Project Yacatecuhtli
Project Yacatecuhtli was the third wave of space exploration in the Galactic Era, instigated by the discovery of and successful contact with a civilization of intelligent extraterrestrials on Planetagua. Because both the Transeŭropa Demokratia Reto and the Zhongguo Corporate Empire were focused on local political and economic concerns, this was the only phase of exploration to be spearheaded exclusively by a single world power, the Cruz Corporate Empire.
Initial Events
By the mid 230's GE, people in the Cruz Corporate Empire, the Zhongguo Corporate Empire, and the Transeŭropa Demokratia Reto were exhausted by the 20 Year War. The Erlang tragedy was still recent in people's memory and politicians were focused on dealing with local social unrest in their local nation-states. Many academic instititutions still had space exploration departments and active research programs on interstellar exploration, but there was no social or political will to send out new missions. Despite all warnings and suggestions, Ramya Gonzales, head of the Interstellar Intelligence Search Group at Centro Brasileiro de Pesquisas Físicas (CBFP) in Rio de Janeiro, decided to be loud and aggressive. She pushed for an expedition to a planet in the constellation Lyra that she and her team believed to be the most promising candidate for both life and civilization that had ever been encountered. With a lot of media savvy, and a very large donation from a private philanthropist, the trip was approved in in 238 GE and the expedition set out in 239 GE. The crew was headed by Ramya and consisted of four graduate students and an undergraduate student, Tianli Andrade. The expedition was a stunning succes. The fourth planet was an enormous water world inhabited by large, slow-moving underwater creatures that had built themselves metallic highly technological exoskeletons. They made peaceful contact and had enough success in translating their languages to convey that they had come to the planet to learn. Soon enough treaties were signed with the watery aliens seemingly as eaer to learn about us as we were about them. The research team dubbed the planet Planetagua, and both Ramya and Tianli were at the center of a frenzy of constant interviews and media events for the next several years. The Cruz Corporate Empire suddenly was able to find funding for more space exploration, although it failed to get its previous partner, the Zhongguo Corporate Empire, on board with the renewed interest in space exploration. When the Transeŭropa Demokratia Reto received more than a dozen requests for leases on crewed space vessels, that prompted their own interest and they kicked off their own new set of exploration missions as well. Project Yacatecuhtli had begun.Outcome
Unfortunately, this excitement was short-lived. No new intelligent aliens were found in the years since the discovery of Planetagua. Over the next four decades, only 8 prospects for possible advanced civilizations were found. All 8 of them turned out to have life, but to be “false positive readings” for technology. In 282 GE the Ianus Autofactory discontinued the manufacture of new Witten spaceships, so that it was no longer producing any new crewed vessels (although it was still servicings crewed vessels that were still in operation). The mediasphere started talking about other things, and politicians quietly and without fuss began pressing for funding to be redirected back to "important" matters like batteries and bombs.Final Events
Unlike the previous two phrases of space exploration, Project Yacatecuhtli ended in neither a grand success nor a tragic failure. It more or less simply fizzled out.
Start Date
240 GE
Ending Date
302 GE
Expressed Goal
Identify and visit intelligent extraterrestrial civilizations.
Participants
Preceded By
Project Expedition (123 GE - 213 GE)