The Hundred Gram Mission (39 page)

[xviii]
http://china-defense.blogspot.com/2012/02/z-15-ac352-chinese-ec175.html

[xix]
A submachine gun. I don't mention which type though, as the current Type 05 would likely be both too old and too underpowered for special forces in 2051.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QCW-05

[xx]
 

Mirror Matter: Pioneering Antimatter Physics
, Robert Forward and Joel Davis, (2001) p134

[xxi]
Ditto. This was one problem with Eugene Sanger's antimatter photon rocket. The high energy gamma rays produced by electron-positron annihilation can't be redirected, and penetrate deeply.

Sanger is an interesting fellow. Look up the antipodal bomber he was developing for Hitler. 

[xxii]
There's a lot of literature out on the Beamed Core Antimatter drive. This paper is what's hot (right now), as the Keane-Zhang design raises exhaust velocity to 69% of light speed.

Here's an excellent write up on it, by Paul Gilster:

http://www.centauri-dreams.org/?p=22967

And here is the original paper:

https://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/1205/1205.2281.pdf

For a more general introduction to the Beamed Core concept:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antimatter_rocket#Pure_antimatter_rocket:_direct_use_of_reaction_products

[xxiii]
Indistinguishable from Magic
, Robert Forward, 1995. This book is well worth tracking down. While his scifi is horrendous to read, there are few Science communicators as clear and easy to read. That, and he gives you stats and diagrams. For freaking starships.

[xxiv]
Centauri Dreams: Imagining and Planning Interstellar Exploration
, Paul Gilster, (2004), p130.

[xxv]
Extraction of Antiparticles concentrated in Planetary Magnetic Fields
, James Bickford, (2007).Galactic Cosmic Rays (GCRs) whack into worlds and produce antimatter, which become trapped. Saturn (with its huge rings) traps 240 micrograms of antimatter, each year. 

http://www.niac.usra.edu/files/studies/final_report/1071Bickford.pdf

[xxvi]
Mirror Matter: Pioneering Antimatter Physics
, Robert Forward and Joel Davis, (2001) p103. Forward brings it up like a throw away point:

"
George Chapline of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory ... proposed using colliding beams of heavy ions such as uranium with energies so high (2.5 TeV) that each nucleon has 10 GeV of kinetic energy. For a 100-meter diameter colliding beam facility with an intersection area of one square centimeter, the production rate could be as high as 10
18
antiprotons per second, or a gram per week.
"

[xxvii]
You're going to love this page.
http://www.edwardmuller.com/index.php?Page=calculator

[xxviii]
Asteroid Mining 101: Wealth for the New Space Economy
, John S. Lewis.

https://deepspaceindustries.com/asteroid-mining-101-john-lewis/

Sadly, asteroids are poor sources of both Uranium and Thorium. Asteroid 2043 is possible, but not very likely.

We're better off making antimatter on Earth, were Thorium is in essentially inexhaustible supply. But, for story reasons, I kicked it off-planet.

[xxix]
Centauri Dreams: Imagining and Planning Interstellar Exploration
, Paul Gilster, (2004), p79:

"Robert Forward calculated that for a 1-ton robotic probe moving at one-tenth the speed of light on a scientific mission to Alpha Centauri, an antimatter rocket world require no more than four tons of liquid hydrogen or other propellant, along with some forty pounds of antimatter."

[xxx]
It's hard to think of things more dystopian than this. From GlobalResearch.ca:
"
They don’t have to worry about strikes or paying unemployment insurance, vacations or comp time. All of their workers are full-time, and never arrive late or are absent because of family problems; moreover, if they don’t like the pay of 25 cents an hour and refuse to work, they are locked up in isolation cells."
 

http://www.globalresearch.ca/the-prison-industry-in-the-united-states-big-business-or-a-new-form-of-slavery/8289

[xxxi]
Pita bread. 

[xxxii]
A potential, future, water war. Ethiopia, Egypt, and Sudan have so far been able to calm things, but this will be tested as the century progresses. For Egypt, one of the most modern and powerful countries in Africa, this is an existential danger, and they see it as such, too.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-32016763
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_politics_in_the_Nile_Basin
 

[xxxiii]
http://internationalwaterlaw.org/documents/regionaldocs/uar_sudan.html

[xxxiv]
The QBZ-111 does not exist. It is an extrapolationof Norinco's QBZ-95 assault rifle, now in service.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QBZ-95

[xxxv]
The QJZ-90 also doesn't exist. It is the QJZ-89 which does, but it looks old even today.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QJZ-89

[xxxvi]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-explosive_anti-tank_warhead

[xxxvii]
Another fake future weapon. The Type 98 exists, and has been in service since 1998.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PF-98

[xxxviii]
Mohammad Hashim Kamali, "Characteristics of the Islamic State," 1993. Kamali writes on page 25: "The idea has prevailed among Muslims that there could be but one form of Islamic state. Namely the form manifested under the Rightly-guided Caliphs. This is a common error. The truth is that Islam does not require conformity to any particular form. There is not only one form of Islamic state but many. and it is for the Muslims of every period to discover the form most suitable for their needs."

[xxxix]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Extremely_Large_Telescope
This should be ready by 2024.

[xl]
Sadly, there is no such planned NASA telescope. The EELT for comparison, at 39 meters, will cost an estimated 1 billion Euros.

ESA did consider a 100 meter telescope though, the OWL (Overwhelmingly Large Telescope). It was however, too expensive, at just 500 million Euros more.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overwhelmingly_Large_Telescope

[xli]
Michio Kaku,
The Future of the Mind.
Go get it, you’ll thank me.

[xlii]
Peter Diamandis talks about this in a Startalk interview.
http://startalkradio.co/show/x-prize-part-1/
http://startalkradio.co/show/x-prize-beyond-space/

[xliii]
Claudio Maccone is popularizing the idea of flying a telescope to 550 AU (or more). At this distance, it can use light lensed by the Sun’s own gravity. This would boost the telescope’s power by 100 million times.

http://www.centauri-dreams.org/?p=785

[xliv]
Calcutta, I am told, is a shit hole.

[xlv]
The UN projects 9.7 billion, but I've pushed this to ten for a sexier number.

Of great concern is that Africa's population is expected to double. Countries that underdevelop human capital, pay quite the price, later.

http://www.un.org/en/development/desa/news/population/2015-report.html

[xlvi]
Birth rates are slowing worldwide, but fertility more than death rate is the bigger determinant here. Currently the world is growing by 230,000 people a year. I've assumed a decrease in percentage, but a steadier overall number.

http://www.ecology.com/birth-death-rates/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Projections_of_population_growth

[xlvii]
Ministry of State Security. This is China’s ‘secret service.’

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ministry_of_State_Security_(China)

[xlviii]
Chinese bases, all the way West to Africa.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/String_of_Pearls_(Indian_Ocean)

[xlix]
This is a real thing. Chinese companies often hire – or rent - white men to be figureheads at events or signings.
http://edition.cnn.com/2010/BUSINESS/06/29/china.rent.white.people/

[l]
The Shkval torpedo is incredible. It essentially flies under water.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VA-111_Shkval

[li]
http://www.colombosevengin.com/

[lii]
Literally, [little] white boy. Sri Lankan nicknames are often ironic.

[liii]
Perkins Observatory, run by my old school, Ohio Wesleyan University, is where the Wow! signal was received.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wow!_signal

[liv]
By forming a gas pocket around itself, a body can in principle move through a liquid as fast as it if does through air. It would, in essence, be flying.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supercavitation

[lv]
Khat is a narcotic plant, common in the Arabian Peninsula and the Horn of Africa. It is restricted or banned in the West.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khat

[lvi]
Russia's version of GPS.
https://www.glonass-iac.ru/en/

[lvii]
The Toyota Hilux is the most popular vehicle among insurgents, worldwide. 
http://www.newsweek.com/why-rebel-groups-love-toyota-hilux-74195

[lviii]
I'm assuming the S-97 Raider, doesn't end up cancelled, like everything that isn't the F-35.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sikorsky_S-97_Raider

[lix]
Astronaut Candidates.

[lx]
 

Any vessel whose orbit intersects the orbits of two worlds. Travellers can use them to hitchhike between the worlds. Aldrin Cyclers (named by Buzz Aldrin, who came up with the idea in 1985) would cycle between Earth and Mars. Buzz can tell you more:
http://buzzaldrin.com/space-vision/rocket_science/aldrin-mars-cycler/

[lxi]
 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Senate_Appropriations_Subcommittee_on_Defense

[lxii]
Space Chronicles: Facing the Ultimate Frontier
, Neil Degrasse Tyson (2012).

[lxiii]
Mars Direct: Space Exploration, the Red Planet, and the Human Future
, Robert Zubrin (2013).

[lxiv]
Space Chronicles: Facing the Ultimate Frontier
, Neil Degrasse Tyson (2012).

[lxv]
I'm borrowing the term 'Tin Can' space station from the Amazing Eclipse Phase RPG.
http://eclipsephase.com/