Radio Planet

Radio Planets are large, planet-sized data centers and communication hubs which host all manner of information traffic, including the interstellar network known as the Interwebz.

History

At the dawn of the space age, when the member planets of the Stellar Alliance first ventured out from their worlds and discovered each other, one of the largest problems they encountered were the relativistic delays in communication across vast stretches of the cosmos. It quickly became obvious that something better was needed, and so the member worlds of the newly formed alliance put their best engineers and scientists together onto the problem, and the result was the Radio Planet: lifeless worlds with little in the way of natural resources (apart from the various metals embedded in their rocky surfaces) would be mined, and reconstructed into nodes on a huge, galaxy-wide communications network.

The very first Radio Planet was built in a remote, lifeless planetary system at a roughly equidistant location between three of the core member worlds: Earth, Grav'Navar, and Ryl. This prototype, which would come to be known as Beacon One, would start off as just a humble communications hub and locator ping for traveling starships. However, over time and with advances of technology, it has been built out to keep up with the functions and features of the other Radio Planets being constructed on the network.

Functions and Features

Owing to advances in faster-than-light communications, the Radio Planet network offers a growing array of information services which transmit across the galaxy at almost instantaneous speeds:

Radio and Television

Every radio and TV station on every member world is hooked up to, and transmit their broadcasts through the Radio Planet network, allowing anyone anywhere in the galaxy to tune into practically any station they want on any member world, though there are some content limitations due to cultural differences and taboos. Sexual content, which is considered publicly acceptable on some world, but not on others for example, though there are publicly accessible workarounds to bypass this in most cases.

Broadcast Services

Along with radio and television from member worlds, Radio Planets also feature their own local studios where radio and television broadcasts are made and transmitted. These include drama, comedy and music-broadcasting radio stations, as well as the Galaxy Network News feed.

Internet / Interwebz

Apart from carrying internet traffic at real-time between worlds and around the galaxy, each Radio Planet also house massive data centers which contain mile upon mile of network rack space for sites on the Interwebz. These data centers host both large and small network sites, allowing for massive information redundancy across the network, helping to alleviate traffic density during heavy usage times.

Starship Communications

All starship radio traffic is carried across the network, allowing ships of all sizes and for all member worlds, to stay in real-time communication. This includes both civilian traffic as well as the secure, scrambled channels used by planetary governments.

Locator Pings

Radio Planets also contain locator ping beacons, which allow starship navigation systems to triangulate their exact location, no matter where they are in the galaxy.

Structure

Each Radio Planet starts off as a lifeless rock. Sometimes these are moons, sometimes there are small planets which just never developed an atmosphere. After being mined of their mineral resources, each rock forms the core of the Radio Planet, which is built outward and upwards from its rocky surface. The resulting constructions are a mix of space station and planet-sized antenna farms. Usually, they also develop enough extra mass that their orbit needs to be adjusted, but this also gives them enough localized gravity to maintain a breathable atmosphere.

Culture

Radio Planets seem to be beacons for technology enthusiasts, including geeks, nerds, oddballs and outcasts of all variety. They also tend to come from anywhere and everywhere in the galaxy, resulting in a rich cross-cultural society. Connected as they are to the entire galaxy, they also tend to be relaxed and easygoing as far as cultural taboos, with an almost hippie-style casualness and empathy towards the beliefs and differences they encounter.

The Technicians

The worlds and their equipment are maintained by engineers and technicians who have turned their passion for technology into a lifestyle built around keeping their section of the network operating efficiently. A lifetime of climbing radio towers, crawling through wiring ducts, and maintaining the system one cable connector at a time have led to numerous advances in communication technology, and the rock stars of these worlds tend to be the engineers who come up with the best new tweak or mechanism to make the system more efficient.

The Celebrities

Where you have radio and television stations you also have celebrities. Apart from celebrities visiting from member worlds for various public appearances, there are also local personalities whose entire career track takes place on the network. These include character actors who appear in fictionalised and historical dramas, as well as news reporters and correspondants for GNN, the Galaxy News Network.

Controversy

Due to the wide array of content that is now available to member worlds, and since some of that content crosses cultural taboos, there have been cries of both censorship and cultural contamination levied against the network, by both those who think the network has gone too far with the content they allow, and those who think it hasn't gone far enough. There have also been various attempts by politicians from various member worlds, to interfere in the operation of the network in an attempt to steer it more in the direction of their own political and cultural beliefs, but so far the network has managed to maintain an equitable balance between providing content to audiences that want it, and blocking content to those that don't.