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9 May 2051

In terms of the history of the settlement of the Solar System the 9th of May 2051 is possibly the most important date of them all.

The colonies on the Moon and on Mars were ticking along, with rumour beginning to circulate that the ASN would open up both locations to commercial enterprise soon. There were even hints in the government-sanctioned space program media releases that a research outpost had been set up on Phobos, the larger of Mars' two moons, and that plans were underway to begin mining in the Belt.

While exploration and colonization of the Solar System was still right at the top of the government's priority list and huge money was going into that sector, meaning massive growth in cities like Kununurra, the general public had lost a bit of interest.

Anxiety over the turf wars constantly erupting in Europe, the African refugee crisis (this had dominated the media-waves for the last 3 years - essentially the reformed African nations had put up a united front to bar entry of any refugees from Europe, the Middle East and Asia, which had led to a steady stream of terrorist attacks on the continent, and therefore a constant Australian military presence), as well as matters closer to home (Indonesia now appeared to be the disease capital of the entire planet), as well as business opportunities in the Lower Americas (for the most part, the Upper Americas was still considered too volatile - both economically and physically - for commercial appeal) had distracted people from what was happening outside Earth.

Today's news didn't initially change that, but it would have a huge impact in years to come.

While the exact date of the discovery will never likely be known, today was the day the Australian government made the announcement, hijacking the nets in their typical fashion. A Dr. Vitaly Brosinski and Dr. Roger Jeffrey Olivesbridge had made a fundamental breakthrough in space travel. They'd designed an engine that could not only handle far greater acceleration in a much shorter period of time than any created previously, it was also more fuel efficient and only needed a few seconds between acceleration bursts. Previous engine designs had needed anything from an hour to several hours between bursts of acceleration, so as to preserve engine integrity.

Simulations of flights with crew in gel-packed work-stations had been carried out successfully and the next step was production and live trials between the Moon and Mars.

It would be another year before these engines were in regular use, but once they were a new era in space exploration and colonization would begin.