This week NASA test fired their new ICBM that will be used to launch satilites. The current fleet of shuttles are about to be retired and the new ones are not complete. The new missle? it is the ARES, now I know they have used classical gods before-the Saturn5 went to the moon, but I really have to wonder if that was the reason for this name or if it's more. NASA has proven with the names of some shuttles they have a sense of sci-fi so i wonder if the ARES is just a fluke of old gods OR if it is the precurrsor to 2012. After all wasn't NASA's old stuff bought up by Ares Macrotechnologies?

I imagine their naming committee had a reason, but I really doubt that Shadowrun plays a big role into their naming of vehicles. If, for some reason, everyone at NASA was a slavering Shadowrun fan and they were doing something for 2012, they'd probably name it "Awakening" or something along those lines, but even a name like that isn't uncommon.

Im not so concerned about nasa naming their lift vehicle Ares, im more concerned about this company....
http://aresarms.com/

Its stuff like that that makes me giggle.

Definitely Entertaining...

Keep the Faith

their 'product #14 looks very much like my berretta cheetah.
yeah every now and then these sites po up. my fav was for Mitsuhama.

Of course you have to keep in mind that naming a weapons compay Ares is not neccessarily an SR-ism. Ares was the greek/roman (they're confusing to keep straight - same gods, different names) god of war, after all.

Other funny thing is the Ares missile looks exactly like the missile used by ares to launch communication satellites pictured in the Tir book used during the takeover.

Just so you know, there is an actual Ares corporation that is involved in aerospace and works with NASA. I actually applied for a job with them last year (didn't get it though...that would have been the win!).

RL Ares

Excuse me, I'm guna go start building my underground bunker to survive the awakening.

Have fun.
Me?
I'm hoping for it.

OK, I don't mean to be a nit-picker, but calling the Ares lifter an ICBM is extremely inacurate. The Ares I system is optimized for lifting high-order payloads (55,000 pounds) into Low Earth Orbit (LEO), not the delivery of thermonuclear payloads to intercontinental ranges. It's a fine line, as the SS-6 Sapwood (of which only six ever went into active military service) launched the space age along with Sputnik 1 in October of 1957. But it's important to note that the Ares I is essentially an elongated (25%) STS Solid Rocket Booster topped by a liquid fueled (H₂/O₂) upper stage with a J-2X engine which is a derivitave of the venerable J-2 engines which powered the S-II (5 engines) and S-IVB (single engine) stages of the mighty Apollo-era Saturn V rocket. Most modern ICBMs have a minimum of three stages and are optimized for much smaller payloads.

The new Ares V, incidentally, which is to be the penultimate heavy-lifter of the Ares family will be capable, in theory, of lifting ove 150% of the old Saturn V's maximum payload or over 400,000 pounds to LEO. TLI (Trans Lunar Injection) payload is to be on the same order relative the the Saturn V at over 150,000 pounds.

As to names, I am more intrigued by NASA's divergence from the existing pattern in the naming of the new Constellation crew vehicle. Mercury (and the Atlas rocket beginning with flight 3 of 7 with John Glenn aboard), Gemini (atop a Titan rocket), Apollo (aboard the Saturn 1B and Saturn V rockets), now we have the Ares family lifting the Constelation. *shrugs*

Sorry, but it's one of my other ... odd interests.

The actual Ares Incorporated is a company founded by Eugene Stoner. Amongst other things Stoner invented the M-16. After Ares, he also started Knight's Armament Company. Given where it's located I would also assume that Ares Arms is a reorganized (or at least renamed) Ares Inc.

During the time Shadowrun was originally developed, Stoner and Ares were developing the Advanced Individual Weapon System (AIWS) as a replacement for the M-16. I have no doubt that the people behind Shadowrun knew all this when they came up with the Ares magacorp.

P.S. Ares, Stoner, and Francis Warin also developed my favorite Shadowrun-esque weapon, the ARES FMG. It still bugs me that this real weapon works better than the version in Arsenal (It can folded and unfolded while loaded for example)

Not to say I'm not, I just plan to survive VITAS and hopefully awaken. And keep a carful watch on my cusin Jack who was born in 1998.

VITAS will be an issue, bunker or no. However, I doubt VITAS will occur in the real word. I suspect that the downfall of civilization will be a much more normal thing than a quick killing virus (as we all know from playing Pandemic, a rapid killing virus* never infects more than 1 country, and even most of the slow ones never make it to Madagascar).



Everyone does. I'm looking a little farther afield than that one, even though I know odds are heavily weighted against me (my halloween costume might give you some idea of where I'm going with this).



Hehe.

*Actually a virus that kills the host in as few as 12 hours would likely never leave a single state, due to the limited contact an infected--but no symptom--host will interact with. A virus with a very slow onset (days to weeks, at which time you're contagious but have no symptoms), but when it does manifest, kills the infected individual almost certainly and very rapidly would be a problem. How many people do you see in a week? Walking down the street you'll see dozens if not a hundred people in an afternoon. The next 12 hours? You might see 6 or 8 people, depending on what you're doing, and if you're coughing, you're likely to see even fewer (call in sick to work, etc).

I see these guys around town now and then: http://kesecurity.com/index-6.html

And I know I saw a store somewhere in Canada called Aztech.

Sounds like you or Kerenshara could actually become "SR geeks at NASA". It would certainly earn you much karma.

Dose Fastjack ever make any refrences to a older cusine?

Just to be clear, Ares is the greek name, his roman name is Mars (yes, the planet). Same thing for the others:

Mercury/Hermes
Venus/Afrodite
Mars/Ares
Jupiter/Zeus
Saturn/Chronus
Uranus/Uranus
Neptune/Poseidon
Pluto/Hades

Thats the idea behind Ares as a big military corp, Ares being the god of war and all. Hence the greek helmet logo for Ares

Yup, several in Canada, a couple in the U.S., and Singapore .....

Holycrapholycrapholycrapholycrapholycrapholycrapholycrapholycrap! I'm applying immediately. I have about 5 years of security under my belt (which is not supporting a large belly, btw), 15 years of martial arts, and a spattering of weapons training. Think they'll want me?


EDIT: Gah! Bangor, Maine? I'm in freaking Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas. I guess the only option is to make Lone Star Security Services my self.

EDIT2: Beat to it.

At least they're in Texas already! ^.^

Some of this stuff being dug up is kind of cool and really creepy all at the same time.

not as scary as this.

I think I'm gonna steer clear of Chi-Town now. Gods almighty, That scared the crap out of me when I read that, thanks, now I don't think I'll be able to sleep tonight now.

So, when does the GDI show up?

wasn't there a Stoner HMG in 1st ed? with the way the names are running it seems likely enough.

There's a store very like "Aztch" or Aztlan in Seattle-on the street below the Pikes place market near the spice shop.

Yeah I know ICBM is not completely accurate but it works.