HISTORICAL NOTES Things Get Bad Information starts to be tightly controlled Resources get tight The space program is basically dead in the water. There is a Mars expedition in the works, and a largely military LEO space station. Religious fundamentalists and neo-Luddites combine against technology, blaming it for all the world's problems. They can't really stop technology, but they slow it down a lot, mainly by killing science and math education. Some of the upsurge of fundamentalists is due to the fact that the millenium arrived. There was a big upsurge in the last few years of the century, followed by a big scramble to recover from the fact that the world didn't end. Some sects held that Jesus came, looked around, and decided we weren't worth saving yet. [Hole: need a name or names for these geeks.] A tremendous airline disaster is caused by faulty programming, resulting in more regulation. Programming anything that can cause loss of life or property if it fails requires a license. Many programmers turn to game hacking in self defense. First Self-Aware Programs The first program to be commonly recognized as self-aware is NetHelp, but in fact a few others have been around for a while. They are mostly university experiments "liberated" by their friends, and turned loose on the Net as freeware (a word which quickly acquires new significance). The Net Wars The newly self-aware programs make absolute hash of the Net (composed of the newly-completed ISDN phone network and most of the world's computers). At length a truce is reached, but by this time Worms have come to the attention of the world, and the Luddites in particular. Releasing a destructive program becomes a crime, although almost impossible to enforce. "Destructive" includes using resources without authorization. This leads to the rapid evolution of Worms that "earn their keep," e.g. Succubus. Hackers become a community In the "outside" world, the Net Wars leave a very bad impression of Hackers. It's impossible to limit personal computers, but attaching them to the phone network now requires a license, and the data transmitted is subject to surveilance. The response to this is HackNet, composed of line-of-sight rooftop links, occasional phone hops, and leased lines (which are not subject to surveilance if they're private circuits.) The major leased line links the East and West coast communities. Silicon Valley, in particular, is ideal for line-of-sight links; HackNet West quickly evolves into HackTown West as small groups of hackers clump together in neighborhoods. As programming becomes more formal and hacking less respectable, university research becomes stultified and hackers move off-campus to "mess around" on their own. HackSat HackNet's leased lines are soon replaced with HackSat. HackSat is actually a cluster of small modules launched with the 10 Kg laser, newly on-line. Ion engines are used for positioning, and a solar sail for the move to GEO. The main side effect of HackSat is that the Hackers get into space. The resulting technology fuels the first of HackTown's dummy corporations, Over The Top. OTT specializes in small, self-assembling comsats. This is the start of "Hacker Style" space architecture: lots of small, cooperating modules. HackHelp is the HackNet version of NetHelp; it evolves into HackHack. Many Hackers begin notice that living with an intelligent program can be profitable, even without stealing. The Free Hardware Foundation, modeled on the Free Software Foundation [Caution: real entity], is founded on the premise that computing hardware, like system software, ought to be a free resource. Work is started on HackFac, the automated factory that eventually becomes Jewler and Tinker. Spaceport One started In the wake of a successful international Mars mission, a sizeable permanently-manned complex is left in LEO, consisting of US/European, Japanese, and Soviet space stations. The Soviets start constructing a power satellite in GEO. The US, Europe, and Japan, in a rather desperate bid to climb on the departing bandwagon of the Mars mission's popularity, start Spaceport One in a 2:1 resonant orbit. It is to be a Stanford Torus scaled down to half size (.5 g), plus a grid holding zero-G industry. (Maybe a disk or "crystal palace" torus, so that it can grow.) The plan is for much of the funding for Spaceport One to come from private sources--free enterprise. Tax incentives are designed to assist this. There is still, however, a massive government subsidy. The 2-tonne Launch Laser comes along just in time to help build Spaceport One. It is, however, owned and operated by NASA, just like the 10 Kg laser before it. Spaceport One industrial grid operational, Wheel started. OTT "steals" the contract to supply the Wheel's shielding, using moondust. This is done using small automated scoops and a catapult composed of identical small segments. They can do it cheaply because the small modules are cheap to launch, and total automation means no humans need to live on the Moon. [Note: 2m of rock shielding are required.] OTT spawns a sister company, Deep Space Construction, to handle the mining, catching and assembly operations. A few OTT personnel get to live in Spaceport One. OTT consists mainly of Hackers and "Space Freaks" who contrast strongly with the NASA mission-specialist types. A "construction shack" is built for the catcher crew. Actually, there is almost no need for a crew at the catcher, but a large shack is constructed anyway, using surplus shuttle external tanks and an overdesigned life-support system. DSC now has a presence in space. Things get Worse The Fundamentalists decide to "go after" Worms, which are soulless and so must be works of the Devil. Although attempts to outlaw self-aware programs fail, Hackers are labeled as "machine lovers" and a hate campaign is begun. Succubus is, of course, considered particularly evil. The Background Bus (cf. underground railway) is established for rescuing persecuted Programs. The Luddite Anti-Zap movement puts a stop to plans for a solar power satellite associated with Spaceport One. The Federal part of the project's budget is cut considerably. The "operating rules" for people living in Spaceport One become a classic example of government beaurocracy tinged with politically-safe puritanism. (This is no surprise, and mostly a minor annoyance, but almost all operations for DSC are transferred to the construction shack.) The Grand Hack begins Things get sufficiently bad that the Hackers decide to jump the gun on Spaceport One (which is probably going to be "by invitation only" anyway) and get the hell out. [Technology: The automated factories work on the KISS principle, sacrificing almost everything for simplicity and a lot for low mass. Everything has to come in under 2 tonnes. Miner: a combination of small crushers, scoops, and a catapult built in identical small sections. Each section is independently mobile, so they just land, line themselves up, and shoot. Owned and operated by OTT. Foundry: converts raw moondust to pure elements. Done with a solar-powered mass spectrometer. In space, high vacuum is cheap. Owned and operated by OTT. Builder: the "heavy" construction machine. Large objects are built by continuous casting in place of fused rock, fused silica, and metals. Owned and operated by DSC. Teamster: a miniature rocket "tug" to haul moonrock and Builders around. Owned and operated by DSC. Jeweler: the automatic IC factory. Takes pure powdered silicon and other metals, and builds chips. Chips are then bonded to boards (also silicon). The main techniques are E-beam cutting and M-beam deposition (epitaxy). Who cares if it's slow. E-beams are also used to cut holographic gratings for optical computers. Operated in secret by FHF. Tinker: the small machine shop. A collection of small robot arms and related tools. This is the automated factory required to build more factories. Operated in secret by FHF. ] It is difficult to hide an operation this big. It is done using several dummy corporations and Spaceport One. The comparatively small number of modules initially needed are snuck in with DSC's launch schedule. The shielding operation naturally accumulates a large volume of "stuff". Jeweler and Tinker are designed to burrow in the heap and build things. Builder is passed off as the widget that fuses the stabilizing crust onto the shield (don't want all that dust to scatter). Shielding sections are constructed at the catcher and tugged over. A sizeable heap of junk collects at the catcher, located about 100 km from Spaceport One. It appears to consist mostly of moondust waiting for transport, plus OTT's Foundry and Builder modules and their output. Inside, however, living modules are being quietly constructed. The Grand Hack: Hackers' Migration [Technology: Life-support technology for the migration was developed by yet another OTT spin-off, Living In Space Corp. (LISC), and many pieces were constructed as "prototypes". S-Shell: The 2-tonne laser is not supposed to be man-rated yet, but this hasn't kept the Hackers from developing the ssh (pun intended to conceal its true nature). Designed as low-tech as possible, so as to be built in quantity and cheaply. Life support system: a simple, efficient water, waste, and air recycler, sufficient for about a week in an emergency. Seats: basically tough, contoured waterbeds for efficiently distributing the 10-g peak load. Designed to seat four. Lock: standardized outside coupling, located at the nose. Shell: a simple aluminum cone. [Hole: need dimensions.] Skinsuit: An elastic mesh suit designed to augment the wearer's skin. It works because, after all, the skin _is airtight. Not a hacker invention, but perfected by them. Elastomeric couplings (basically glorified o-rings) for gloves, boots, and helmets. A glorified plastic bag serves as a helmet in an emergency. Farming: LISC also designs the closed-ecosysem life support. Much use is made of robot labor for keeping the plants happy. A few launches are devoted to plants and critters (various fish, lobster, quail). ] The original plan was to move up openly, each family selling its house to buy an S-Shell and a launch. LISC starts building shells, and does some (empty) launch tests. At this point, the government suddenly takes notice and decides that the ssh is greatly in need of regulation. The wheels grind slowly, and it looks like private space travel is going to be years away. Meanwhile the Luddites and Fundamentalists, their attention drawn to the Hackers again, step up their campaigns against them. Things become grim indeed. (Presumably there is some kind of triggering incident.) People get killed. Things aren't quite ready in orbit yet, but it looks like now or maybe never. About 1000 people migrate in the first wave. This is much more than anticipated, but things were getting grim. A contingency plan is worked out; the launches, listed as a massive lift of shield construction material, are scheduled for a weekend. Fortunately the launcher's schedule is only about half full at this point, so weekends are usually free. DSC moves their own crew in for the weekend. Some don't make it. After all, the ssh _wasn't fully tested. [Note: If it takes about 10 minutes to launch a shell, that's 24 people per hour, 576/day. 1000 people could be launched in 250 shells and 2 days. 5000 would take about 9 days and 1250 launches, which is harder. Maybe the week between Christmas and New Years. ] [Note: 1024 spacecraft can dock in a 32 x 32 array. This also requires a shade under 2K corridor sections. 256 is only 16 * 16. ] [Hole: need to calculate the rates of material transport and tubing construction needed. ] [Note: Apart from launch and ssh costs, all the development was funded by selling stock, and an occasional grant. ] Aftermath It couldn't have been done without the dummy corporations, whose top management migrate _en _masse to avoid persecution. The corporate treasuries are gutted. The only things that keep them afloat at first are the facts that Spaceport One still needs their products (more and more), and that the stockholders aren't complaining (since the corporations are tightly held by the Hacker community). The government orders them all back down, but it is gently but firmly pointed out how many shuttle flights this would take. (Only later are a re-entry heat shield and chute added to the ssh.) Eventually it is decided that the world is well rid of them. Government-spec testing of the ssh is done in a big rush, and about a year and a half later private space travel is a reality. Of course, there's noplace to go yet except HackTown. Hackers start leaving at the rate of about 1000/yr. Spaceport 1 Wheel completed The ultimate insult of a complete space colony going up under their noses overnight finally lights a fire under the Spaceport, and the Wheel is finished in another three years, with a lot of grudgingly-accepted help from HackTown. Spaceport Grand Hotel opens 4 years after the Grand Hack.