THE PROJECT: After receiving so much positive response from fellow Renderosity artists on my near-future design, “Solar System Explorer Endurance,” I decided to tackle a project depicting a very early starship. To devise a somewhat plausible scheme for the star-faring technology of the “Daybreak”, I did a bit of astronomical research and learned that it may be possible to mine material found in the vast outer volume of our star system for deuterium to use as fuel for nuclear fusion reactors and engines. These outer regions extend from the orbit of Neptune to as far as 100,000 AU (Astronomical Units) from our sun and are referred to as the Kuiper Belt, the Hills Cloud (inner Oort Cloud) and (outer Oort Cloud). Assuming that other star systems have such regions too, the distance of deuterium-free void separating the outermost fringes of our Oort Cloud and that of our nearest neighbor, Alpha Centauri, may only be 100,000 AU. From this reasoned speculation and a desired travel time for the trip already in mind, the warp-jump performance for the vessel was easily calculated. Of course, as with all my work, this project is meant more as an artistic endeavor than an engineering one. We still have that pesky warp-jump generator technology to figure out! THE STORY: The "Daybreak" class hyperships were the first vessels built by the Space Exploration Consortium (SEC). Formed in 2144 AD as a consolidation of various national space programs, the SEC inherited a number of experimental warp-jump spacecraft. These first faster-than-light craft had performed numerous test flights in the outer boundary of the Kuiper Belt, the closest to the Sun that the warp-jump generator would work reliably. With robotic probes confirming the existence of easily obtainable deuterium in the Oort Cloud, the SEC felt confident that a crewed mission to the nearest star system was now feasible. Three large exploration vehicles were commissioned for this mission: Hyperships "Daybreak,” "Ascension", and "Sunrise." Construction of the hyperships was completed in July of 2146 AD and they set out together from Earth orbit in December for the eight month journey to Alpha Centauri. The exploration group arrived at the edge of Alpha Centarui's Kuiper Belt in June 2147 AD and began a three month survey of the stars and planets in the system. The trio of vessels departed from the center of the Alpha Centauri system in September and arrived back at the edge of Sol's Oort Cloud in January 2148 AD. Sadly, the "Sunrise" suffered a warp-jump generator malfunction on the way back to Sol's Kuiper Belt resulting in the loss of the ship and its crew. The "Daybreak" and "Ascension" arrived back in Earth orbit in May 2148 AD ending the historic mission. The “Daybreak” class pioneered Human interstellar travel. These first generation starships utilized nuclear-fusion powered warp-jump generators capable of traversing up to 5000 Astronomical Units (AU) per jump. They were fueled by deuterium mined from material located throughout the Kuiper Belt and Oort Cloud. The “Daybreak” class hyperships could perform a maximum of twenty warp-jumps before needing to refuel, allowing them to cross the 90,000 AU void between the outer boundaries of the Oort Clouds of Sol and Alpha Centauri. Early warp-jumps were hard on the human crews. While the jumps themselves were nearly instantaneous, they created reactions of several minutes of extreme disorientation followed by up to an hour of nausea. The crews needed several hours of recovery time before they could begin to prepare for the next jump. Fortunately, artificial intelligence computer systems were unaffected by warp-jumps and could manage ship operations until the human crew revived. Warp-Jump sickness would continue to be a serious problem for human interstellar travelers for decades to come. Human star-faring technology would take its next big leap in the early 2160's AD, with the introduction the “Inquiry” class starships.