Concerning the Star Chart app here on site. In the "Sol" section, which seem to show all system up to 50 light years from Sol, system cataloged as Core, Expanded and Fringe.
What that about? I recall a couple of loose definitions for the core, and fringe being everything further, based on pre-plague data-ark info, but I don't recall anything about Expanded systems.
In addition to Sol, there were originally 6 systems settled; Alpha Centauri B, Tau Ceti, 82 Eridani, Omicron2 Eridani, 70 Ophiuchi, and 61 Cygni. Those systems grew and became fully industrialized worlds, rivaling Sol in population and industrial capabilities. Those systems(along with Sol) were known as the "Core Systems" or "Core Worlds." (The latter being technically inaccurate, since a world is a planet, not a star system, but you know how people are.)
Long before the original core systems became fully industrialized, other colonies were established. While the original 6 core systems were colonized by an international effort, the "Expansion" systems ("expanded" on the star chart) were colonized by individual governments seeking to spread themselves and their cultures to other worlds. The original core systems, being colonized by international co-op, were rather diluted culturally speaking. The expansion systems, being colonized by individual governments, were not diluted.
Later, corporations stating getting into the colonization game, offering complete packages including transportation and all the equipment and supplies that a group would need to settle another world. Groups of like minded people sold everything they owned in order to pay for their spot on such corporate worlds. These became referred to as "the Fringe," as they were all located on the outskirts of human explored space at the time. These fringe worlds, being outside of any "national territories" were not necessarily the safest place to live.
When the bio-digital plague struck, it hit the fully, and partially industrialized worlds first, as they had the most complete networks and transportation systems to help spread the plague. The fringe worlds were the last to be effected, as they were not fully digitized and their populations were generally more spread out and lacked high-speed mass transportation systems.
FYI: A new, improved star chart is on the way.
Would be nice if it didn't require Flash.
Would be nice if it didn’t require Flash.
HTML5 can handle it. Don't know anyone that can convert it.
Wouldn't the Data Ark have "the most recent" copy of a star chart with the known colonies (at that time)?
Yes. But only the planned ones which most likely make up the fringe systems.
The Colonies that were established further out will likely not have been sent until the BD started and the Data arch was disconnected from the "net". Also news of them would have taken time to get to earth so anything in the Arch about the fringe systems was time late at the time of cut off.
