In the post-war years of the late 21st century, the nations of Earth - finally ready for peaceful coexistence with one another - demonstrated their intentions by uniting under one truly democratic government. As the world was rebuilt, the United Nations of Earth established an arm responsible for exploration, development, and expansion of space resources. This arm was known as the United Nations Space Exploration Agency - UNSEA.
With the successful testing of the Alcubierre drive in 2099, serious development of FTL transport could finally begin. One of the first designs to be adopted by UNSEA for both fast intrasystem travel and interstellar flight was the Explorator class of survey ships. UNSEA's initial request for proposal called for an order of a dozen such ships to be built for astrocartographic and planetary survey duty. in the end, hundreds more were fabricated in numerous configurations; in fact, some can be seen still plying the spacelanes to this day.
The Explorator class survey ship is certainly no graceful swan, but it more than makes up for that in capability and adaptability. with a maximum effective velocity of c*64 (1.1921408 × 107 mph), Alpha Centauri can be reached in just over one Earth month, instantly rendering earlier generation ships obsolete.
In the year 2112, the Questor led the first interstellar expedition to survey the Centaurus star system.
ABOUT THESE SCHEMATICS:
This high-quality packet consists of eight 11"x17" fold-out sheets depicting 5 external views of the ship, plus detailed cross-sections and support craft.
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