Akamatsuverse Pacific Space Alliance

[Prince Charon]

Japan, South Korea, Molmol, and several other nations in and around the Pacific Ocean have pooled their space budgets, to create the Pacific Space Alliance. The chief spacecraft designer for this new group is prodigy and recent Todai graduate Dr. Kaolla Suu, Princess of Molmol. The current goal of the alliance is to reach the Moon, before the Chinese do, and before the U.S. returns. Although not known to the public, the reason for this, and in fact for the whole Alliance, is because an unmanned JAXA probe, partly designed by Dr. Suu, found something very interesting on the Moon, and they want to get to it, before China does.

What they found is up to the author. If it has anything to do with the Turtle civilization, that could be a hook to bring in Seta, Keitaro, and from there, the rest of the cast.

The story could also be combined with Rocket Girls. The anime can be found on YouTube, and is quite good. You could probably find a torrent of it somewhere, as well. By this point in the Love Hina timeline, Ema and Sarah are probably still small enough to be SSA astronauts.

 

[Shiakou]

Countries which would like to beat China's ass to the moon on principle alone.

Taiwan
South Korea
Japan

Countries which may join to get the McGuffin.

Philippines
Indonesia
Malaysia
Singapore
Thailand
Laos?
Cambodia?

 

[ThreadWeaver]

Mmmmm... funnny. A Space alliance that happens to share an acronym (PSA) with a prostate cancer test.

There may just be a correlation there...

 

[Shiakou]

Good point.

I therefore nominate that the Alliance's name NOT be in English. Base it on either Molmolese or Japanese.

 

[Legacy|iB]

Heh, a space race-esque Love Hina fic?

The inner child in me that still yearns to be an astronaut is giggling with excitement with an idea like this. Oh, the days of when space exploration were so, so amazing...

...there isn't much else that could really be said about this idea, actually. To be fair, I absolutely love this idea. Namely, because I was down at Kennedy Space Center back in August and I still have rather fond memories of the facilities and everything it suddenly brought back to me.

Hard to think of where the plot will really go, but the idea of something related to the turtle civilization on the moon (cosmic ancestors?) sounds pretty good. I'm also more debating on how it would be the Hinata girls who would get to go on something as big as a space mission. True, an idea from Rocket Girls might work and that would bring in Sara and Ema rather well (two awesome, yet underused characters).

...

I'll think it over a few more times.

I haven't watched Rocket Girls yet...but now I'm very tempted to. It actually looks rather interesting.

Oh boy, I haven't felt this excited in a loooong time! I don't know why, but this idea puts me in a good mood. I might actually be tempted to write...something.

 

[Prince Charon]

Countries which would like to beat China's ass to the moon on principle alone.

Taiwan
South Korea
Japan

Countries which may join to get the McGuffin.

Philippines
Indonesia
Malaysia
Singapore
Thailand
Laos?
Cambodia?

Well, only actual members of the PSA know about the MacGuffin, and if Dr. Suu hadn't been in Mission Control when the images came back, Molmol might not have been invited to join the Alliance. The PSA was formed for two reasons: first, because just involving Molmol in a joint project would have attracted suspicion, and second, because Japan can't devote nearly enough money and resources to reach the Moon before China does.

The criteria for membership in the PSA are as follows:

Good relations with the other members (which utterly kills North Korea's chances)
Reasonably stable government and economy
Being located in or around the Pacific, without being part of the U.S., China, or Russia
Having something significant (money, resources, geniuses, et cetra) to contribute
No massively bad Human Rights violations

Suggested founding members are Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Molmol, and Singapore. Other nations might join later, if they fit the criteria.

 

[PCHeintz72]

Hmmm... for some reason, this thread has reminded me of an old 1979 movie and series. It was called Salvage I. Had Andy Griffith as the main character.

"Salvage 1" (1979) TV-Series
- http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0078681/

Pretty good stuff for its time. A junk and salvage dealer specializing in the more odd operations decides to salvage the moon. To do so, he takes on a bunch of big projects for capital, and hires a few people in the know and they build their own ship to do it with.

 

[David Alan Abramczyk]

What about adding New Zealand to the mix? After all, a lot of our scientists are world leaders in their fields, and, since 1984, it has not been aligned with either the USA, or China.

 

[Prince Charon]

What about adding New Zealand to the mix? After all, a lot of our scientists are world leaders in their fields, and, since 1984, it has not been aligned with either the USA, or China.

I'm probably not the writer, but I think that works. What about Oz or Taz?

 

[David Alan Abramczyk]

Australia? With all due respect, don't be daft.

Australia is so deep in the pocket of the USA that it should be made the six newest states. Or at least that's how this New Zealander sees it.

 

[Prince Charon]

Australia? With all due respect, don't be daft.

Australia is so deep in the pocket of the USA that it should be made the six newest states. Or at least that's how this New Zealander sees it.

Fair enough. I'm not up on Pacific politics. Any other nations that would fit?

Also, any suggestions for what the MacGuffin is? I thought about it being a big, black monolith in Copernicus crater, or a ruined castle on the Sea of Serenity, but it doesn't have to add another crossover. It could just be the skeleton of a sapient turtle, or something.

 

[Legacy|iB]

The current list of nations is pretty good, I think. Considering technological abilities, Japan, South Korea, and perhaps Molmol would be the leaders with several other countries below. It may work a bit like the European Space Agency, which is comprised of several nations, but with a few that controls and does a bit more than the others.

As for the MacGuffin...who knows? Is the story going to be more about that or more about the actual race to the Moon in the first place? If the story is more about the triumphs, the hardships, and all that related to spaceflight, then the MacGuffin can really be anything. Making it into a big black monolith would work just fine for the purpose of that and hell, it's a pretty nice jab and reference to TMA-1.

If it's about something related to an ancient turtle civilization, it may have a potential to go into more plot, but that's up to the author and where the story would likely go. But, from what I was thinking (many things, from landing hoaxes to even some extension on the lost cosmonaut stories), it may stray too far into cheesy sci-fi.

If it goes into the turtle civilization, it would likely involve most of the residents, but from there, what can happen?

After watching Rocket Girls (thank for mentioning it, by the way, Charon, it provided me with a healthy amount of entertainment for awhile), it's making me think of this idea more as a NASA/Apollo-esque journey into space - like something out of a documentary about spaceflight, complete with epic booming music and beautiful pictures of space, the Earth, all taken from some really retro looking spacecraft. One part discovery, one part story, perhaps.

But, it's all up to the author. Is anybody actually going to take it up, or are we just throwing ideas around? I'll admit, this idea excites me somewhat.

 

[Prince Charon]

Good point.

I therefore nominate that the Alliance's name NOT be in English. Base it on either Molmolese or Japanese.

How about 'Renritsu Taiheiyou no Uchuu'? Hopefully, someone who speaks Japanese is reading this, and can tell us whether I've screwed up the language, and if so, what would be a better name.

@Legacy|iB: You're welcome. I'm rather hoping someone, or some group of writers, will feel inspired to write this. I don't intend to be the primary writer, but I'm happy to help.

 

[Zenithos]

Just wanted to add my 2 cents -

This may come across as technical ranting, but it's good to have a mix of fact in fics...or at least that's what I think personally....

You'd have to add a country like Indonesia into the mix. Or at least a country on the equator where the slingshot effect of the Earth's rotation is greatest. The only reason why the Kennedy Space Center is in Florida is due to this very fact. When you launch something into space, it'd be nice to have a lot of starting velocity. The Earth's rotation gives you a bonus on that and the equator is where the bonus is greatest.

....it's funny how old Marvel and DC and other American comics LOVE to have secret space bases in the Arctic or Antartic....which is COMPLETELY and UTTERLY POINTLESS, except for the overall ambience.

At least Gundam got it right, having mass drivers located principally in equatorial regions, facing west.

...On the subject of Indonesia, the Chinese are already in the process of planning the building of a space center on the island of Papua, I believe. Hmmm....so scratch Indonesia?

....maybe MolMol is on the equator...?

Oh, and btw...

How about 'Renritsu Taiheiyou no Uchuu'? Hopefully, someone who speaks Japanese is reading this, and can tell us whether I've screwed up the language, and if so, what would be a better name.

...uumm...Alliance Pacific Ocean of Universe/Space...? Universe's/Space's Pacific Ocean Alliance...?

....that's how I understand it.... :huh:

To disambiguate 'Uchuu', you might want to add 'kokuu' (which means 'space') to it. 'Kokuu' by itself means 'empty space' and thus cannot function in this context without 'Uchuu'.

 

[Prince Charon]

Just wanted to add my 2 cents -

This may come across as technical ranting, but it's good to have a mix of fact in fics...or at least that's what I think personally....

You'd have to add a country like Indonesia into the mix. Or at least a country on the equator where the slingshot effect of the Earth's rotation is greatest. The only reason why the Kennedy Space Center is in Florida is due to this very fact. When you launch something into space, it'd be nice to have a lot of starting velocity. The Earth's rotation gives you a bonus on that and the equator is where the bonus is greatest.

Well, the base that the title characters in Rocket Girls launch from is located in the Solomon Islands, which are about 9 degrees south of the equator. Mol Mol could easily work, as well.

How about 'Renritsu Taiheiyou no Uchuu'? Hopefully, someone who speaks Japanese is reading this, and can tell us whether I've screwed up the language, and if so, what would be a better name.

...uumm...Alliance Pacific Ocean of Universe/Space...? Universe's/Space's Pacific Ocean Alliance...?

....that's how I understand it.... :huh:

To disambiguate 'Uchuu', you might want to add 'kokuu' (which means 'space') to it. 'Kokuu' by itself means 'empty space' and thus cannot function in this context without 'Uchuu'.

Hmm, 'Renritsu Taiheiyou no Uchuu Kokuu'? I only picked 'Uchuu' because its in the title of 'Space Battleship Yamato', so I assumed it was the correct translation of 'space'. The other words that freedict.com suggested are kuuhaku, kuukan, supe-su, kankaku, ma, and aida. I really didn't want to use supe-su, and the others all seem to mean something like 'room' or 'interval'.

 

[Prince Charon]

There is now <a href='http://forums.spacebattles.com/showthread.php?t=210269' target='_blank' rel='nofollow'>a thread for this on Spacebattles.com</a>.

 

[ragnarok1337]

Why keep the United States out of the loop? Especially since one of it's borders is part of the pacific ocean as well? Considering the United States and Japan are supposed to be allies and all that. Not to be America wanking, but it's a valid point.

 

[Chuckg]

Because NASA's given up on manned spaceflight. *mutter mutter grumble grumble*

Also, the current NASA bureaucracy is infamous beyond all belief for stupidity and waste. The guys from the good old days of the 60s are long gone.

 

[WhiteKnightLeo]

Because NASA's given up on manned spaceflight. *mutter mutter grumble grumble*

Also, the current NASA bureaucracy is infamous beyond all belief for stupidity and waste. The guys from the good old days of the 60s are long gone.

With good reason. Without anywhere to go, it doesn't make sense to send people out there when its cheaper and safer to send bots.

 

[Prince Charon]

Because NASA's given up on manned spaceflight.? *mutter mutter grumble grumble*

Also, the current NASA bureaucracy is infamous beyond all belief for stupidity and waste.? The guys from the good old days of the 60s are long gone.

With good reason. Without anywhere to go, it doesn't make sense to send people out there when its cheaper and safer to send bots.

Yes, but that's no excuse for the wasting of money, and having a horribly inefficient bureaucracy.

There's another reason why they aren't keeping the US in the loop: National Pride. Everyone wants to get there before the sleeping giant wakes up, again, its just they have to club together to afford it.

The other nations rejected the Japanese proposal to name their group the 'Pacific Co-Prosperity Sphere,' though.