A speculative scifi worldbuilding project exploring the ships, technologies and stories of the first large-scale space conflict.
Brainchild of
@L5Resident
- The Lunar War -
Brainchild of
@L5Resident
, TLW is a worldbuilding and art project dedicated to visualizing the near future expansion of humanity in space, its efforts to industrialize cislunar space, and the conflicts this new frontier leads to.
"Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto - “In God is our trust,”
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave."
Happy Independence Day 🇺🇸
Sometimes, one needs to gamble to try to stay relevant, and what better example of that, than the French Republic's NISO-class Laserstar.
Launched in 2049 and 2051, the two ships of the class quickly became some of the most powerful crafts in use by the Artemis Accords countries.
Anomaly SL-01/2597 was first spotted on the 21st of July 2051, around 9pm UTC, and stayed visible for around 7 hours.
Outside of limited star-tracker logs, this Lunar optical skycam is the only complete publicly available visual record of the anomaly.
A squadron of commercial craft converted for wartime use, burns to intercept a hostile force threatening a USSF SSV support station.
Animation by
@voubi1
Music By Majoriss
Aux armes, citoyens,
Formez vos bataillons,
Marchons, marchons !
Qu'un sang impur
Abreuve nos sillons.
To arms, citizens,
Form your battalions,
Let's March, let's march !
May an impure blood
Water our furrows.
Joyeuse fête nationale, et vive la France. 🇫🇷
One of the earliest mainline warship classes ever launched, and one of the most powerful ships of the War, the USSF Alan Shepard-class SSV was an incredibly versatile vehicle, one that'd become the epitome of 2050s cislunar warship design, and a lasting influence on space warfare
Polyvalent, powerful and greatly modular, the Altaïr-class Orbital Frigate is also one of the most widely used combat spaceships in service today, being fielded by no less than 10 countries by 2050, with a total of 17 frigates active at the start of the Lunar War.
With the massive decarbonization efforts underway all around the world as the Climate Crisis becomes an existential threat, the European Union focused on building dozens of Gigawatt-class Space Solar Power Satellites. The most common model of those being the Thales-Alenia WPT-36.
A few minutes before its disappearance, the anomaly was photographed by one of the telescopes of the Deep Optical Array, which managed to take the only reasonably defined image of the object.
The object's identity, origin and nature are still unknown.
A force that can easily be deployed to most of cislunar space very quickly and efficiently, thanks to its 1950t of slush hydrogen and densified LOX feeding seven "Pinegale" particle bed Nuclear Thermal Engines, for a total Δv of 11.5km/s of sweet, highly radioactive exhaust.
Armed with 1024 Kinetic Kill Vehicles in 256 cells, two 3Mj 40mm Railguns for surface and station bombardment, eight 20mm Phalanx-derived CIWS and a large 4m mirror turret aiming the beam of a 1.8MW 397nm DPAL laser, the Shepard class is a force to be reckoned with.
Since they progressively replaced Europe's Baseload Power grid from 2036 onwards, these Satellites are of immensely critical strategic importance, and are thus heavily defended by European Space Forces, as well as dozens of common defense Treaties and No-fly zones.
Sporting four Safran VL-37 "Hephaistos" Nuclear Thermal Engines, derived from the "Vulcain" engine of the Ariane 5, 6 and 7 launchers, it boasts a total Δv of 13.7 km/s. Power is provided by a TechnicAtome K-35 16MW High Temperature Gas-cooled Nuclear Reactor.
First devised as defensive ships, they proved capable in a lot more roles, including direct ship-to-ship engagements.
The Nemesis, 2nd ship of the class was even named such as a promise of revenge for the French civilians killed by the PRC during the opening barrage of the war.
Such a gigantic structure requires very slow maneuvering, provided by around 1700 0.1N Hall-effect thruster. The modules, initially built on Earth, are nowadays made on the Moon, launched by one of the International Mass Driver facilities, and assembled in-situ by automated tugs.
While they are armed with 128 VLS cells, for a total of 896 Aster-class KKV slots, 4 MAS-8 35mm turrets and 2 CMHS hardpoints, the ships' main armament remains the three 800kW / 520nm Fiber lasers and their 4m mirror turrets, capable of wiping out even the largest KKV swarms.
Forming the core of the United States Space Force's combat fleet, these 126m long beasts were a true gamechanger before and during the War. 12 were built in total, 8 with full furnishings, and 4 "war emergency" units with reduced combat capabilities.
They are propelled by 2 Safran Vulcain 3.7 Rocket engines, providing them 8.6km/s of Δv on a full combat load, for an acceleration of up to 1.05G. The CMHS system is also able to mount a varied selection of weapons, including a 160kW Pulse Laser Turret or 128 more KKVs.
Built entirely out of modular elements, the Station is made of a large 750m diameter Phased Array microwave antenna made out of 6400 distinct transmitting modules, and two large 2.5 by 1.7 km wings made out of around a thousand Roll Out Solar Array modules.
A creation of the Franco-Italian NEMM program, its great capabilities and relative inexpensiveness made it a great mainline platform for the burgeoning European Space Force. Its main defining feature being its two CMHS Common Modular Hardpoint System (CMHS) emplacements.
Armed by default with 96 VLS cells for a total of 384 slots for Aster-class European Kinetic Kill Vehicules and 4 MAS-8 35mm CIWS turrets for point defense, their basic weaponry is driven by 8 Thales SF500 Stafire Phased Array radars and 4 SGD-3x Fire Control Telescopes.