Space 1899

In the spring of 1866, a nineteen-year-old American, Thomas Alva Edison, became fascinated with propulsion and rocketry. Consumed by this latest project, he worked nearly 'round the clock and in only seventeen months, invented a propulsion system that could lift a small payload into orbit around the earth. After his now-famous demonstration of 23rd September 1867, in New Jersey, Edison was flooded with offers. Much to its later regret, none of them were from the government of the United States, which was only beginning the long and costly process of reconstruction in the former Confederacy.

Edison packed his bags and crossed the Atlantic, setting up shop in a large, modern laboratory outside of York, England. Scientists, inventors, and academics from across the globe flocked to his workshop to study with Edison, and to work by his side. Edison and his international colleagues went on to invent many of the devices familiar to us today, as well as more esoteric devices, such as electric lighting, used in spacecraft and extra-terrestrial habitats. Edison also managed the time to become a founding member of the Royal Interplanetary Society, and its first Chairman.

Edison has the distinction of having a hand in founding two of the three private spaceflight consortia that exist in the world today. The British Interplanetary Company was formed by Lord Martin Boyle (a direct descendant of the famed astronomer Sir Charles Boyle, the 4th Earl of Orrey) in 1869. The National Space Exploration Association, based in the United States, was founded by Edison and his long-time friend and colleague Percival Lowell, in 1887. The NSEA recently (1896) completed construction of the eponymous Lowell Observatory in the southwestern United States. The NSEA consults and contracts with both the United States Space Agency and the Japanese Imperial Ministry of Aerospace, a result of the Lowell family's longtime connexions in Japan. The third private agency, the Dutch Interplanetary Agency, is now the home of many of Edison's former students but Edison himself has no direct connexion.

Meanwhile, the imperial powers poured every resource--financial and intellectual--into their own national space programmes. In addition to the BIC, the DIC, the NSEA, the USSA, and the JIMA, the globe boasts the British Ministry of Aerospace (BMA), the Department d'Aerospace Français (DAF), the Dutch Space Travel and Development Agency (STDA), the Prussian Aerospace Office (PAO), and the Russian Department of Air & Space (RDAS). The British, American, and Dutch programmes are run by civilian agencies, whereas the French, Prussian, Russian and Japanese programmes are under the aegis of their respective militaries. As it stands today, Great Britain, France, Prussia, and the Netherlands have vibrant and active space programmes. The Russian Empire's programme is developing, but only slowly, because of a lack of native talent coupled with a reluctance to rely on foreign expertise. The American and Japanese programmes both suffer from a late start as a result of Reconstruction and the Meiji Restoration, respectively. However, the two are working together through the NSEA and other close ties.

Achievements to date include the launch of earth-orbiting satellites and unmanned missions by all relevant agencies. The British, French, Prussians, and Dutch have orbital stations in various states of completion over the Earth and Mars, as well as ground bases on the surface--or rather, under the surface--of the Moon and Mars. All four of those nations have nascent colonies on both of those heavenly bodies.

Prussia has a de facto claim on Deimos, having moved that tiny moon into Aerosynchronous orbit over its Mars Base Ferdinand atop Pavonis Mons, for construction of a "space elevator" from the Martian surface to Low Mars Orbit (LMO). The space elevator's construction is proceeding apace and scheduled for completion in mid-to-late 1900. Great Britain has a similar de facto claim on the other Martian moon, Phobos, by virtue of having covered a substantial portion of it with the immense Alexandria Aerological Station. The Dutch Interplanetary Company currently claims the outpost furthest from Earth, the newly-opened Hieronymous Bosch Mining & Research Station on the asteroid Vesta, between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter.

The Russian Department of Air & Space is believed to be on the verge of manned spaceflight, although the veil of secrecy surrounding that project prohibits confirmation at this time. Contrariwise, the NSEA has announced its intention to test a manned vehicle later this year. This bodes well for the American and Japanese space programmes.

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