Manifest Destiny History
Following is a timeline of the Manifest Destiny official universe.
2000's
2008: The first commercial sub-orbital flights are offered to the paying public for $200,000 per seat. Demand is high.
2009: America's Space Prize is claimed by Virgin Galactic when the SpaceShipThree prototype completes three orbits and a simulated docking before returning to the launch site, and repeats it 43 days later with five orbits.
2010's
2010: Space Shuttle is decommissioned
2011: The supply gap for the International Space Station is filled through commercial manned and unmanned missions from various spaceflight firms.
2013: DARPA funding for advanced energy projects is increased to $3 billion per year. Priority is given to solar, nuclear fusion, and antimatter production research.
2014: The first commercial orbital flights are offered to the paying public for $3,000,000 per seat for five orbits.
2015: Project Constellation's Orion CEV completes it's first manned flight, one year behind schedule. NASA faced criticism for falling behind the private sector's space innovations.
2016: Bigelow Aerospace launches the first operational BA 330 "Nautilus" space habitat. It is operated as a space hotel, and receives regular visits from the three commercial orbital spaceflight carriers.
2016: Funded by DARPA's Advanced Energy grants, Antimatter Probes 1 and 2 are launched. Probe 1 stays in Earth orbit, investigating the Van Allen belts and solar radiation. Probe 2 is launched on an 18-month voyage to Jupiter to investigate antimatter production and collection in the Jovian system. The probes are hailed as a great research possibility.
2017: Gasoline prices peak at $10 per gallon during a 4-month production shortage. New drilling increased the available crude oil, and government subsidization and re-negotiation of supply agreements with OPEC caused prices to stabilize around $6.50 per gallon. Commercial spaceflight continues at a reduced rate due to increased fuel costs.
2018: Construction on a $10 billion prototype fusion reactor ITER is completed. Initial tests indicate a less than expected output, striking a blow against prospects of fusion power. Modifications are planned.
2019: Man returns to the Moon using the Project Constellation's Lunar Surface Access Module (LSAM). A series of three flights were flown over two years to perform scientific research and deliver cargo.
2020's
2020: NASA releases the results of the Antimatter Probes. Despite an instrument malfunction on Probe 2, the study confirms a trace AM presence in Earth's Van Allen belts and around Jupiter. It proclaims that an antimatter collector facility in Jupiter's gravity well is possible, but not commercially feasable.
2022: The fourth LSAM flight to the Moon formally established a permanent base of two Americans astronauts and one Russian cosmonaut at Brighton Beach.
2022: An Australian PhD student writing a thesis on the 2020 NASA Antimatter Probe study stumbles over errors in the data compensation due to the faulty instrument. Peer review confirms the student's conclusion that antimatter collection can be profitable after a investment phase of 10-15 years.
2023: Partially due to increased usage, the world-wide supply of crude oil and petroleum fell quicker than expected, causing gasoline prices above $20 per gallon. Scandal erupted when it was revealed the falling supply levels had been known but kept secret.
2025: Scientist and policy makers from 54 countries convened the World Energy Panel of 2025. They avoided prohibitively expensive travel and collaborated via the internet. Encouraged by the recent results of the Antimatter Probes, the panel determined that the collection and creation of antimatter as an energy source is humanity's best hope for a global energy solution.