Explorer Probe

Artist's conception of the Explorer Probe.

**The Explorer Probe** (*Explorer*) is an interstellar explorer probe designed to explore the ADP-291 system in the span of about 5-10 years. It was designed, and constructed by the Animus Space Program Organization and launched aboard a ULA Atlas V on February 12th, 2021. After a lengthy stay in Earth orbit to make sure that its systems were working, and the wormhole in orbit around Mars had actually opened up, *Explorer* left LEO and used the Moon as a gravitational slingshot, taking the advantage of the September 7th, 2022 Hohmann Transfer window to Mars. After a 7 month, 2 week and 1 day journey, *Explorer* reached Mars on April 22nd, 2023, and put itself in High Mars Orbit, then propelled itself through the wormhole, where it shut down temporarily.

### Proposal and construction

Shortly after the discovery of ADP-291-d, ASPO engineers and scientists began theorizing and brainstorming a possible interstellar probe to explore the ADP-291-d system, utilizing previously collected exotic matter to form a theoretical wormhole in HMO and send the probe through and, based on the size, density, direction, etc, the probe would arrive at the ADP-291 system, or in the worst case scenario, use its solar sail, ion drive, and several gravity assists to propel itself there, but it would take roughly 2 quadrillion years to arrive at the ADP-291 system, so they nearly decided to call it off, as a wormhole can be unpredictable. However, due to the sake of the god damn roleplay, they found a way to miraculously make the wormhole go where they want it to go. Using this technique, they proposed several ideas to head ASPO scientists, the governments, and other space organizations to gather funds to get the mission going. Out of 15 ideas proposed, 1 was selected, which is the one pictured to the right.

Construction of the *Explorer* Probe began on May 12th, 2019, when the chassis and frame of the probe was constructed and welded together. The

probe's construction held many setbacks and such, with one being that the RTG #3 was found to be nonfunctional after a test concluded that one of the Active Cooling System ceased to function, causing the RTG to overheat and nearly catch fire, had the scientists not disabled the RTG. However, even through the setbacks, Explorer arose from the Animus Spacecraft Construction and Processing Center on December 5th, 2020, and was packaged and sent to NASA's Flight Processing Center, and then to the Operations and Checkout Facility.

### Preparations, Launch, and hibernation for Hohmann Maneuver window

From there, *Explorer* was rolled out to Kennedy Space Center's Launch Complex 41 and loaded aboard the Atlas V, and then checked, analyzed, and cleared for launch on January 27th, 2021. Initially, *Explorer* was supposed to launch on February 9th, but a sailing boat came within range of the launch, and, due to the launch window being very brief (only ten minutes available to push *Explorer* to LEO), the launch was scrubbed and moved to February 12th. At 1:18 pm UTC on February 12th, 2021, the *Explorer* Probe lifted off from Launch Complex 41 aboard an Atlas V. *Explorer* was put in orbit, where it conducted some of its experiments, and transmitted data back to Earth. After about a month in orbit, to save power, *Explorer* was powered down in a "hibernation state" to await the Hohmann Maneuver window, which came on September 7th, 2022. During its hibernation state, Explorer only activated once every two months to use its remaining monopropellent to raise its orbit to prevent orbit decay.

On September 5th, 2022, *Explorer* awoke from its slumber and sent a signal down to Earth to verify that it was alive and well. Preparations began to ensure that the probe would maintain its health through the flight to Mars, and went on for the next day until the final checks began running through to prepare *Explorer* for its journey to Mars. At about 2:05 am UTC, *Explorer* fired its ion thruster and propelled itself into a gravity assist using the Moon. It took about 36 hours to reach the moon and fly by, and it was deactivated shortly after another health check for the journey to Mars.

### High Mars Orbit and entry through the wormhole

*Explorer* was reactivated on April 20th, 2023 to begin preparations for the HMO insertion and entry through the wormhole. To do this, *Explorer* was turned around to aim towards the retrograde burn to slow it down, firing its ion thrusters to slow it down at 4:45 pm UTC. *Explorer* successfully entered High Mars Orbit on April 21st, set for a rendezvous with the wormhole on April 23rd, 2023. Until the rendezvous, *Explorer* gathered data on Mars, Phobos, and took several pictures of Deimos (which have not yet been released to the public for an unknown reason), and conducted one of the many experiments aboard. On April 23rd, *Explorer* approached the wormhole, and was shut down temporarily to conserve power and protect it from the journey. After *Explorer* was shut down, nobody knows what happened until it sent a signal confirming its health was in good shape after travelling through the wormhole. Upon arrival to the ADP-291 system, Explorer's first target was ADP-291-e, and the flight plan was to fly by every single planet, gather data and send an impactor to each one, and then impact ADP-291.