Showing results for "Explorations" in Hard Science Fiction

After 25 years serving as the human Monitor of the Interstellar Ark, Hermes, Orion is scheduled to be placed back into hibernation with the other crewmembers. Knowing he'll die there and be replaced before the ship's voyage is over, he decides that he won’t — can’t — accept that fate. Whatever it takes, Orion will escape Hermes and see what's beyond, even if it means defying the regulations of his only friend — the ship-wide artificial intelligence known as Dan.

Everyone knows that Chitzas are masters of spatial compression, routinely exploring distant places across the Milky Way in their wedge-shaped scout ships. But rumors abound of even greater accomplishments. Some say these intrepid explorers have reached beyond the galaxy. When a distress signal is received from deep space, making sense of the emergency becomes a personal matter for Daniel Rice. His wife is onboard that ship.

A planet in the endless emptiness of space, far from the warmth of any sun. And yet there are people who populate its vast caverns, living, working and loving. Since time immemorial, they have been on course for Andromeda, the neighboring galaxy of the Milky Way. This is the prophecy of the ancients, the one goal that unites them all, their cult. But then the unthinkable happens: the journey stops because the planet enters the orbit of a mysterious object that can't be seen in any telescope.

On a privately financed orbital habitat above the planet Uranus, political idealism conflicts with pragmatic - and illegal - methods of financing. Add a scientist who has funding to launch a probe deep into Uranus‘ ocean depths to search for signs of life, and you have a three-way struggle for control. Humans can’t live on the gas giants, making instead a life in orbit. Kyle Umber, a religious idealist, has built Haven, a sanctuary above the distant planet Uranus.

The war was finally over, or so Admiral Jon McCarthy thought. But the emergence of a new enemy—the mysterious Synthecs—leads to an uneasy alliance between humans and Korilians. McCarthy finds himself navigating a dangerous landscape both in space and in the halls of diplomacy to keep the coalition from falling apart before the real battle even begins.

Merritt Alder is done with Earth. The planet is polluted and overpopulated, and its people are hungry. Earth's first colony, Galena, is a pioneer world 10,000 light-years away. It has clean air, unpolluted water, and continents of arable land. Anyone can start a new life…if they can get there. For Merritt, the journey is only the beginning. Obstacles arise every step of the way, forcing compromise and sacrifice. And not everyone on his ship is pure of heart.

Nova is a lonely planet. It has been on its way to the Andromeda galaxy for ages. And yet, it is inhabited by people who have never known anything other than the caves beneath the surface that protect them from the vacuum and cosmic radiation. A surprising encounter changes everything. The planet gets visitors who seem to have their own agenda, and are so alien that communication seems futile. But they, too, have unexpected existential problems.

Jeff Dolan always wanted to be an astronaut. After helping a private space company build a ship that can travel to Saturn's largest moon in five months, he gets his chance. Shortly after launch, a devastating malfunction forces Jeff and the crew to make a choice: continue to Titan or go back home. As the truth about their mission unravels, one thing is clear: Someone on Earth knew about the system flaw and covered it up. Yet surviving the journey isn't the crew's only concern. Even if they make it to Titan, they will face another problem: Something is already there.

NASA finally made it. The very first human has just set foot on the surface of our neighbor planet. This is the start of a long research expedition that sent four scientists into space. But the four astronauts of the NASA crew are not the only ones with this destination. The privately financed "Mars for Everyone" initiative has also targeted the Red Planet. Twenty men and women have been selected to live there and establish the first extraterrestrial settlement.

How can a colony on Mars survive when the greatest danger on the planet is humanity itself. All contact is lost with the first human colony on Mars during a long, intense sandstorm. Satellite imagery of the aftermath shows extensive damage to the facility, and the fifty-four colonists who called it home are presumed dead. Three years later, a new mission sets down on the planet surface to investigate what remains of the derelict site.

AD 7.783 - In 43 Stunden startet das letzte Raumschiff. Die Jericho-Mission ist das teuerste Fiasko der bemannten Raumfahrt. Dennoch wird Ben, Fernaufklärer und Scharfschütze, aus dem Kälteschlaf geholt. Der Einsatz: Sicherung einer Stellung im Nirgendwo, dem HWY51. Natürlich gibt es hier keinen Highway, sondern nur extraterrestrischen Wüstendreck. Noch 7 Stunden. Als Ben erkennt, was auf dem Mond läuft, fliegt ihm der Laden bereits um die Ohren. Kein Ding, damit kommt er klar. Mehr zu schaffen machen ihm seine Erinnerungen.

They have been traveling towards the Andromeda galaxy for thousands and thousands of years. Suddenly, they receive an offer that sounds far too good to refuse. But are they even ready for the big step that actually promises them the fulfillment of all their wishes? Aren't those who want to make it possible perhaps also pursuing their own plans, which will plunge the entire planet into great danger? The Arrival is the conclusion of the Andromeda trilogy.

Als die Besatzung der Ares-9 Marsmission mit dem Ziel aufbricht, eine ständig bewohnte Basis zu errichten, ahnt sie nicht, was sich unter dem roten Staub des Nachbarplaneten verbirgt. Zum ersten Mal in der Geschichte wird klar, dass die Menschheit nicht allein im Weltraum ist. Das Artefakt, das sie im Staub des toten Planeten entdecken, verändert nicht nur das Verständnis der Menschen über ihren Platz im Universum, es birgt in seinem Innersten auch ein todbringendes Geheimnis.

Die geheimnisvollen Erbauer ziehen eine Spur durch die lokale Wolke, der die Majestätische Dracht folgt – alle Beteiligten versprechen sich enorme Vorteile davon, die Überreste dieser fortschrittlichen Zivilisation aufzuspüren. Aber wollen die Außerirdischen überhaupt gefunden werden?

Die Majestätische Dracht erreicht ein Sonnensystem, das es so eigentlich nicht geben dürfte: Einer der Planeten umkreist beide Zentralsterne, aber in einer Bahn, die senkrecht zu der der anderen Himmelskörper verläuft. Eigentlich müsste dieser Kurs regelmäßig zu mächtigen Katastrophen führen – und ausgerechnet, als das Raumschiff der Grosnopfe dort eintrifft, steht ein solches Ereignis kurz bevor. Es sieht so aus, als müssten Marchenko und seine Freunde ein ganzes Sternensystem reparieren – eine unlösbare Aufgabe.

Agetha has survived many more battles than she anticipated when she first landed on her new home planet. She's older and wiser, has gained family and lost loved ones. And yet her reward for four decades of service is to be pushed to the colony's outer edges with the other aging Generationals. But that was only the beginning of her adventure.

The Space Race of the Sixties, at the height of the Cold War, had been nail-biting—until the Soviet Union forfeited. In the thirties—amid a second Cold War—China is not about to lose the race to Mars. Nor is the United States. Nor, quite the wildcard, is a secretive cabal drawn from among the world's multi-billionaires. All of them are scrambling to launch deep-space missions on a schedule that makes the Sixties contest appear lackadaisical. This competition could only continue on the Red Planet.

Ethos is real. The crew of Excursion Two made it safely to the colony planet, but where are the colonists? Jane’s ancestor has recovered from nearly three centuries in a damaged cryochamber, but Linus Vanderbilt is holding onto secrets. He warns them never to use the Link, then disappears with his trusted robot assistant, Atticus.

Nearly 100,000 years after first contact with the machines that dominate the universe, only a few hundred humans survive. Trapped on Snowglade, a barren world near the center of the galaxy, Killeen and his child, Toby, of the Bishop Tribe, are primitive scavengers, homeless and hunted by the ruling “mechs”. Then suddenly, a strange cosmic entity – neither organic nor cybernetic or living matter – reaches out from a black hole to speak with Killeen.

Planet GJ 1061 d ist kein Paradies. Die Majestätische Dracht stoppt trotzdem in dem System, denn der Planet hat eine Besonderheit: Ein mächtiger Riss verläuft vom Südpol fast bis zum Äquator, und dieser Canyon scheint keine geologischen Ursachen zu haben. Marchenko und seine Alien-Freunde glauben, die Frage schnell beantworten zu können, aber sie haben die Rechnung ohne die gemacht, die bereits vor ihnen hier angekommen sind.