Human Space

Human space refers to any and all regions of space colonized by humanity. This includes galaxies, solar systems, and planets.

History

The term first appeared around 2100 CE, most likely adopted by the recently founded United Republic of Space Settlements.

Evolution

Pre-Space

Human space was limited to Earth exclusively before the space age. Modern humans appeared in eastern Africa as early as 200,000 BCE where they spent millions of years spreading out across the Middle East and into Eurasia. Eventually humans entered North America, and from there they spread south.

Thousands of years later, civilization emerged, and many nations, such as Portugal, Spain, England, and France, used modern seafaring technology to embark across the Atlantic Ocean. For a short period as well China explored the oceans of the Far East. Over the course of a few centuries colonies accelerated younger civilizations, such as the Native Americans and Africans, to European equivalents. Many of these colonies broke free of their founding nations and formed their own governments, further enhancing humanity's control of the planet.

1950-2000

Humanity began a semi-permanent presence in space in the 1950s with the first rocket plane flights beyond Earth's atmosphere. A decade later the Space Race began, which resulted in the first landings on Luna. Established shortly afterward were space stations Salyut, Almaz, and Skylab, followed finally by the International Space Station.

These were located strictly in low Earth orbit and were the only places humans could be found before the first Lunarian and Martian colonies.

2020-2050

The first space colonies appeared on Luna, Mars and in the atmosphere of Venus. Though these colonies were small and possessed little political power over Earth-based governments, later establishments were designed for growing civilian populations. With growing environmental and political issues on Earth, many relocated to the colonies. The first off-world humans were born, leading to the beginning of an interplanetary culture.

Meanwhile, improvements in propulsion and life support technology allowed exploration missions to the outer solar system.

2050-2060

The creation of the warp drive unleashed a second wave of colonization to the entire solar system, primarily to Jupiter and Saturn. This was assisted by both an eager public and by the many governments of Earth and Mars, which saw the establishment of distant colonies as practical mean of extracting untouched resources for their own profit.

2060-2100

Extrasolar missions to systems such as Proxima Centauri, Barnard's Star, and Luhman 16 laid the foundation for humanity's first interstellar government. Indeed, as many governments were unable to prevent private individuals from spreading across nearby systems without permission, fears arose that unqualified explorers could incite a conflict between humanity and an extraterrestrial entity.

Upon the founding of the United Republic of Space Settlements, humanity had traveled as far as the Hyades cluster, except for a few government-funded space missions to more distant regions.

2100-3000

During the rule of the URSS, all space travel not affiliated with the government or military are heavily monitored. This stunted humanity's growth across space; in later ages civilian travel prove to be the predominant force driving the establishment of extrasolar colonies. By the time the URSS collapsed, most human colonies could be found within a few hundred light-years of Sol, though some, like Mintaka Prime, were as far as a thousand.

Meanwhile, the entirety of Sol is colonized, and large portions are terraformed.