ASTRONOMISCHEN RECHEN-INSTITUT

Headquarters: Heidelberg, Germany, Earth, Sol, Core.

Mission Statement: The pursuit of pure research into stars, planets and astronomical processes.

Products/Services: Knowledge, colonial surveys, starship design.

Language(s): English, French, German.

Culture: Open, similar to a university.

Staff Levels: 42,000 + students and interns (50,000+).

Scope of Operations: Primarily the French Arm, along with distant expeditions

The Bavarian Astronomischen Rechen-Institut was originally part of the University of Heidelberg. Endowed by Azania with tantalum and funding to support a squadron of interstellar scouts, the ARI is a foundation pursuing pure research into the nature of stars and their planetary systems.

The ARI sponsors exploratory missions to strange star systems and phenomena. Most of these are directed at the immediate Frontier systems but there are several expeditions operating beyond 50 light-years from Sol, some of which are not expected to return for more than a decade. One of these, the Swabia is feared lost after it ventured past Arcturus in 2294.

Missions for the Astronomischen Rechen-Institut will usually be purely exploratory. This might be anything from a voyage to an interesting stellar body to the search for and exploration of, colonisable planets. First priority in these missions is the acquisition of new knowledge, although often with an eye to exploiting that knowledge for the benefit of the ARI.