NEBULAR 1: The Triton Base

NEBULAR is a science fiction series that takes you to the year 2113.
It is an era in which nation states are a thing of the past. United in the Solar Union, humanity faces its last great challenge: the exploration of the outer Solar System.
The Union Fleet already maintains scientific outposts on the distant moons of the gas giants Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. Private companies are prospecting for raw materials and spaceships shuttle between the inner planets. The causes of earlier civilisational setbacks, such as wars, disease and poverty, have been overcome.
Around ten billion citizens of the Union populate the Earth, and another 250 million people live in the growing colonies on the Earth's moon and Mars.
The furthest outpost from Earth is on Neptune's moon Triton. It is an icy cold world on which mainly scientists and private companies are based. The crew's main task is to explore the Kuiper belt, also called the Outer ring, with its numerous dwarf planets.
Astrophysicists are using the remoteness of the celestial body to advance the search for extraterrestrial life. The scientists of the new SETI project use their receiving antennas to examine the neighbouring stars for potential radio signals from alien civilisations. A total of around two thousand people are on duty at the Triton Base.
The icy deserts on Jupiter's moon Europa, the dust storms of Mars and the primordial hydrocarbon seas on Saturn's moon Titan have been seen by Earth space travellers with their own eyes, but so far they have not found extraterrestrial life.
One of humanity's most important goals remains the peaceful establishment of contact with alien civilisations in space. Unconsciously, most scientists hope that these life forms are similar to us and that communication is possible. So far, the search has been unsuccessful, but this does not rule out the possibility that they exist in the infinite expanse of space and are already observing us.