Starsector is a solo roleplaying, exploration, and space combat game open to anyone who wishes to participate. Here, you take on the role of a space pirate in search of riches and glory!
Since the Collapse 206 years ago, the Persean sector has experienced a severe downward spiral, with numerous planets and systems destroyed or reduced to barely-terraformed moons due to constant conflict among factions. Furthermore, this region hosts an angry force that threatens humanity itself – something which must be dealt with quickly or humanity may soon perish forever.
2. Emergency Burn
Emergency Burn is an exceptional ability that allows you to push through terrain without losing your ship or running out of fuel, making it possible to navigate solar coronas, navigate pulsar beams and escape hyperspace storms without losing either yourself or fuel.
Emergency Burn is essential for any captain who wishes to survive the starsector, taking advantage of navigation capabilities within the game and making space exploration more manageable.
Starsector ships require money in order to buy supplies, fuel and expenses like crew payments and expenses (paying crew members etc). Maintaining a steady supply of these resources is essential – otherwise your ships could run out and fail altogether. For this purpose, Persean League colonies offer some of the lowest prices and widest supplies of such materials.
Finally, it’s essential to monitor your ship’s Combat Readiness status – an indicator that shows how long it can survive before malfunctioning in a fight. Hull mods and character skills may help increase this stat, though typically will never reach 100%.
3. Space Junk
Space Junk (or orbital debris, in technical parlance) refers to all objects that no longer serve their intended function in space, including old satellites and rocket stages as well as fragments left from disintegration or collision, plus other debris left when objects break apart in orbit.
Debris generated from space travel can range in size from large chunks of debris and old spacecraft parts, down to tiny paint flecks shed from rocket boosters. Some debris is naturally created due to impacts with micrometeoroids smaller than dust.
Human activity also plays a part. Every launch into orbit generates debris – from boosters and fairings to interstages and other components of the rocket itself – some of it small but dangerous enough to impact other spacecraft or landmasses in orbit or on Earth.
Some of this debris is ejectable, meaning it will reenter the atmosphere and fall back towards Earth. Unfortunately, its path of reentry cannot always be predicted with precision; similarly unpredictable is its response to differing air resistance conditions.
International space agencies and aerospace corporations have taken measures to minimize space junk, including developing guidelines to help combat it and designing satellites that proactively reduce debris production. Unfortunately, despite all their efforts on multiple fronts, space junk continues to multiply at an alarming rate and pose a real threat to space exploration.
Low Earth Orbit (LEO), where most satellites, including the International Space Station, reside. This problem has its greatest manifestation.
Low Earth orbit spacecraft travel at 15,700 miles per hour – meaning any impact with debris could cause irreparable damage or even destroy them. That is why space agencies have implemented orbital maneuvers designed to avoid colliding or colliding with orbital debris.
Due to increasing numbers of spacecraft entering LEO from space companies, objects in this region have rapidly multiplied resulting in near misses between spacecraft and debris being an ever more frequent occurrence.
4. Exploration Missions
Space exploration is an invaluable asset in humanity’s pursuit to better comprehend our home planet. Orbital missions provide new perspectives on Earth and how its dynamics interact with those of the cosmos beyond.
Space missions come in all forms, but some of the more exciting ones involve sending robots out into space to study various astrophysical objects in outer space – these could include robotic missions to Moon or Mars, asteroids and comets or space probes designed to observe Sun.
One of the most impressive examples is NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission to study near-Earth asteroids, which recently returned with up to one kilogram of samples and demonstrated the viability of using spacecraft for complex science experiments in orbit.
Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (Juice), another fascinating spacecraft, will orbit Jupiter and perform numerous flybys of its icy moons. Equipped with 10 scientific instruments for scientific discovery purposes, Juice will also help scientists learn more about extraterrestrial life possibilities.
Human space exploration has long been a central endeavor since humankind launched their first robotic craft into space back in 1958. Luna 1 became the inaugural robotic probe sent to explore the Moon while in 1990 a spacecraft named Mars I-X made its first trip there.
Exploration has also been used as an avenue to launch various technologies and devices into space, such as lasers, telemetry systems, spacecraft that deliver payloads into orbital targets, solar particle power for driving rovers, water electrolysis propulsion for interplanetary travel and optical navigation to orbit the Moon.
Magnetrons could play an essential role in future space missions. One such technology that shows great promise is the use of miniaturized, energy-efficient fusion cells called magnetrons.
Some of these devices are already operational and will continue to evolve over time, such as the Space Launch System or SLS-1 which will become the first commercially developed multi-mission vehicle, starting its uncrewed testing in 2020 and crewed tests beginning 2023.