The Hoshikaze 2250 universe splits from our own timeline in the early '80s. Here's an overview of its history. During the last years of the 20th century, mankind pushed on to space. Using plasma ships from Low-Earth-Orbit stations, a Mars terraforming project was launched, but failed to gain momentum. Then in 2023, warp drive was discovered. In a matter of years, nearly all existing classes were converted and plasma only remained for vernier use, as warp drives only thrust along a single axis. The nearly extinct Mars terraformation project took a new start. As space-based companies gained power and earthbound governments struggled to manage multiple crises, the 2050s were the era of PoliCorpos. With access to unlimited supplies from the asteroid belt and a strong rear base on Mars, they quickly gained the upper end. By 2060, Earth govermnents were nothing more than figureheads for the Political Corporations. Meanwhile, probes sent in the 1990s to Tau Ceti (10.6 LY), Delta Pavoni (17.4 LY), Eta Cassiopeia (18.1 LY) and 82 Eridani (19.1 LY) found earthlike planets. The Policorpos quickly unearthed abandoned projects of large-scale sleeper ISVs. Between 2052 and 2089, 4 expeditions were launched and the respective worlds of Hope, Heaven, New Earth and Sora no Shikyu were settled and dubbed "First Colonies". In 2089, a gravitic anomaly discovered near Jupiter was found to be one side of a wormhole linking Sol and Barnard's Star. Other so-called jumppoints were discovered throughout the Sol system. The first hyperspace motivator was tested in 2117. This drive could send a ship through a jump point, thus realizing FTL travel on a network of wormhole-linked systems. This prompted colonization of several new exoearths, reconquest of the First Colonies and discovery of remnants of an extinct, technologically advanced civilisation, which would later lead to the founding of the Planetarist Alliance to fight the dictature of the all-powerful PoliCorpos. Backed by corporate and government money as well as wealthy individuals, a company named "Better Worlds" started operating in 2123. It sold exocolonies to wealthy groups willing to take a new start away from corporate-ruled Sol system. Half of the 29 BW colonies thrived. Some never reached their destination, falling victim of hastily refurbished ships. Some died after initial colonisation, either because of the target planet being too dangerous or through BW's lack of support. It was later revealed that around half the support ships due to follow the initial expedition were instead sold to smugglers for a great profit. In 25 years of operation, the company greatly enlarged the Human Sphere, at the terrifying toll of hundreds of thousands of deaths. The ships represented here show the lineage of the great freighters that helped mankind conquer space throughout the 21st and 22nd centuries, from left to right : - The Weifeng (Great wind), first plasma-driven heavy space freighter, - The Iserlohn, warp-driven Weifeng derivate, whose cryosleeper version, Olympus-class, was the mainstay of Mars colonization, - A projected Bételgeuse-class plasma-driven interstellar cryosleeper ship, which was never built, - The Rahjiv Nadrankha, the warp-driven Bételgeuse derivative that was send to Tau Ceti to colonize planet Hope, - A typical Better Worlds ship, an insystem freighter refurbished as low-cost jump-capable cryosleeper ship. These ships all share a similar cargo section, nearly unchanged for 2 centuries. They greatly differ in their propulsion sections, reflecting the history of space technologies from plasma to warp to wormhole jump. Seeing the ever-shrinkig size in engineering sections, one also needs to remember that the Weifeng only accelerated at 0.2g and the Bételgeuse would barely have reached 1.3g, while the Iserlohn, Rahjiv Nadrankha and Better Worlds ships were all in the 2-5g range, with all 5 ships having similar payloads. (Models built with DoGA-L3 and taken to slide format with PowerPoint) Soon to come : beauty shots of each ship...