Hughes-Holtz

Hughes-Holtz is an aged company that has brought sweeping changes in scientific application for hundreds of years. The company can be found in every system and has spawned an entire industry around its most successful line of business of terraforming.

After splitting off most other functions into subsidiary companies Hughes-Holtz now primarily focuses its efforts on terraforming as well as the highly competitive market for after-engine genetic engineering.

Company Overview

Founded by a pair of high-energy engineers, the Hughes-Holtz company grew around a passion to explore.That motivation has spread throughout the company's culture. The company got its best and brightest break when Mars was first being pursued as an extension of mankind's future. Springing at the chance, the engineers who had previously had middling success with patents designed what would become the first-stage of the marvelous Mars Terraforming Project.

Their bid won and on the wings of then infantile technology, the company started the terraforming of mars. The project that was the joint effort of numerous groups, countries, and people would outlive both founders of Hughes-Holtz. However, the success of the project allowed the company to grow. As the technology developed and men moved to the stars, a new era dawned for the company; started by the successful shaping of worlds.

Presence

Today Hughes-Holtz, or HH, operates bases on every terraformed world in at least advisory roles. As the industry leader, their seasoned engineers are in high demand when locals attempt to tackle complex environmental issues and juggle the ins-and-outs of reshaping a biosphere and the life thereof.

Numerous worlds have been successfully terraformed using total conversion, however an even larger number of colonies utilize environmental management to ensure that the limited resources of the colony are maximized. Even colonies where no direct changes have been made can employ the services of firms in this industry. For instance, Luna in the Sol System brings in considerable skill in designing and maintaining its large Edens.

Virtually any colony can benefit from the careful planning and management of these skilled engineers and for that reason the direct and indirect industries are considered of high importance for job markets.

Continuing Education

To help push the field forward HH has partnered with numerous institutes of higher learning to provide interested learners with the training necessary to tackle the complex field. These programs are mirrored by many other firms in the industry on various levels, each one hoping to ring in the top talent to push the sponsoring company's competitive edge.

For those interested in the complex structuring of worlds from the soil to the living plants and animals the field of study is rewarding, open, and as dynamic as the worlds shaped. Few other concentrations can offer up the ability to make life possible. See: Ecological Engineering

Engines

Hughes-Holtz and other manufacturers rely upon "engines" or multistage modules to terraform moons and worlds. Each engine is unique, with characteristics of specific requirements determining the different "engine lines".

Originally engines were simple, singular units with limited function and aim, much like all early space efforts. However with time their complexity and power to adapt grew to the point where Syntek workers as well as artificial intelligence directors were standard-issue of all engine lines. The science while maturing is not exact, and errors have been made on numerous occasions at high costs.

In such events engines are retired and the situation must be reevaluated given the new situation, not a time-friendly endeavor.

Sample Engine Lines

• H4 - First-stage Mars Prototype
• E06 - Secondary Mars multi-stage process, first true "engine"
• IG-47 - Failed Aquelas Engine
• XH-17 - Reclamation engine; first used on small sectors of earth