Space France (RAR!)

[Zor]

In this scenario, one day Metropolitan France is one day engulfed in a fog which persists for a day. Shortly afterwards all communications out of France stop and then large objects are detected flying away from France at high speed. When the fog clears, people discover a France abandoned without humans, dogs, cats or ferrets. Cafes to apartment blocks to factories to wineyards to electronic stores are left abandoned. Rumors circulate on what happened including a very French favoring rapture and other such thing, but the reality happens about a day latter when word comes from what happened.

At the Earth/Sun L-3 Lagrange Point there are a cluster of 400 Island-3 style space colonies, each of which are 32 kilometers long and are now home to about 50,000 to 300,000 People living in general comfort. Ferrets, Dogs and cats have also been brought along. Each family has a nice home in either a low rise apartment block or house and there are enough factories and farms to keep them supplied with food (with basically every terran cultivar on hand and enough food stocked as well as cows, sheep, chickens, ducks and other domestic animals) and goods ranging from glassware to electronics to medicine to small electric cars. Several asteroids exist nearby to provide raw materials. Each unit also has a dozen automated ferries for flying between Space Colonies able to transport up to 5,000 people at a time, though even if they were not automated they are only intended to fly at fairly low speeds (at most 500 meters per second) in the colony cluster. The colonies each have their own internet as well as a system which allows for communication with earth via a couple of relay satellites at L4 and L5.

You were in France at the time and now you are in Space France (or Espace France as it is called by it's new locals).

What happens and what do you do?

Zor

[Solauren]

First question is - What happened between the fog appearing, and now? Do I know how France was apparently uplifted? And by how? Are we in communication with them?

Second Question - what is the current government situation?

Third Question - As I am not a citizen of France, am I allowed to go home? Is there a way for me to get home? Has we established communication with Earth?

[TimothyC]

My questions:

1. Just to be clear, the Departments that are not a part of Mainland European France and Corsica are still around, and populated.
2. what happens to Force de dissuasion, and to a lesser degree, the rest of the french military hardware? Right now Charles de Gaule (R91) is in the Indian ocean. Does she and her crew stay there, or is there an uncrewed CVN ripe for the picking? Same questions with the rest of the deployed forces.
3. You mention electronics production, are we to assume that they have an entire production capacity from raw materials to semi-conductors?
4. What does the nuclear power side of Space France look like? Do they have the ability to mine and refine uranium?

As for what happens on Earth:

• Within the first day the militaries of the US, UK, the Netherlands, Italy, Spain and Switzerland move to secure what is left where France used to be.
• The European economy implodes as 14% of all economic activity just stops.
• Everyone loses it when they realize that even with massive investment, the Solar system is French. That said, ALL OF THE MONIES are unlocked for Space. Roscosmos still finds a way to screw it up.
• I pull out my old notes, and dig around for french language classes at the local community college.

[Zor]

Just to be clear, the Departments that are not a part of Mainland European France and Corsica are still around, and populated.

Correct.

what happens to Force de dissuasion, and to a lesser degree, the rest of the french military hardware? Right now Charles de Gaule (R91) is in the Indian ocean. Does she and her crew stay there, or is there an uncrewed CVN ripe for the picking? Same questions with the rest of the deployed forces.

Outside of uniforms being worn at the time, military gear is not taken. Ships at sea are left alone.

You mention electronics production, are we to assume that they have an entire production capacity from raw materials to semi-conductors?

Yes. Limiting them to light switches and valves would be needlessly cumbersome.

What does the nuclear power side of Space France look like? Do they have the ability to mine and refine uranium?

Yes they can. Each cylinder has a 300 megawatt fusion reactor to supplement it's solar collectors.

Zor

[TimothyC]

Just to be clear, the Departments that are not a part of Mainland European France and Corsica are still around, and populated.

Correct.

Politically, the five DROMs will likely be the political heirs to the Fifth Republic (being a part of it on par with the Departments that are now in space). Getting the claim backed is going to be politically easy, physically harder. Efforts to secure the nuclear, military, & chemical facilities will need to be massive and fast, while at the same time leaving enough forces around to secure cultural artifacts, and other infrastructure. European forces, with American support under a NATO banner is probably the least-bad solution.

what happens to Force de dissuasion, and to a lesser degree, the rest of the french military hardware? Right now Charles de Gaule (R91) is in the Indian ocean. Does she and her crew stay there, or is there an uncrewed CVN ripe for the picking? Same questions with the rest of the deployed forces.

Outside of uniforms being worn at the time, military gear is not taken. Ships at sea are left alone.

Then we're off to the races to find the SSBNs and to secure the CVN. All bets are off other than the US probably has a leg up, but it's going to be a hard set of missions.

You mention electronics production, are we to assume that they have an entire production capacity from raw materials to semi-conductors?

Yes. Limiting them to light switches and valves would be needlessly cumbersome.

Hm. That means there is nothing but time preventing them from securing footholds on Mars, the belt, ect. Getting back to the moon is harder than getting to Earth, so they won't. With this, Humanity is much further on the way to becoming mult-planetary.

What does the nuclear power side of Space France look like? Do they have the ability to mine and refine uranium?

Yes they can. Each cylinder has a 300 megawatt fusion reactor to supplement it's solar collectors.

Zor

So, the solar system, and working examples of Fusion. Or do you mean fission, which is less stupid, but still stupid. In space, solar-thermal can be arbitrarily large, and can provide all of your power needs. In fact, the their first exports are probably going to be solar thermal stations that are slowly pushed to GEO.

[madd0ct0r]

Looks at my work computer, where im looking at a frightful analysis to justify a 1980s towerblock built on a bridge over a railway on deteriorating foundations, with no drawings held for the older railway.
Imagine scaling that up to a completely unfamiliar, hugely scaled, no plan b demolish and start again, space habitat.

They are going to be riding the edge of mass breakdowns for decades to come (rather like the railway)

[Zor]

what happens to Force de dissuasion, and to a lesser degree, the rest of the french military hardware? Right now Charles de Gaule (R91) is in the Indian ocean. Does she and her crew stay there, or is there an uncrewed CVN ripe for the picking? Same questions with the rest of the deployed forces.

Outside of uniforms being worn at the time, military gear is not taken. Ships at sea are left alone.

Then we're off to the races to find the SSBNs and to secure the CVN. All bets are off other than the US probably has a leg up, but it's going to be a hard set of missions.

What was meant was that if a ship was in the Indian Ocean or anywhere far from the ocean, they're crew are left on earth. The event does not effect them directly.

Has we established communication with Earth?

Yes.

Zor

[Solauren]

As we have communications with Earth, let my family and job know I'm okay, and working to figure out how to get home.

[TimothyC]

They are going to be riding the edge of mass breakdowns for decades to come (rather like the railway)

I've been operating under the assumption that there are plans, and equipment to maintain the islands, otherwise you are condemning the French to death, and I don't like that idea. In the medium to long term, I would expect that they leave SEL-3 and move to SEL-4/5, if not to EML-4/5.

What was meant was that if a ship was in the Indian Ocean or anywhere far from the ocean, they're crew are left on earth. The event does not effect them directly.

Then major parts of the La Royale are intact (at least one CVN and one or two SSBNs), and will have a major say in who has de jure control of the French state and making sure that the de jure control is also the de facto control.

As we have communications with Earth, let my family and job know I'm okay, and working to figure out how to get home.

That's the problem isn't it? SEL-3 is a nasty place to be put. I'd need to brush back up on my Kepler equations, but at a first pass guess, an 18 month trip back could probably be done with a multi-stage vehicle built from the various shuttles. Seriously, SEL-3 is about the worst of the SELs to be at - It's the furthest of all of the Lagrange points, and one of the least stable over time.

[GuppyShark]

I'm mostly interested in what develops of the political situation in Space France. I imagine the immediate issue will be maintaining peace and order, then adapting to the new environment. Would/could it remain in the EU? What would they do about any non-citizens (ie tourists, EU residents) who happened to be in France at the time?

I think there'd be a lot of people who would straight up demand to go back to Earth at the earliest opportunity. That would be a potent political force.

[LaCroix]

90% of them will be using the available infrastructure to get home.
People like to continue their lives.

[Solauren]

90% of them will be using the available infrastructure to get home.
People like to continue their lives.

I'm not a french Citizen, so if this happened to me, I'd have been there on vacation or something. That's why I'd want to go home.

However, if I was a french citizen, I'd be very tempted to stay for a bit. Especially while the situation planet-side was underway.

[Marko Dash]

and what happens when a jihad jackass decides venting the station/breaching the hull is a great idea

[Formless]

and what happens when a jihad jackass decides venting the station/breaching the hull is a great idea

FYI, the "island 3" design is a reference to the largest type of O'Neill cylinder the man personally designed using only technology that was possible at the time he wrote. He also envisioned that even larger space colonies might be possible with future advancements in materials technology. Given that these space colonies are designed for hundreds of thousands to millions of residents, a hole in the structure would have to be preeeeeeeeety big before a breach in the station will cause significant leakage of the atmosphere. A small hole won't suck all the air out in an instant. Patching them is an expected part of living in such a colony. Plus, on top of that, engineers today expect the walls of any space colony would have to be made of pretty thick rock or concrete in order to protect the colonists from cosmic rays, so we aren't talking about stations designed like glorified soda cans. We're talking possibly ten meters or more of armored hull between you and the vacuum of space, or similar amounts of bullet proof (and probably also leaded) glass wherever the station needs to let sunlight in. Puncturing these things is very much intentionally difficult, since they have to survive impacts with high speed debris and small meteorites all the time.

[Shroom Man 777]

Organize the Yellow Vests to space... or space-guillotine the ruling class lol organize a proper egalitarian democracy and dislodge the ruling class.