Wanderers: The Hull Patcher

The Road to 2167

In the year 2037, humanity finally returned to the stars.
The construction of a permanent moon base was the start. What started off as a research facility had quickly expanded into a lunar yard, not only responsible for the construction of the spacecraft that would take go to the other planets of the solar system, but also for the component parts for Stanford Station.
Completed in 2049, Stanford Station was an orbital settlement that was a mile in diameter, and had the capacity to hold ten thousand people.
It didn't last.
Not that the station was destroyed, it was the immigration that was the problem. The economy of Earth was so badly damaged by the delayed entry into space, that people were doing whatever they could to find jobs. So, while the occupation of asteroid miner was booming, they just didn't have enough room for everyone.
And so, a Bernal Sphere was constructed, and when that ran out of room, an O'Neill Cylinder was constructed.
O'Neill Station had the capacity to hold ten million people, and once the moon had the capacity to maintain a colony in 2092, and the founding of the first Mars colony in 2099, the strain of orbital settlements had been lifted.
However, despite the danger the settlements were in, as the potential for a cataclysmic collision was higher, they were considered prime real estate for the Earth normal gravity, and the fresh produce from farmlands.
In terms of space exploration, manned missions were launched through orbit.
Mars was first.
The Ares, named for the Greek equivalent, was launched in 2031. The mission was conducted under the newly formed International Space Agency, and drew astronauts from militaries from all over the world, the I.S.A. was under the scrutiny of no government, aside from the United Nations.
Under the command of Colonel Meadow Culliver, the crew delivered the first component of a permanent settlement on Mars. The supplies in the settlement would last until the personnel of the base, dropped off by the Ares IV mission, could find a suitable lava tube to build a colony in.
In 2099, the family of Colonel Culliver were among the many that wanted a new life far from Earth.
In 2105, six years after the founding of the first Mars colony, the people of Mars decided to break away from the control of the United Nations. The U.N., knowing that the public opinion would be against them for an attack on Mars, sent ambassadors to Mars, and negotiated a peaceful breakaway, but also formed the Solarian Coalition, a government body that recognized the sovereignty of not only Earth and Mars, but the orbital colonies as well.
Jupiter was next, the Ze/us I mission under the command of Colonel Richard Howe in 2049.
Saturn with 2058's Chronos I mission under Colonel Li Mei Ye.
The Ouranos missions to Uranus was named for the Ancient Greek spelling of the Greek God of the Sky. Under the command of Colonel Wekesa Chahine, Ouranos I was launched in 2070.
Neptune was visited by the Poseidon II mission, in 2090.Under the command of Colonel Dema Boujinsky, the crew of the Poseidon I mission was lost en-route to the planet, the ship was destroyed near Jupiter when the ship was hit by a storm of micro-debris, and the armor plating failed.
By the year 2167, expeditions had been sent to nearly all of the classical planets of the solar system.
All, except for Pluto.
The planned expedition to Pluto was originally scheduled for 2110, but had been delayed after the founding of the Solarian Coalition, and the dismantling of the I.S.A. in favor of a more inclusive space agency that would give the orbital settlements, and Mars a say in where they went. Years turned into decades before they could finally agree on where to build the spacecraft, and where the crew came from.
The Interplanetary Space Exploration Organization (I.S.E.O.) finally agreed to have the ship be built, and launched from Mars's orbital space yard, built in 2123 to show their willingness to pull their own weight.
As of 2067, there has been no commander confirmed, nor is the ship completed, with that in mind, the promised launch year of 2170 would likely be delayed once again.
More settlements were built by that time, settlements established in The Belt, Helium-III refinaries near Jupiter. A settlement was built on Callisto, the moon just outside of Jupiter's radiation belt. The colonies, being so far away from Earth, and Mars, saw themselves above the petty bickering in the Inner Planets. Though, they've had the pleasure of being a bargaining chip on both sides of any issue.
Despite the orbital colonies, and Mars being recognized as sovereign states under the Coalition charter, the Belt, and Callisto, were considered the property of the Coalition's ruling council.
After all, it was the Coalition government that owned the Helium-III refineries.