Minimalist Spacers

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The Minimalist Spacers can be called a subculture of Generalists. Through they focus on a very minimalist approach to the use of Handwavium as they use the least possible amount of Handwavium in their exploits.

Generally it can be said that they only handwave their life support and drive systems.

There are three well known subgroups to the Minimalist Spacers: the Space History Reenactment Group, the Man Conquers Space Group and the Future Historians. All of these groups culture a friendly rivalry with each other.

Space History Reenactment Group

The Space History Reenactment Group were the first well known Minimalist Spacers and interested in reenacting the 'glorious past' of manned space flight with their ships. At least sometimes. Most of the time they move around in Fenspace and take in the sights.

The SHR Group started out with the arrival of the Apollo at Stellvia in late 2011, causing some ruckus as people realized that the craft was a near 1-to-1 copy of an Apollo Command and Service Module, with only drive and life support being treated with handwavium. Everything else, including the computer, were mundane technology on a 1960's level.

Apollo was only the first craft, being joined by the Gemini, a not-nearly 1-to-1 copy of a Gemini capsule, the Mercury, a rather-close 1-to-1 copy of a Mercury capsule, and lately by Sojuz TMA-12, an actual Sojuz capsule that never got off the ground.

All these vessels are only waved in their life support and drive systems, with the rest being mundane.

A good number of Fen are on the good side with them, and the Apollo is always welcome at most stations throughout Fenspace. Only the population of Island One dislike the SHR Group for their positive outlook and celebration of the "glorious past" that they feel was denied to them.

Generally the age of the people in the SHR Group is at least fifty years over the age of a normal Fenspace Citizen; Martin Andrews, the pilot of the Mercury, is 65 years old.

At the moment the SHR Group is looking into acquiring an OV-200 Shuttle built to near original specs with only its life support and drive being 'waved.

Their homebase is the SkyLab Complex in Low Earth Orbit, constructed from five SkyLab copies build with the help of Whistler Services, who posses the five remaining Saturn V upper stages in space.

Man Conquers Space Group

This was the second group of Space Minimalists to be better known. Where the SHR Group concentrates on the actual past of space flight, the MCS Group concentrate on what could have been.

"What would Space Powers build with hardtech today if they actually cared about space?"

While they mostly follow the rule of 'the least use of handwavium', they are known to bend the rule, since they depend on AIs and supercomputers to substitute for Height-of-Space-Race government R&D departments.

Among their projects are the Mars Direct Station in Arabia, Terra, Station V in MEO, and the HOTOL.

Future Historians

This is the strangest and by far most eccentric group of the Minimalist Spacers, through they may be called Pulpers as well. Never to their faces through.

The Future Historians use more handwavium then other Minimalist Spacers, but that is because they solely focus on the strangest space designs ever dreamed up by mankind in the past hundred years – things that never, ever got past the planning stage, or even art stage. However, everything may have been built with enough money.

Their main base of operation is the 1950s Collier's Space Station in LEO, their main transport are the Sänger and the Orion "nuclear pulse powered" ship. (The Orion is not actually nuclear-pulse powered.)