Tannhäuser Transfer Station in the AD 02100: Solar Ecliptic era

Tannhäuser Transfer Station was the sole access to interstellar space from the Solar System during the early 02100s. An artifact of one of the ancient Precursor races, it was this structure which opened up the Terran corner of the galaxy for transport, communications and commerce.

NorAm vessels were a significant presence in the Jovian planetary system, prowling the various orbital paths of the region on watch for the merchant ships that quickly assumed the roles of pirates and privateers.

Merchant ships of the extrasolar powers (such as the Kentauran freighter pictured here) began to become familiar sites during the mid- to late- 02100s as the Tannhauser Gate made transit between the Solar System and other worlds much more common. 

Using advanced quantum engineering principles, the Tannhauser HyperGate maintained a singularity distortion in space-time that connected two distant points in the universe (also known as a wormhole or Einstein-Rosen Bridge) so that starships could travel in a fraction of the time that later OverLight Drives would allow. Since other spacial dimensions were basically featureless, an advanced beacon network was set up to provide a practical means of navigating the void.

Ganymede Station became an important location in the 02170s for travelers both coming into the Solar System and those heading out to the stars.  This base station's presence grew out of an initial cooperative terraforming effort between the New Masada Colony on Amalthea, the NorAm corporations mining Io, and the expansive Indo-African Union presence on Callisto.

Originally created in the "Golden Age of Invention", Stargate technology was unknown after the fall of the Old Empire and the 1,000 years of the Barbaric Dark Ages, and could no longer be reproduced, thus requiring that the access jump points must be maintained open at all times.