect may even be strong enough to keep antimatter separate from matter. This is an important breakthrough in terms of meeting both our future power and weapon needs. The roadblock until now has been the requirement to keep such coils as low as -452 degrees Fahrenheit, but the creation of low-footprint, affordable cryo-coolers finally makes this plausible even when space and weight is at a premium.

TITechTemplate.displayName.TargetedBiologicalWarfare=Targeted Biological Warfare TITechTemplate.summary.TargetedBiologicalWarfare=We can now create weapons that target individuals with specified genetic structures. TITechTemplate.quote.TargetedBiologicalWarfare="Death is release. Death is a gateway. In death, you will become your true self. It is not death you should fear, my family, but only the pain that precedes it - and even that is a moment soon forgotten."
<align=right>{submitLeader}<align=left>
<align=right>Eternal Source sermon, shortly before the mass suicide of its members<align=left> TITechTemplate.description.TargetedBiologicalWarfare=Even the most advanced weapon at our disposal is, in practice, nothing more than a blunt instrument. One designed only to destroy anything it might impact. This is both wasteful and hazardous, squandering potentially valuable resources while littering space - and even our own atmosphere - with potentially radioactive debris. There is a better way, which is to target our foes on a genetic level. Military scientists have now successfully weaponized prior work in phages to assault their very DNA. Effectively, by using nanoscopic biological machines, we can kill a foe carrying specific genetic markers without firing a shot - and, ideally, before they themselves can fire a shot. This would also enable us to neutralize unwanted presences without risking harm to our own people or structures.

TITechTemplate.displayName.TerawattFusionReactors=Terawatt Fusion Reactors TITechTemplate.summary.TerawattFusionReactors=Nuclear scientists design reactors with incredible power output. TITechTemplate.quote.TerawattFusionReactors="I am impressed. That does not happen often. But tell me, what new weapons does this allow for, and when will they be ready? Anything else is of little consequence."
<align=right>{appeaseLeader}<align=left>
<align=right>Memo attached to blueprints for a proposed reactor design<align=left> TITechTemplate.description.TerawattFusionReactors=By building upon multiple discoveries - the ability to bring about nuclear fusion in space, the creation of nanomaterials able to safely contain this force, and implants that enable humans to oversee the almost unfathomable amounts of energy that result from it - we are ready for a significant step-change in reactor technology. As well as providing even more power to our growing facilities and larger craft, these newest fusion reactors could potentially even generate enough terawatts to power laser-based launch methods. Humanity's power needs will only grow as we expand and evolve further, and with these reactors we are eminently well-placed to meet them.

TITechTemplate.displayName.TerrestrialMilitaryScience=Terrestrial Military Science TITechTemplate.summary.TerrestrialMilitaryScience=The integration of new concepts stemming from rapidly changing technology and combat on non-Earth planets. TITechTemplate.quote.TerrestrialMilitaryScience="Now as then, territorial disputes boil down to one group of people gazing upon a new land and calculating who would need to die so they could own it. Thousands of years of purported civilization have done so little to curtail our most basic reptilian impulses."
<align=right>{appeaseLeader}<align=left>
<align=right>During the U.N. Interstellar Resources Apportionment debate<align=left> TITechTemplate.description.TerrestrialMilitaryScience=Military science has long concerned itself with the multi-faceted problems that occur when coercive force is applied. Humanity's impending expansion into its solar system, and likely beyond, heralds a new era of doctrine. In addition to an explosion of technological innovation, military commands must now take into account variables present during engagements on worlds with rules different from our own. The traditional definitions of hard and soft power are no longer applicable in the time of "5th Generation" warfare.

TITechTemplate.displayName.TitanicSpacecraft=Titanic Spacecraft TITechTemplate.summary.TitanicSpacecraft=Engineers develop designs for massive warships and interstellar-capable craft. TITechTemplate.quote.TitanicSpacecraft="I don't want to die on some miserable poison world. I want to die countless light years from Earth, with a smile on my face as I bask next to a perfect ocean, under a perfect sky."
<align=right>{escapeLeader}<align=left>
<align=right>From his irregular online newsletter, "Preparing For Tomorrow."<align=left> TITechTemplate.description.TitanicSpacecraft=The Sol system is humanity's to explore and lay claim to, but truly doing so will require more personnel, and perhaps more might, than ever before. It perhaps might sound crude, but the best solution is the most obvious one: larger ships, able to carry more crew, more supplies, more weapons, and denser armor. What was once an engineering absurdity - for to cast so titanic a craft between worlds would have taken decades at best - is now entirely possible, thanks to our incredibly powerful reactor and propulsion technologies. Mass is, as ever, the foremost obstacle, compounded by the need to carry sufficient fuel and propellant to maintain a high Delta-v for weeks at a time. And, for any potential attempt to leave this system for another, even years. So it is that we now have workable designs for enormous craft built around the "torchship" principle, possessing both high thrust and high specific impulse, in a state of near-constant acceleration, and so nakedly powerful that the mass of their vast hulls is barely a factor.

TITechTemplate.displayName.Tokamaks=Tokamaks TITechTemplate.summary.Tokamaks=A new generation of toroidal fusion reactors and drives relying on magnetic confinement methods. TITechTemplate.quote.Tokamaks="Tell me what we need to send more people further, faster. Otherwise we'll be stuck playing defense forever - and that's just a slow way to lose."
<align=right>{resistLeader}<align=left>
<align=right>Attending a technical design briefing for the UK space program<align=left> TITechTemplate.description.Tokamaks=Our earlier successes with magnetic confinement fusion relied on massive magnetic mirrors arrayed in a line. While functional, the mass limited its capabilities as a long-range propulsion system. Our next step is to develop tokamaks, a Russian term for reactors that contain the fusion plasma within a magnetic torus. Holding high-energy plasma within magnetic fields has been likened to using wet spaghetti to hold melting gelatin, but with sufficient computer-aided management of the fields, we have been able to induce a net energy gain and can begin developing new propulsion systems that make use of it.

TITechTemplate.displayName.TransformPhages=Transform Phages TITechTemplate.summary.TransformPhages=Genetic engineers create biological machines that can edit a living human's genome. TITechTemplate.quote.TransformPhages="I was born with two club feet. For this reason, playground games were impossible for me. So instead, I read and read and read. Though they cause me daily pain, I treasure these warped feet of mine. They made me everything I am today."
<align=right>{cooperateLeader}<align=left>
<align=right>Lecture at Xi'an Jiaotong University<align=left> TITechTemplate.description.TransformPhages=With the majority of diseases and genetic disorders now preventable and even correctable thanks to recent developments in predictive genetics, our intentions now turn towards something more ambitious - biologically repairing a human body. Bacteriophages have long been used to treat bacterial infections, but it is how they achieve this that makes them so valuable: they inject DNA directly into a bacterial cell, thus rewriting its genetic identity. But what if we could further 'program' synthetic phages to carry other types of DNA, and to target specific human cells? We need wonder no longer. For now, the focus is on correcting genetic-level problems on the fly, in a live subject - baby steps towards altering the very information that makes us, us. The ultimate potential of phage-based gene-editing ranges from simple transformations in appearance to the building of more and stronger muscle material, more durable organs, and even the ability to adapt alien genetic material into our own bodies. Eventually, we shall make the human body not simply more long-lasting, but better in every conceivable way.

TITechTemplate.displayName.TransInterfaceWarfare=Trans-Interface Warfare TITechTemplate.summary.TransInterfaceWarfare=We develop ground emplacements that can shield regions from bombardment and destroy armored targets in low orbit. TITechTemplate.quote.TransInterfaceWarfare="Every time we build walls instead of bridges, we move further away from peaceful co-existence."
<align=right>{appeaseLeader}<align=left>
<align=right>Speech in front of the U.N. General Assembly<align=left> TITechTemplate.description.TransInterfaceWarfare=Over the past few decades, we have refined our combat laser technology by boosting their power, creating ultra-precise mirrors, and designing hyper-efficient wavelength shifters. Now, we have combined these advancements into powerful, fixed weapon emplacements, designed for the defense of human settlements.

By combining an array of powerful lasers with cutting-edge sensors, these turrets are capable of targeting and destroying incoming missiles and ships before they reach the ground. They are even capable of firing their beams at targets in low orbit.

The technological breakthrough that made these systems possible is the highly advanced, nanoparticle-coated mirror system, which ensures high-precision targeting together with ultra-fast reaction times, granting nearly full coverage of the skies above. Think of these emplacements as a vast shield, taking the form of a boundlessly destructive weapon.

TITechTemplate.displayName.Ultracapacitors=Ultracapacitors TITechTemplate.summary.Ultracapacitors=The graphene-based successor to supercapacitors can store and release a mammoth amount of energy at incredible speeds. TITechTemplate.quote.Ultracapacitors="The human brain can store the equivalent of 2.5 petabytes of information - or enough to record three million hours of TV. But what if we became able to watch those shows at a thousand times the speed? Then our brains would seem like a mere floppy disk."
<align=right>{cooperateLeader}<align=left>
<align=right>"Engineering Humanity"<align=left> TITechTemplate.description.Ultracapacitors=Following the successful development of supercapacitors, the next step is perhaps inevitable - for electrostatic capacitors to entirely replace traditional, chemical batteries as our primary means of energy storage and delivery. We turn now to graphene for the nanomaterials from which to construct next-generation ultracapacitors. Often called a "wonder material," this carbon allotrope is the most durable substance known to man; and also only a single atom thick, which means we can apply a vast amount of it as nanopores upon a conductive plate without meaningfully increasing the capacitor's dimensions. Graphene's remarkable electrical properties are also far beyond that of carbon nanotubes. Ultracapacitors based around graphene electrodes would, therefore, be far more efficient as well as more lightweight - and thus are exactly what is required to store and release huge amounts of fusion energy, and to charge our most powerful lasers.

TITechTemplate.displayName.UltravioletCombatLasers=Ultraviolet Combat Lasers TITechTemplate.summary.UltravioletCombatLasers=Lasers in ultraviolet frequencies offer massive potential for damage at long range. TITechTemplate.quote.UltravioletCombatLasers="Without an ozone layer to protect us from ultraviolet light, life on our planet would never have developed in the first place."
<align=right>{cooperateLeader}<align=left>
<align=right>Astrophysics Seminar Series at Tsinghua University<align=left> TITechTemplate.description.UltravioletCombatLasers=While the move to laser weapons utilizing visible light has increased their power and versatility, their shortcomings in range hamper their usefulness in long-distance conflicts. It is to ultraviolet-based combat lasers we now turn instead. Extreme ultraviolet is breathtakingly difficult to work with, because it burns through almost all matter on contact - ideal for striking against heavily-armored enemies, yes, but first we need to focus it without instantly destroying the necessary lenses and mirrors in the process.

Special new dielectric mirrors, coated with multiple layers of ultra-dense, highly reflective nanomaterials, overcome this complication, enabling our latest weapons to utilize the ultraviolet spectrum without losing intensity. These laser systems are capable of shooting precise beams over long distances, to inflict massive damage. By using ultraviolet light, we have also further reduced the scattering effect of atmospheric particles, making these latest weapons even more powerful in Earth's atmosphere as well as within the vacuum of space.

TITechTemplate.displayName.UnityMovements=Unity Movements TITechTemplate.summary.UnityMovements=Political scientists redraw nations that bring like-minded cultures together to maximize geopolitical power. TITechTemplate.quote.UnityMovements="Together, we're stronger. Apart, we're weaker, yeah? Sounds great on paper, love, but the trouble is there's always some bloke with a loud voice who wants to keep us apart - and a whole lot of someone elses bankrolling him."
<align=right>{resistLeader}<align=left>
<align=right>Responding to an email from her cousin<align=left> TITechTemplate.description.UnityMovements=Historically, people are defined by national and geographical borders. Recent decades, however, have seen political and cultural movements that span countries and continents alike, as computers and smartphones rendered possible instant communication with anyone, anywhere - and made physical location increasingly irrelevant. By beginning the long process of organizing like-minded states into new alliances, and even collectives, the peoples of the world will be better able to endure the seismic changes caused by both the alien arrival and humanity's rapid technological evolution. This will require a new approach to democracy, and, in some cases, the overthrow of unsympathetic local leaders. The disruption will be unthinkable, but there is potential for even greater world unity in its wake.

TITechTemplate.displayName.VacuumElectrostaticPrinciples=Vacuum Electrostatic Principles TITechTemplate.summary.VacuumElectrostaticPrinciples=We explore methods of using electrically-charged particles to create thrust, power weapons, and contain the once-uncontainable. TITechTemplate.quote.VacuumElectrostaticPrinciples="The less we burn, the longer we will survive. And the less we depend upon burning our natural resources, the fewer territorial conflicts we will suffer. It is forever bewildering to me how few of us can accept this simple concept."
<align=right>{appeaseLeader}<align=left>
<align=right>Guest lecture at the Beyond Fossil Fuels conference<align=left> TITechTemplate.description.VacuumElectrostaticPrinciples=Electrostatic propulsion, in which an electrical field is applied to the ions within a propellant in the desired direction of acceleration, is nothing new - already, we have probes, which ionize xenon gas in order to create limited thrust. This is possible only in the vacuum of space, for such propulsion methods could overcome neither air resistance nor gravitational pull.

However, even though the propellant is ejected some twenty times faster than from a classical chemical thruster, the sheer electrical power required to sustain it currently makes it infeasible for larger craft, let alone to achieve take-off or landing. As new technologies enable greater levels of on-board electrical power, electric propulsion can become more of a reality, however. The likes of Gridded Ion Drives, Hall Effect Thrusters, and High Efficiency Multistage Plasma Thrusters offer great potential for longer, further-reaching missions. Thanks to successful experiments with an array of rare gases and liquid metals as propellants, our researchers have been able to create moderate electrostatic thrust that is sustained for far longer than any known chemical method, and uses far less propellant. By building upon these principles, they believe we can not only create faster craft, but potentially also devastating energy weapons and even devise methods of containing unstable, deadly plasma.

TITechTemplate.displayName.VisibleCombatLasers=Visible Combat Lasers TITechTemplate.summary.VisibleCombatLasers=Lasers operating in the visible spectrum can damage enemies at longer ranges and fire through Earth's atmosphere. TITechTemplate.quote.VisibleCombatLasers="Genghis Khan was a short-sighted fool. All that might, all those weapons, yet instead of leasing it to others and reaping the rewards, all he could think to do was shed endless blood and sweat in the pointless pursuit of an empire."
<align=right>{exploitLeader}<align=left>
<align=right>Weapons development correspondence<align=left> TITechTemplate.description.VisibleCombatLasers=While laser weapon systems for spacecraft have rewritten the rules of space combat, the power of our initial, infrared lasers is only effective over a relatively short range. To overcome this shortcoming, our researchers have worked tirelessly on designing combat lasers that instead utilize visible light beams.

By switching from infrared to visible light, our laser weapons not only benefit from a greater range, but may also be used within Earth's skies. Visible light scatters far less than infrared light in our atmosphere, thus enabling the laser pulse to retain most of its strength. To achieve the same power output in visible lasers as with infrared systems, our weapon engineers turn to lasers which employ chemical reactions to generate their pulses, as well as to new multi-layered dielectric mirrors, which reflect nearly 99.9999 percent of the incoming light beam. The result is the most powerful - and most versatile - laser weapon yet.

Nevertheless, the best is yet to come - future concepts for energy weapons include powerful defensive emplacements and combat laser arrays.

TITechTemplate.displayName.WeAreNotAlone=We Are Not Alone TITechTemplate.summary.WeAreNotAlone=Sociologists consider what the alien arrival means for human institutions. TITechTemplate.quote.WeAreNotAlone="The dreamer in me wants to believe it would bring a golden age of advancement and prosperity for all mankind. But I'm a realist. I know better. Any race advanced enough to find us would be advanced enough to end us, likely without even regarding us."
<align=right>{resistLeader}<align=left>
<align=right>NATO Symposium on Alien First Contact<align=left> TITechTemplate.description.WeAreNotAlone=The quiet assurance that humans have carried for so long is gone. The knowledge that we share the universe with at least one other sapient species has caused reverberations throughout our entire society. The very fabric of our civilization is being stretched to its breaking point as conflicting voices shout ever louder above one another. It falls to our leaders, current and future, to rally our thrilled and frightened masses. Now more than ever, we must come together as a people, and prove to the universe that although we may no longer be its centre as we once believed, we are no less important.

TITechTemplate.displayName.WhiteCollarAutomation=White Collar Automation TITechTemplate.summary.WhiteCollarAutomation=Artificial Intelligence begins to take over various legal, accounting, and management tasks. TITechTemplate.quote.WhiteCollarAutomation="Forgive me, Ifechi. I can happily talk to anyone for hours about how to improve society, yet sometimes replying to a simple email feels like the hardest thing in the world."
<align=right>{appeaseLeader}<align=left>
<align=right>Note attached to a flower delivery sent to his partner, 2008<align=left> TITechTemplate.description.WhiteCollarAutomation=While AI and quantum computing have been able to manage many of the more everyday functions of society - manufacturing, maintenance, transportation, and the like - without the need for extensive human oversight, they have until now been too limited to be trusted with higher functions. But as humanity spreads further and wider throughout our solar system, and the systems, which govern and safeguard us, grow ever more complicated, it becomes necessary to explore new, more efficient ways of handling tasks that previously required a high level of knowledge, such as finance, law, IT, customer support, human resources, and even medical diagnosis. Further advancements in AI - many of which originate from the AI's own, self-repairing software - now make this possible, removing the earlier risks of failure and even disaster. After extensive testing, we have determined that a new generation of bots can be safely entrusted with a vast number of administrative tasks. Accepting such a degree of automation will involve no small amount of societal change, but we are now primed to move to a truly digital workforce, where humans, AI, and machines work in harmony to meet the many needs of our increasingly distributed race.

TITechTemplate.displayName.ZPinchTechniques=Z-Pinch Techniques TITechTemplate.summary.ZPinchTechniques=Our spacecraft become capable of dramatically-increased thrust by using electricity alone to trigger a sustained fusion reaction. TITechTemplate.quote.ZPinchTechniques="When I was a kid, the threat of nuclear armageddon was on every front page, every day. So forgive me if I get just a tiny bit anxious when you tell me that our best hope of sailing the stars is staging nuclear explosions inside our spacecraft."
<align=right>{resistLeader}<align=left>
<align=right>In an email, receiving address encrypted<align=left> TITechTemplate.description.ZPinchTechniques=Zeta-pinch, or z-pinch for short, involves passing an electrical current through plasma to generate an internal magnetic field, which pulls its particles towards each other - in effect, compressing the plasma. This is far from a new discovery, but the technique is of specific interest now because, if the plasma is made from fusion fuel, a sufficient degree of compression will trigger a self-sustaining thermonuclear fusion reaction. A spacecraft's magnetic nozzle can then safely convert this immense energy into far greater thrust than any chemical propulsion could possibly achieve. At least in theory: this technique has been impossible to achieve previously due to the wildly unstable nature of plasma, which moves so rapidly and so unpredictably that only a limited amount of it will undergo fusion, meaning the reaction cannot be sustained for long. So it is a recent breakthrough in plasma stabilization that makes Z-Pinch-based thrusters feasible at last. By applying principles of fluid dynamics - essentially, forcing the plasma flow in a given direction - our scientists have been able to stabilize a z-pinch for several thousand times longer. In addition, the z-pinch method removes the need for large and heavy coils to generate magnetic fields, thus reducing the craft's overall mass, which in turn also means travelling further and faster through space.

TITechTemplate.displayName.FutureTechEnergy=Future Tech: Energy TITechTemplate.summary.FutureTechEnergy=Making things go, or, in the case of energy weapons, go away. TITechTemplate.quote.FutureTechEnergy=<skip/> TITechTemplate.description.FutureTechEnergy=-Energy projects each faction previously failed to trigger have a chance to unlock.

TITechTemplate.displayName.FutureTechMilitaryScience=Future Tech: Military Science TITechTemplate.summary.FutureTechMilitaryScience=The organized application of force will always remain one means to a desired political end. May it never become an end in and of itself. TITechTemplate.quote.FutureTechMilitaryScience=<skip/> TITechTemplate.description.FutureTechMilitaryScience=-Military Science projects each faction previously failed to trigger have a chance to unlock.

TITechTemplate.displayName.FutureTechSocialScience=Future Tech: Social Science TITechTemplate.summary.FutureTechSocialScience=The behavior of people is not something we'll solve like we can the laws of physics. But that doesn't mean we shouldn't try. TITechTemplate.quote.FutureTechSocialScience=<skip/> TITechTemplate.description.FutureTechSocialScience=-Social Science projects each faction previously failed to trigger have a chance to unlock.

TITechTemplate.displayName.FutureTechMaterials=Future Tech: Materials TITechTemplate.summary.FutureTechMaterials=The science of substance is a bottomless well of discovery and refinement. TITechTemplate.quote.FutureTechMaterials=<skip/> TITechTemplate.description.FutureTechMaterials=-Materials projects each faction previously failed to trigger have a chance to unlock.

TITechTemplate.displayName.FutureTechInformationScience=Future Tech: Information Science TITechTemplate.summary.FutureTechInformationScience=Data is not knowledge. Knowledge is not wisdom. TITechTemplate.quote.FutureTechInformationScience=<skip/> TITechTemplate.description.FutureTechInformationScience=-Information Science projects each faction previously failed to trigger have a chance to unlock.

TITechTemplate.displayName.FutureTechLifeScience=Future Tech: Life Science TITechTemplate.summary.FutureTechLifeScience=Earth is only a cradle. TITechTemplate.quote.FutureTechLifeScience=<skip/> TITechTemplate.description.FutureTechLifeScience=-Life Science projects each faction previously failed to trigger have a chance to unlock.

TITechTemplate.displayName.FutureTechSpaceScience=Future Tech: Space Science TITechTemplate.summary.FutureTechSpaceScience=As we look outward, we wonder what unknowns we have yet to encounter. TITechTemplate.quote.FutureTechSpaceScience=<skip/> TITechTemplate.description.FutureTechSpaceScience=-Space Science projects each faction previously failed to trigger have a chance to unlock.

TITechTemplate.quote.ResistanceSpaceScience="We have reached the edge of the solar system. We have defined the age of space combat. But we are far from done; the war isn't over. So, tell me, what is the next thing that will take us through the void?" TITechTemplate.quote.ResistanceLifeScience="In her final days, my mother told me we should cherish our life. We should see it as an adventure with a clear end. By keeping the end of life in mind, we would live every minute fuller." TITechTemplate.quote.ResistanceMaterials="Materials have always defined human advancement. Stone and iron, steel and silicon. So to clarify my question: Is this the next discovery that defines our future?" TITechTemplate.quote.ResistanceEnergy="Solving the energy crisis? We said that when we developed nuclear power and again when we mastered fusion. Let's be realistic here: whatever new technology you invent to generate power, we will find a way to need more." TITechTemplate.quote.ResistanceInformationScience="I don't want to sound like a broken record but information is our greatest weapon. So, let's call the researcher back in to hear her proposal. And this time, don't interrupt her just because you don't understand the details yet." TITechTemplate.quote.ResistanceSocialScience="I have seen what the prospect of nuclear armageddon did to society; I have witnessed what the arrival of aliens brought out in mankind. Let's assume I have a decent enough handle on how the human psyche works to understand the basics."

TITechTemplate.quote.EscapeSpaceScience="That planet in Pegasus changed everything. The first exoplanet orbiting a Sun-like star. Its discovery in 1995 revolutionized the field of astronomy. And, of course, opened the pathway to leaving Earth behind and traveling to new worlds." TITechTemplate.quote.EscapeLifeScience="The habitable zone - the narrow band around a star in which water flows - might be slim for each star. But it is not vacant everywhere. At our destination we will be able to swim in clear oceans and feel new rain on our skin." TITechTemplate.quote.EscapeMaterials="We have plowed, plundered, and poisoned our planet in the hunt for precious metals, oil, and rare elements. By mastering the science of materials, this kind of destruction will not be necessary. We can treat our new home with more dignity." TITechTemplate.quote.EscapeEnergy="Physics teaches us that energy is neither created nor destroyed, it is just transformed. And just like energy, we are able to transform our plans into actions so that we reach our goal." TITechTemplate.quote.EscapeInformationScience="Millenia of philosophy, studying our origin, nature, and purpose, and yet we still lose sight of the most important thing: that it is what we don't know that drives us towards new frontiers." TITechTemplate.quote.EscapeMilitaryScience="I firmly and wholeheartedly believe in the tenets of a just war established in the Mahabharata: just authority, just cause, right intention, and last resort. But while we must not seek violence, we would be fools to not prepare for it." TITechTemplate.quote.EscapeSocialScience="The laws of society, like those of nature, govern the ebb and flow of the lives they impact. Inherently unpredictable, they nonetheless have apparent, somewhat predictable patterns. Defining them is, ironically, more art than science."

TITechTemplate.quote.DestroySpaceScience="The Roman Empire took nearly as long to fall as it did to build. They bent and creaked and snapped under the weight of overreach. Learn from their hubris, and devise a way for us to extend further without breaking apart." TITechTemplate.quote.DestroyLifeScience="You know they're faster. You know they're stronger. You might even think they're smarter and moan how unfair this is. But nature is survival of the fittest, not fairest. Find our edge, sharpen it, then cut their head off." TITechTemplate.quote.DestroyMaterials="It may look great on a screen but it would never work in the field. If you're designing gear that's meant to take a hit, you're doing it wrong. I want armor that keeps our troops mobile and hidden." TITechTemplate.quote.DestroyInformationScience="Let me be clear: To win this war we need more than just weapons, spaceships, and soldiers. We need information about the enemy, so that we can strike first where it hurts them most." TITechTemplate.quote.DestroyMilitaryScience="As academy graduates, you are the most dangerous personnel on the battlefield -- to your own side. You believe the theories you studied have practical application. Best case: you only get yourself killed. Lean on your sergeants, learn quickly, and perhaps you too will live long enough to despise inexperienced cadets." TITechTemplate.quote.DestroySocialScience="Understanding your enemy will only go so far. Just because you understand their motivation and goals doesn't mean you can beat them. You also have to turn that knowledge into an advantage."

TITechTemplate.quote.SubmitSpaceScience="Your inner light will travel further than any vessel, bringing light to the darkest corners of our universe. Seek your true Self, it will call others to its light, uniting us as one." TITechTemplate.quote.SubmitLifeScience="There is perfection in the beginning and the end, and so our burden is filling the time between. Only by honoring the end points of life are we able to rejoice in the in-between." TITechTemplate.quote.SubmitMaterials="I'm not talking about the false joy of possessions. I speak of the treasures the Universe has given us, upon which we build our future." TITechTemplate.quote.SubmitEnergy="Each of us is a star, a universe unto themselves. We burn for a time, then release ourselves to the void. It falls to us to learn how to harness our power before our time is done." TITechTemplate.quote.SubmitInformationScience="What is science if not a consensus of trial and error, and what is trial and error if not a summary of human history? The smart person learns from their mistakes, the wise one from the mistakes of others." TITechTemplate.quote.SubmitMilitaryScience="There are those who cannot see the light, and others who outright refuse. We therefore have no choice but to intensify our brightness, until it purifies the wretched ignorant, until they have no choice but to see." TITechTemplate.quote.SubmitSocialScience="No one is truly alone. The Universe is always with us, no matter how far we fall. We are Its stewards, and our sole purpose is to guide everyone into Its embrace."

TITechTemplate.quote.AppeaseSpaceScience="Have we lost all wonder when we gaze at the stars now? Have we already become so jaded at the prospect of peaceful coexistence? I sincerely hope not, because only our capability to see beauty will protect us from ourselves." TITechTemplate.quote.AppeaseLifeScience="We look at nature, and we marvel at its diversity. We look at each other, and recoil at those different from ourselves. Why is it that humans seem to have more empathy for prey than peers?" TITechTemplate.quote.AppeaseMaterials="We have risen beyond our ancestors' wildest dreams. And yet, we still haven't learned how to share our wealth amongst us all." TITechTemplate.quote.AppeaseEnergy="In generating more than enough power for all mankind, we've only proven that there was never an energy crisis: only a crisis of greed." TITechTemplate.quote.AppeaseInformationScience="Yes, knowledge is power, but power for what purpose, Ifechi? I want to believe that the more we learn, the more we grow. But the older I get, the more trouble I have shaking the feeling that we are dangerously close to the forbidden fruit of myth." TITechTemplate.quote.AppeaseMilitaryScience="For all our advancement, we continue to devise increasingly efficient ways to kill each other. If this has taught me anything, it's that our sad purpose is the eternal refinement of the ultimate weapon: ourselves." TITechTemplate.quote.AppeaseSocialScience="There is a theory that humans have a maximum quantity of others they can care about. Radiating in concentric circles, the further the circle, the less we care. We are a space-faring species, and our circle is now infinite. So, how do we start to care more?" TITechTemplate.quote.AppeaseSocialScience2="If we are to contemplate founding human society on another world, it is imperative that we learn from our past mistakes. It is a chance to start afresh, with fairness and equality the very bedrock of how we live."
<align=right>{appeaseLeader}<align=left>
<align=right>Speech at the International Peace Conference<align=left>

TITechTemplate.quote.CooperateSpaceScience="As a teenager, looking at the night sky, my mind raced with possibilities as I wondered 'What if?' Now, as a woman effortlessly transitioning from station to colony to warship, I consider, 'How far?'" TITechTemplate.quote.CooperateSpaceScience2="Even our greatest technologies only enable us to see five percent of our universe. Just imagine what we will learn once we can gaze upon the remaining ninety-five percent." TITechTemplate.quote.CooperateLifeScience="Life never stands still. It is always in motion. While we fixate on the problems and tasks before us, life continues elsewhere, everywhere. With at least 4,000 confirmed planets, how could it be otherwise?" TITechTemplate.quote.CooperateMaterials="Mankind never lacked ingenuity when it came to solving our problems through engineering and science. On the contrary, the greater the pressure, the faster we found a technical solution. What we are lacking is the ability to use this feat wisely." TITechTemplate.quote.CooperateEnergy="We should see nature as an example: by coming together as molecules, atoms reach a more desirable state of lower energy. So, when we come together, we can also reach a more desirable state, a better balance." TITechTemplate.quote.CooperateInformationScience="The biggest breakthroughs in history always came hand-in-hand with free exchange of information. We should take this lesson to heart. By sharing our knowledge, we can create a brighter future for everyone." TITechTemplate.quote.CooperateMilitaryScience="I am as impressed as I am distraught. This innovation will undoubtedly make the lives of our colonists much better and safer. But how long until someone figures out it can kill his neighbor?" TITechTemplate.quote.CooperateSocialScience="Coming together despite our differences is not easy. Staying together is a never-ending struggle that spans generations. What we are building is difficult, but that makes it worthwhile. Ultimately, we are what we do when it counts."

TITechTemplate.quote.ExploitLifeScience="Ingenious. Now, if you figure out a way to make it better, I'll give you a raise. If you figure out a way to make it cheaper, I'll promote you all." TITechTemplate.quote.ExploitMaterials="Stop. I don't want to know which regulations we broke, because we didn't. I need to know exactly how we did not break these regulations." TITechTemplate.quote.ExploitEnergy="Yes, you're all as terribly clever as you are terrible at listening. You've completely missed my meaning when I said I wanted greener energy. If it doesn't make us money, our money isn't making it." TITechTemplate.quote.ExploitInformationScience="Bury it somewhere inside the licensing agreement. Nobody reads them, and most people don't comprehend that if they're not paying for a product, they are the product." TITechTemplate.quote.ExploitMilitaryScience="Leak the schematics. And offload as much surplus ammo as you can. These kinetic barriers are the only thing that can stop them, and at the price we're selling them, a half-dozen covers our losses." TITechTemplate.quote.ExploitSocialScience="The early Romans were spot on with their plan: park an army outside your territory and offer you the chance to join or die. For the small price of subsuming your culture, you too could enjoy not dying. Brilliant."

TITechTemplate.desc.EndGameReroll=Upon completion, endgame Techs re-roll to unlock projects for Factions.

TITechTemplate.summary.HighEnergyElectrostaticPropulsion_deprecated=We further refine thrusters that use static electric fields for acceleration. TITechTemplate.description.HighEnergyElectrostaticPropulsion_deprecated=Our solar system is a treasure trove of resources that will help us become the space-faring race we are surely destined to be. This does not remove the need for human ingenuity, of course. So it is to a further evolution of electrostatic propulsion systems that we now look, as we seek to explore the furthest corners of the sol system - and, perhaps, beyond.

This new thruster concept is based on our existing electrostatic drives, but employs far stronger fields in combination with a lighter, ionized propellant. The latter can be accelerated faster and to significantly greater maximum velocities; while the strengthened fields also have a smaller footprint, allowing for more compact drive design. Ships equipped with these new thrusters will comfortably exceed the current limitations of space travel. TITechTemplate.summary.HighEnergyElectrothermalPropulsion_deprecated=By enhancing our control over electromagnetic fields, we can generate high-energy plasma to heat lighter propellant. TITechTemplate.description.HighEnergyElectrothermalPropulsion_deprecated=Until now, our current spacecraft had only limited reach, allowing us only to explore our nearest neighbors; however, high-energy electrothermal propulsion will help us to extend our influence into the farthest corners of this solar system.

Based on existing electrothermal drives, our researchers have refined the electromagnetic containment fields, allowing us to supercharge the plasma. These new containment fields are able to directly weave the supercharged plasma through the light-weight propellant. This creates a highly energetic flow of gas within the nozzle system. By using a new fully frictionless coating, the gas flow can reach far higher velocities than the previous generation. These higher velocities translate directly into more powerful thrust, while offering precise directional control - exactly what is needed to make exploration of the outer planets feasible. TITechTemplate.description.ParticleCannon_Deprecated=A particle cannon might sound like a concept ripped from the silver screen, yet until very recently the same was true for alien life. For the scientific community, our first prototype particle cannon has been a concept long in the making.

This new type of weapon fires highly focused, extremely short bursts of protons that can penetrate through various materials. These proton bundles are generated and accelerated using superconducting particle accelerators, while electromagnetic lenses focus and aim their beams.

Even though the tunable particle cannon can bypass most traditional armor, its range is currently very limited, due to the nature of charged particles. The particles repel each other so that, as soon as the beam leaves the confining electromagnetic fields of the accelerator, the bundle starts spreading, losing its deadly power. Nevertheless, for close combat, even in space, this first generation of particle cannon has the potential to be truly devastating. TITechTemplate.summary.NeutroniumContainment_Deprecated=Physicists investigate ways to contain free neutrons and prevent their decay, allowing us to use them as a catalyst. TITechTemplate.description.NeutroniumContainment_Deprecated=The use of neutronium - the same as the material found at the core of a massive neutron star - as a potential energy source requires, first and foremost, the capability to recreate the intense gravity that first created it, else it would rapidly decay in a burst of deadly radiation. Once harnessed, it is this very burst that can provide incredible amounts of energy, but containment of such free neutrons has thus far eluded even our brightest minds. However, our scientists now believe that they can build upon their work in ultra-dense diamondoids to create a honeycomb-like latticework, capable of finally containing the incredible pressure of the sub-atomic particles of which constitute this neutron-degenerate matter (caused because no two such particles can exist in the same place at the same time), and thus preventing their premature decay. By finally (and safely) bending neutronium to our will, they believe we can build fission-based spacecraft drives of once-unimaginable power. TITechTemplate.summary.HydrogenLithium6Fusion_deprecated=Scientists reach for the sky by taming the first aneutronic fusion reaction to harness energy. TITechTemplate.description.HydrogenLithium6Fusion_deprecated=Now that we can construct fusion reactors in space, we can turn our gaze towards the various options for fuel sources. Both hydrogen and lithium are abundant resources in our solar system. By using our understanding of lithium from our nuclear fission and weapons research, we can create the first generation of hydrogen-lithium-6 fusion reactors.

Fusing hydrogen with lithium involves an aneutronic reaction, the benefit of which is that we can collect the energy using water and turbines, since it is mostly released as electromagnetic radiation rather than neutrons. Converting this electromagnetic radiation into electricity is far easier than trying to capture neutrons. In addition, our reactors can forgo the heavy neutron shielding required to protect all living matter in the vicinity, making them lighter and smaller than previous generations.

We can in turn then build faster and lighter ships, which will aid our expansion deeper into the solar system.