Second Space Race

The Second Space Race was a spaceflight capability rivalry that took place in the 2030s with the goal of achieving a superior colony presence on the Moon, Mars, Europa, and other bodies in the Solar System after technological advantages in life support and payload delivery systems made exploration faster and cheaper. During the period of the rivalry, six powerful players established their positions in this new economy - India, China, Russia, and the United States, as well as the megacorporations Paradigm, BioCorp, and CORE Group. It was driven by the Resource Crisis, as nations looked to asteroid mining to supplement thinning rare metal deposits.

Economy

The "big three" corporate participants in the Second Space Race each played different roles. Initially, both CORE Heavy Industries and Paradigm worked together to develop a shared spaceflight capability; with both the companies' backgrounds in aerospace, they developed the flight hardware and designed the first commercial space stations, formalising procedures. Both of the companies' backgrounds in mining also helped to establish a strong bond, especially in development of the first zero-gravity asteroid mining rigs and the design of haulers.

BioCorp, meanwhile, provided hydroponic systems for oxygen and food production, with their existing background in biotechnology. Providing food for off-world colonies was considered to be a hard problem at the time, and BioCorp's solutions meant they were able to establish themselves with a near monopoly on food production technology. They also provided critical medical support, developing solutions to mitigate much of the biological side effects of spaceflight and providing private medical clinics to colonies.

The "big three" were funded by countries and other megacorporations that were not directly part of the race, which placed bets on their prosperity. Many of these other human megacorporations, such as Metatron, Helios, Voima Tech Industries, and Pacific Industrial Science, played less direct roles, but still acted as critical parts of the supply chain. For example, Metatron provided much of the early communications hardware to enable Internet access to the first colonies, and Pacific Industrial Science provided the critical life support systems and airlock doors required for life safety in spaceflight applications.

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