Glossary

Spacecraft and spaceflight

Drive – The propulsion section of a spacecraft, not to include propellant and reaction mass.

Washers – Droplet radiators. A spacecraft thermal system that emits droplets of high temperature liquids that cool in the vacuum, and are then collected to repeat the cycle.

Fairies/fairy wings/antlers- Folding radiators, or the emitting/receiving booms of droplet radiators.

Plume – Rocket exhaust, which can be ludicrously dangerous depending on the drive type.

RCS – Reaction control system. Usually small rocket engines that orient a spacecraft and permit docking and station-keeping.

EVA – Extravehicular activity, a space walk.

Dusters – Dusty plasma radiators. Very new as of 2370. Often called “angel wings” because they’re associated with the Galileans, who incorporate a lot of angelic iconography in their propaganda.

Constellation – A group of spacecraft, though sometimes used to refer to all spacecraft of a specific make or model.

Orbital – A space habitat, specifically one that acts as a city for permanent residents. Often referred to as “cities” which becomes confusing because many orbitals are so large that they may have multiple settlements in their interior.

Tubeworld/O’Neil Cylinder – A cylindrical space habitat rotating on it’s long axis. Interior surface experiences anywhere from .3 to 1G depending on rotation speed and diameter. Most orbitals are spun to 1G. Cylinders are commonly 3-6km in diameter and 15-30km long. The setup almost always includes two cylinders rotating in opposite directions to counteract gyroscopic precession.

Stanford Torus/ring station– A wheel-like space habitat rotating on it’s short axis. Colloquially called a wheel, carousel, gyro city or a torquist. In some cases wheels spin around a central, non-rotating shaft (a false-Stanford), otherwise the entire station spins. Like the O’Neil cylinder, the inward facing surface experiences artificial gravity via centrifugal force. The torus ranges in size from tiny 30 meter outposts to massive 8 kilometer metropolises.

Astronomy

Sol – The sun, the G-type main sequence star around which Earth orbits

Terra – Earth

Luna – Earth’s moon, “The Moon”. As humans travelled and settled other sheres of influence, it became inconvinient to continue referring to Earth’s moon as “The Moon”.

Bosphora – Mimas, moon of Saturn

Icthardia – Enceladus, moon of Saturn

Cadiz Hale – Phoebe, moon of Saturn

Pluchar – A term that describes the Pluto-Charon binary system.

Ura – An abbreviation of Uranus

Orchid – The dwarf planet Quaoar

Warzi – A scattered disc dwarf planet on a highly eccentric orbit (fictional)

Make – The dwarf planet Makemake

Philos – A scattered disc dwarf planet (fictional)

Gong – The scattered-disc dwarf planet Gonggong

Hythea – Trans Neptunian Object 20000 Varuna

Cabal – Trans Neptunian Object 120347 Salacia

Orcus – The dwarf planet 90482 Orcus

Cybernetics, Personal Technology

NIF – A neural interface. A cybernetic augment that attaches to the brain stem. In advanced transhuman designs, it’s directly integrated into the brain. As of 2370, most human beings have at least a rudimentary NIF.

Somnoptics- Augmented reality, usually interpreted directly by the NIF, therefore playing out within someone’s cybernetic eyes. Entoptics specifically describe the visual aspect of augmented reality.

Bioweave – A catch all term for all types of artificially produced organic tissue.

Hypersuit – A combat suit designed to enhance the movement and survivability of the wearer. Implied to be integrated with cybernetics. Not a spacesuit.

Marrowsuit – A combat spacesuit.

VAVki – Super insulated, actively warmed outfit used on Titan. Similar versions have been used on Mars, Earth and in frigid orbitals.

Slipsuit – Thermally regulated under-suit worn by people on EVA.

Slang/Cultural Terminology

Spacer – A loose term for someone who works on a spacecraft for a living or predominantly works in the vacuum. It does not refer to someone who simply lives off Earth.

Gatz – A Continental-Angli expletive used across many cultures. Historically, a gat is the flash of light that occurs when a solar energetic particle passes through a spacecraft. It has since come to refer to all phenomena associated with energetic particles. “Gatz, I can’t believe you said that!”

Transhuman – Also called hypers, posties (post humans). This term specifically describes class-A genomes recognized by the Tichordea Concord.

Sphere – A sphere of influence, the space around an object in which it’s gravity exceeds that of all others. However, this also refers to the space around space habitats, which had negligible gravity. “Have you ever been to Neptune sphere?”

Mindscape – the NIF network. The web of connected cybernetic computers, settlement to settlement, orbital to orbital, sphere to sphere. Through mindscapes, people can access communication, information, nearby technology… and nearby people.

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