Jupiter's Arc

Jupiter's Arc is a global commitment to convert Jupiter into a vessel with which we can colonise the stars. Yes, Jupiter. Not a ship built at Jupiter. Not a ship called 'Jupiter'. The gas giant, Jupiter. Conceptually, it's straightforward enough. Jupiter is made up of huge amounts of hydrogen which can be used as fuel. Her moons carry important resources for building a colony. Europa, with its liquid oceans beneath its icy surface, is Jupiter's crown jewel.

Though the idea is simple, the execution is anything but. Turning Jupiter into a ship is a huge ask. She has so much mass that pushing her out of orbit requires energy at a scale humanity has never attempted before.

So why do it at all? Wouldn't building a ship be more effective? If your plan is exploration that's certainly true. But when you're trying to colonise, all that mass buys you something a ship would struggle to provide. Space.

Space allows you to create a fully functioning colony which can reach another star with our entire ecosystem — including what lives in our seas. This could give life of Earth a second home.

Earth

It began with a near miss that almost meant the end of life as we know it. This focused minds. Out of that moment came the Covenant, a pact between the world's governments that has kept the project moving forward even as the event that inspired it has retreated into the past. Tensions are, however, mounting as new generations have started second-guessing the choices made.

This was anticipated. The Covenant is ironclad. What's more, it was set up in such a way that its benefits are enticing while trying to get out of it comes with huge costs. A second supporting pillar for the project is a reality-TV-like show called Arc Life.

It documents the building of the ship with the goal of keeping enthusiasm for the project high. The audience gets to vote for those they like, what they'd like to see built and the direction the project should move in. This is not to suggest that the project is an exercise in direct democracy. What the populations get to vote on and how those things are presented are carefully managed.

Earth has been transformed to build the Arc. This includes a supranational bureaucracy that hands out contracts, a chain of academies that train potential colonists, and a global network of scientific laboratories.

These bring benefits for many regions — particularly the more disadvantaged.

Resistance

And yet, not everybody's happy. There are plenty who feel that these are just shiny baubles which don't compensate for the huge chunk of the world's GDP the project claims. They feel that we shouldn't be building space ships when people are still starving and wars are still being fought.

Others object for different reasons. Some feel the Covenant's dead hand restricts their freedoms. There are those who disagree with the cultural values of the project. And some, as always, are simply out to score points and win acclaim.

All these groups try to resist. Some do so from within the system. Others from outside it. Some peacefully. Others less so. And every year, as the disaster that originally created the Covenant recedes further into the past, they convert more people to their cause.

This creates friction which, as it can't be addressed by altering the Covenant, leaves politicians few good options.

How Far the Project Has Come

The three most impressive objects built around Jupiter to date are the ring, the hanging gardens, and the first engine.

The ring sits around Europa, the moon that humanity plans to use as an ark. It has a maglev train running on the inside at exactly the right speed to both provide what feels like one g of gravity and keep the ring from buckling.

The train's massive carriages carry Earth's land-based and coastal ecosystems, giving the life a home as they're carted across the stars.

The hanging gardens are built in the oceans. After giant boreholes were dug, a network of tubes was suspended from the ice. These became anchors for coral reefs which in turn have created a habitat for countless animals.

The engine is only the first of many and yet it is a stunning achievement. It is able to float in Jupiter's soupy atmosphere and can provide thrust to a planet people cannot stand on. It is one of the largest structures ever built, and built in the worst conditions humanity has ever worked in.

The Colonists

A few hundred people have travelled the vast distances between Earth and Jupiter. Nowadays, a few ships arrive each year. Most carry supplies while some also bring additional colonists.

This was not always so. When the mission got started, sending cargo to Jupiter was prohibitively expensive. So, rather than send more people, the original crew was asked if they would consent to cloning. Some agreed. Those that did were cloned multiple times.

The clones became known as the Jupitereans or Yups. And over the decades at Jupiter they've developed a unique culture and, some argue, have even become a new evolutionary offshoot from Homo sapiens.

The Timeline

If Jupiter is pushed out of her orbit at the wrong moment she will disrupt the orbits of the other planets, with potentially devastating effects.

Calculations showed that there is a window where these repercussions will be minimal. When this window was originally found, it felt like we had oceans of time. Now, as the project progresses and the delays stack up, that window is getting tighter and tighter.