Egeria

Template:InfoboxSpaceshipEgeria was a manned human (Homo sapiens) spacecraft sent to Proxima Centauri. It was one of the second human manned spacecrafts to enter interstellar space and was the second to reach a foreign star system. It was designed by billionaire engineer Blore Ragner. Its main engine was powered by nuclear fusion and was equipped with an antimatter Warp engine for FTL, although this was a later addition. There were 5 crew members aboard. John Timwall was the commander and pilot of the spacecraft.

Journey

Once all five crew members were aboard, it was launched from New South Wales in Australia in 19 August 2062. It entered the Oort cloud in 21 August 2062 and exited it 2 days later. After a half year journey, in 2063, it finally entered the Proxima Centauri system. Since the spacecraft itself couldn't explore the entirety of Aeros, 10 probes were deployed in orbit of the planet, each one targeted a specific portion of the planet's surface. All of the probes were extremely clean and even had nanorobots to kill/remove every single bit of organism, dirt or organic/inorganic matter in order to prevent contamination. Egeria then went into orbit of Aeros. It proceeded to send a lander with 4 of the 5 astronauts, and Timwall stayed aboard the orbiting spacecraft.

Tim Greerson standing on Aeros

Once the lander was safety on the surface, it opened, and the 4 crew members proceeded to explore the planet. Tim Greerson, an astronaut and biologist, observed the very first lifeform, which Heinrich Bergmann later named Alienobacterium proximus. It was a microscopic, unicellular and silicon-based organism. Other organisms were later identified by Bergmann and other scientists. Greerson collected samples of the organism. The 4 crew members then went back to the lander and back to the spacecraft. After a half year, they were back on Earth. On the way back, Greerson was able to conduct several experiments on the organism and recorded it. In 20 November 2064 they returned to Earth. Once returned, Greerson met up with astrobiologist Heinrich Bergmann and gave him the samples and records in February 2067. Bergmann observed, described.and named the organism in 2068.

Technology and design

Early designing began in late 2020's by Blore Ragner of the RPSA with the help of NASA. Construction of Egeria began in the mid 2030's by RPSA, and it was built with the latest technologies. Rather than a spaceship, it was more of a mobile space station with modules (a bit like the Endurance in Christopher Nolan's 2014 movie Interstellar) . In the early 2050's, RPSA was already searching for candidates. An antimatter Warp engine was finished in the mid-late 2050's. The first module was a central "tube" with zero gravity. Here labs, hubs and pathways were built. Next, solar panels and nuclear reactors for energy were installed and finally 4 arc circle rings which rotate, creating artificial gravity. Resting rooms, toilets, kitchens, gyms and even a swimming pool were also built inside the rotating rings. Shields and artificial magnetic fields were installed for protection against debris, particles and radiation. Construction finished in late-2050's. The entire spaceship was a staggering 2000 kilometres and took around 4 decades to build.

Crew

John Timwall - commander and pilot
Tim Greerson - biologist and astronaut
Charlie Oldman - technichian and electrician
Sarah Veil - astronaut, botanist and astronomist
Victor Windchester - astronaut and supervision

Trivia

• Egeria comes from Roman mythology. She was a water nymph, and exchanged wisdom and knowledge for water and milk. The name was chosen because the crew was sacrificing their time, effort and risk to learn more about the Proxima Centauri system.