BABYLON 5

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"It was the dawn of the third age of mankind, ten years after the Earth/Minbari war. The Babylon Project was a dream given form. Its goal, to prevent another war by creating a place where humans and aliens could work out their differences peacefully. It's a port of call - home away from home for diplomats, hustlers, entrepreneurs, and wanderers. Humans and aliens wrapped in two million, five hundred thousand tons of spinning metal, all alone in the night. It can be a dangerous place, but it's our last best hope for peace. This is the story of the last of the Babylon stations. The year is 2258. The name of the place is Babylon 5." Commander Sinclair
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Project
THE BABYLON PROJECT
project: Babylon
PROPOSED by: Calvin Natawe

SPONSORED BY: Earth Alliance
Minbari Federation
Centauri Republic
NUMBER OF STATIONS Constructed: Five
Number of Stations Destroyed: Four
STATIONS IN SERVICE: One
Babylon 5

Babylon Project was the dream of Earth Alliance senator Calvin Natawe.(*1) Senator Natawe proposed that the people of Earth that they should create a place where humans and aliens could meet on neutral ground, in the free exchange of culture, ideas and settle disputes peacefully in the hopes of furthering intergalactic peace.
The senators dynamic vision was revolutionary and many thought his dream was little more than an optimistic fantasy. Thus Calvin Natawes proposal quickly fell between the political cracks of the Earth Alliance government. Few in the Alliance were keen on the idea of the Alliance spending precious resources on something that might not be needed. This attitude quickly changed after the infamous war with the Minbari Federation.
Upon the conclusion of the Earth/Minbari War, senator Natawes vision began to take form, as the Earth Alliance senate overwhelmingly approved the Babylon Project. Construction on the first Babylon station began in 2248 (*2), but the infrastructure collapses and destroys Babylon 1 in 2249 (*3), less than a year after the conclusion of the Earth/Minbari war. In 2250 construction begins on Babylon 2 but after several acts of sabotage and the station's eventual destruction of Babylon's 2 and 3, the Babylon project is placed completely in the hands of the Earthforce military. First fully operational O'Neil class space station christened Babylon 4 went on-line in 2254 (*4).
After the mysterious disappearance of Babylon 4 (*5), with all hands aboard, it looked as if the dream of the Babylon Project was about to die. Not willing to let that happen, Natawe and his supporters were able to convince the Centauri (*6*) and, surpassingly, the Minbari (*7*) to cosponsor the construction of the ONeil class space station Babylon 5. On December 24, 2256, one day before Christmas, Babylon 5 went on-line under the command of Commander Jeffrey Sinclair.
Since going into operation the Babylon 5 station has lived up to the dream of creating a better universe, having been the base of operations against the dreaded Shadows and the tyranny of the President Clark regime and the foundation for the new Interstellar Alliance. Babylon 5 has lived up to its name, "Gate of God"; its existence blessing the galaxy, the universe a better place due to its existence.

[*1 Stated in the Earthforce Source Book.]
[*2 Stated in "And Now for a Word."]
[*3 Stated in "Grail" and shown in "In the Beginning."]
[*4 "Babylon Squared" and "War Without End."]
[*5 "Babylon Squared" and "War Without End."]
[*6* Centauri funding for Babylon 5 established in "A Voice in the Wilderness."]
[*7* Minbari funding for Babylon 5 established in "Signs and Portents" and "The Long Twilight Strugle".]
borrowed from:
http://www.b5tech.com/babylonproject/babylonprojecthistory/babylonprojecthistory.html

Bab5-specs

BABYLON 5 STATION
Class: O´Neil
Type: Deep Space Station
Length: 8,454.1 meter
Mass: 9.1 billion metric tons
Crew: 2,500
Troop: 15,000
Fighter: 48 Starfury fighter craft
Power: 8 Fusion Reactors
Duration: 5 years
Weapon: Twin Particle arrays
Particle Laser Cannon
Pulse Cannons
Plasma Cannons
Defense: 8 - 12 meter armored hull
Mk. II Defense Grid {isindex}

Babylon 5 is a 8,454.1 (*1*) meter (five-mile) long, 840 meter diameter, 9.1 billion ton O'Neil class space station, located at a pivotal main jump gate in the Epsilon system. Located at the L-5 point in a binary star system between a star and a planet named Tigris & Euphrates, in a 33,000 kilometer orbit around a planet called Epsilon Eridani III, coordinates: "Grid Epsilon" at 470/18/22 located 10.67 light-years from Earth. The station's life support system is capable of supporting over 250,000 entities in variable gravities, mostly as transit passengers. (*2*)
Normal planetary gravity aboard Babylon 5 is simulated in a similar manor to Babylon 4, by rotating the stations center section. Outward acceleration at the outer most edge of the station is 1.41 gravities. Babylon 5 supports variable atmospheres, 92% earth standard, 5.2% methane, and 2.8% other. Unlike Babylon 4, Babylon 5 does not have the counter rotating sections, effectively trapping the station in orbit around Epsilon Eridani III. Babylon 5 does have a series of thruster engines however, used in maintaining its location at the L5 point.
When the station first went on-line, only a low level defense grid defended Babylon 5, leaving the station extremely vulnerable to attack. It was not until the station's upgrade in 2259 (*3*), when the Station's systems were given a complete overhaul that Babylon 5 had sufficient firepower to defend its self from an invasion force. The new and significantly more powerful defense grid gave Babylon 5 enough firepower to take on a battlecruiser without the need of an escort fleet and reaffirmed Earth Alliances commitment to the Babylon project.
Babylon 5 is also equipped with a full complement of 48 Starfury fighters. Half of Babylon 5's fighter squadrons consist of 24 SA-23E Aurora class Starfuries and 24 new SA-32 Thunderbolt class Starfuries. Most of these Thunderbolts came from the EAS Churchill, which was destroyed during the Battle of Euphrates by forces loyal to former President William, Morgan Clark, after Babylon 5 seceded from the Earth Alliance in 2260 (*4*).
The "front" of the Babylon 5 station contains the stations control and command deck, observation dome, and docking bays. The stations docking system consists of two docking bays, the first allowing small craft to enter along the stations 0g center line of the rotating section, to be transferred to the appropriate internal landing bay. The second and larger docking bay is located in the stations upper non-rating section, which is dedicated to craft remaining in free fall. The forward section of the station, designated BLUE sector, also contains the Cobra launch bays for Babylon 5's fighter wings.
To control and maintain the vast network of power, air recycling, water reclamation, communication and data storage, Earth Alliance turned to the Centauri in the construction of Babylon 5's computer system. Based on a crystalline Earth/Centauri hybrid technology, it was decided that Babylon 5 would have a completely revolutionary AI, providing the station with an artificial personality (*5*). Unfortunately this plan did not work very well, as a technical error lead to the rather unstable personality of a New-York taxi cab driver taking over the Babylon 5 system. Quickly realizing the monumental problem this would create, the artificial personality was locked out and a more conventional computer/user interface was integrated into the system.
The computer system presently in use on Babylon 5, is based primarily on human design using Centauri crystalline technology and is capable of both keyboard and voice input, the latter in over one hundred different alien languages. Integrated within this computer system is the Babcom communications network, which is used to handles all the stations communication needs. This includes intra-station, ship-to-station, and long-range tachyon communications.
Given the size of the Babylon 5 station, engineers deemed it necessary to create an extensive mass-transit public transportation system, which allows personnel and visitors to easily travel across the whole of the five-mile long station. This system includes several train systems that run across the outer walls of the station, as well as a monorail shuttle service that runs along the stations 0g-center line. The Core Shuttle as it is referred to in-station, runs every five minutes accessing 13 substations along the length of the Babylon 5s habitat section.
To make it easy to negotiate the vast size of the station, Babylon 5 has been broken into six subsections. These include the following:

YELLOW SECTOR-Engineering, docking and cargo bays.
BLUE SECTOR-Customs, operations and Earthforce personnel quarters.
GREEN SECTOR-Diplomatic habitation and facilities.
RED SECTOR-Commerce and transient/commercial habitation.
GRAY SECTOR-Construction, manufacturing and engineering.
BROWN SECTOR-Reclimation and outer hull area.

Using a coordinate based system, finding ones way around Babylon 5 is relatively easy. One must simple know the sectors color designation, which is a spiral ring of the station, followed by the sector letter, and then whatever number that denotes a level.
Another interesting problem presented in the construction of Babylon 5, was the stations need for a very powerful reactor, in order to run all station systems as well as operate the large motors used to rotate the stations habitat wing. Thus a new type of fusion reactor system was designed.
Main power for Babylon 5 is handled by a series of high-mass particle-fusion reactors in the rear non-rotating section of the station. Fuel tank located at the rear of the station is a total of 265 meter in lenght and 455 meter in height. Total volume of the main fuel tank is 25,095,336 cubic meters and holds a total of 4,115,635,209 kilograms of gelled deuterium. Energy output of this reactor system is 2.5*1024 joule.
Babylon 5 has a total of eight fusion reactors, which can generate an average, combined power output of approximately 16,182 Terawatts (1.6*1016), time averaged over five years. This powerful reactor system handles all the stations power needs. In addition to the main fusion reactors, there are many smaller fusion reactors strategically placed through out the station, designed to ensure key systems remain operational should it ever become necessary to eject the stations main energizer.
A marvelous achievement for all parties involved, despite complaints that the station was build using substandard parts(*6*), Babylon 5 will continue to faithfully serve the ideals and goals that lead to her creation, the dream of one point in space where the entire universe.

[*1* Size stated in "And Now for a Word" and in the official size figures by Tim Earls.]
[*2* Exact location stated in the Earthforce Source Book.]
[*3* As seen in "Gropos."]
[*4* As seen in "Severed Dreams."]
[*5* As seen in "Ceremonies of Light and Dark."]
[*6* Stated in the official Babylon 5 chronology - B5 Magazine April 2000.]
borrowed from;
http://www.b5tech.com/babylonproject/babylon5station/babylon5station.html

Babylon 5 Links

http://www.babylon5.org.uk/.............nice site
http://www.scifi.com/babylon5/ ..............sucks
http://www.darkstar.tj/bbs/ultimatebb.cgi.....okay
http://crusade.babylon5.org.uk/...............Crusade
http://www.fortunecity.com/tattooine/thx1138/252/bay3.html.....cool
http://www.vu.union.edu/~beckerlc/b5/
http://www.geocities.com/clarkstrekanimations/Babylon_5......gif's
http://massassi.yavin4.com/pagemain.htm
http://massassi.yavin4.com/themes/tbab5.htm......... b5 theme download
http://kepo.hut.fi/jerri/Babylon5/themes/Index.html.....music
http://www.tp2b.de/misc_goodies.html.....screensavers

Babylon 5
Series Bible
Season One
Entry for COMMANDER JEFFREY SINCLAIR
Commander Sinclair is a hero of the Line, the last major battle in the Earth/Minbari War. He was squad team leader. Twelve ships under his command were wiped out; he alone of his squad survived. He still carries tremendous guilt about this, believing that somehow he should have been able to save them.
Subsequent to the events in the pilot, Sinclair now suspects that his blackout during the battle was more than it seems, that something happened to him during those 24 hours. He will begin to find out what, and why.
Lauded along with the other surviving pilots from the Line, he nonetheless feels that the appellation of "Hero" is false. This caused him considerable conflicts with his superiors upon returning to Earth after the battle of the Line. Between the time of the battle, and his appointment to BABYLON 5, he has been relegated to backwater assignments, most recently the Mars Colony just before the food riots.
When BABYLON 5 was finally completed and someone was needed to head up the station, many names of higher rank and greater prestige were put forth for approval. At that point, Earth and the Minbari were the only signatories to the new project (the Centauri came third, followed by the Narn, and finally the Vorlons). The Minbari rejected every other name put forth, working their way further and further down the list of available names until coming to one they liked: Sinclair.
As our season begins, he does not know this yet. He will however, find out.
Sinclair's position is often an awkward one. He's first and foremost a pilot, and wants to be out among the stars, but this seems to be where he can be of most use. He's with the Earth Alliance military division, but BABYLON 5 is predominantly a civilian operation, with representatives of different governments and races, so his authority is limited. Frustratingly so at times. (He is like a military governor in that respect.) He must be commanding, but he mist also be diplomatic, since part of his job is to represent Earth in most day-to-day negotiations, though a formal Earth Alliance negotiator may be called in should a major crisis develop.
He has an ongoing relationship with a young woman named CATHERINE WYLDE, a surveyor who locates asteroids and moons and lifeless planets for exploitation by mineralogical, scientific and construction concerns. Previously involved a few years ago, before his appointment to BABYLON 5, she re-enters his life at the start of the season, and they pick up where they left off. Theirs is a fairly monogamous relationship. Sinclair doesn't sleep with every pretty face that walks onto the station.
Bottom line...Sinclair is not a hero in the conventional sense, not the ultimate leader. He's an average guy in a job that is at times a little too big for his grasp. (In time he will be called upon to become something more than average, something and someone far more important, but that change will be part of his overall character arc.) He's not perfect. He's haunted by some things in his past, some mistakes he's made, he sometimes tries too hard, and he's often obsessive about things. He tries to get along, and generally does a good job of it. His people respect him. But if you screw around with him or endanger his station, he will hurt you.
Sinclair was born on Mars, raised some of his life on Earth, but spent the majority of his life in space.