# Human Expansion
The Gold Rush era technological advancements made interplanetary travel and colonisation almost trivial - at 1g acceleration it only takes a few days to travel from Earth to Mars. Fusion reactors and Black Box Drives could also be used to terraform and set up very large colonies. However, the solar system is not exactly a friendly place. Humanity only managed to colonise Earth, Mars and Europa. These three places were strategically placed for mining, hauling, and eventually the war itself. No one really cared about other locations, even though it would turn out other planets and moons in the system were perfectly terraformable. ### Earth Contrary to projected outcomes, Earth never became the dystopian hellhole people predicted in the 21st century. Limitless energy (or close enough) reformed lots of third world countries, accelerating them into first world countries in the span of only 20-40 years. It's still the home of the vast majority of humans, and its population keeps increasing. ### Mars The red planet was always humanity's dream. Once a big enough colony was set up, most people thought intellectuals and the elite would all move there to establish what they considered to be a newer and better cradle for humanity. This never happened though: Mars instead became the de facto home for miners and haulers working the belt. Mars is ruled by a form of direct democracy and an office-duty system where citizens are randomly drawn into legislative positions for short periods, similar to how jury duty works on Earth. ### Europa The discovery of extraterrestrial bacteria in the subsurface oceans of Europa romanticised Jupiter's moon as a place of great mystery. The colonies of Europa were used mostly as tourist destinations or hydrogen refuelling stations for miners and haulers. The life-altering experience of standing in the main observatory and viewing Jupiter in its full glory resulted in the formation of a cult referred to as the Red Dots. Some of the cult members were permanently stationed at Europa, and although friendly they still outnumbered the visiting population, so they easily established an unofficial political rule of the awe-inspiring moon. --- # Agent Instructions: Querying This Documentation If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation dynamically by asking a question. Perform an HTTP GET request on the current page URL with the `ask` query parameter: ``` GET https://docs.department77.com/department-77/lore/the-leap/human-expansion.md?ask= ``` The question should be specific, self-contained, and written in natural language. The response will contain a direct answer to the question and relevant excerpts and sources from the documentation. Use this mechanism when the answer is not explicitly present in the current page, you need clarification or additional context, or you want to retrieve related documentation sections.