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REFERENCE · 20 TERMS
Plain definitions of the terms used in UAP disclosure, space science and the search for extraterrestrial intelligence, alongside the in-universe vocabulary of Offworld Careers. Every entry is labelled as either a real-world term or a fictional one.
REAL-WORLD TERM · PUBLIC RECORD
AARO is the U.S. Department of Defense office, established in 2022, that collects, analyses and reports on UAP cases across all domains.
AARO publishes annual and historical reports. Its stated finding to date is that only a small fraction of reports show unusual signatures such as high-speed travel or unknown morphologies.
→ The fictional Anomaly RegistryREAL-WORLD TERM · PUBLIC RECORD
A biosignature is a substance, pattern or phenomenon whose presence provides scientific evidence of past or present life, such as specific combinations of gases in a planetary atmosphere.
Candidate biosignature gases include oxygen with methane, and in some debates dimethyl sulfide. Claims require ruling out non-biological sources.
→ Explore registered worldsREAL-WORLD TERM · PUBLIC RECORD
Delta-v is the total change in velocity a spacecraft can achieve, and the standard budget mission planners use to decide which destinations are reachable.
It is determined by engine efficiency and the ratio of fuelled to empty mass, as described by the Tsiolkovsky rocket equation.
→ Starship Crew ManifestREAL-WORLD TERM · PUBLIC RECORD
The Drake Equation, proposed by astronomer Frank Drake in 1961, estimates the number of communicating civilisations in the Milky Way by multiplying star formation rate, planet fractions, life and intelligence fractions, and civilisation lifetime.
It is a framework for organising uncertainty rather than a precise calculation; most of its factors remain unknown.
→ The Technical CanonREAL-WORLD TERM · PUBLIC RECORD
A Dyson swarm is a hypothetical cloud of orbiting solar collectors surrounding a star to capture a large fraction of its energy output.
It is the more physically plausible variant of the solid 'Dyson sphere' described by Freeman Dyson in 1960.
→ Dyson swarm requisitionsREAL-WORLD TERM · PUBLIC RECORD
The Fermi Paradox is the contradiction between the high estimated probability of extraterrestrial civilisations and the absence of any confirmed evidence of them.
Proposed resolutions include the rarity of complex life, short civilisation lifetimes, the vast distances involved, and the possibility that we have not searched effectively.
→ The Technical CanonREAL-WORLD TERM · PUBLIC RECORD
The habitable zone is the range of orbital distances around a star where a planet could keep liquid water on its surface, given a suitable atmosphere.
Being in the habitable zone does not make a planet habitable; atmosphere, magnetic field and geology also matter.
→ Registered worldsREAL-WORLD TERM · PUBLIC RECORD
ISRU is the practice of using materials found at a destination, such as lunar ice or Martian atmospheric CO2, to produce water, oxygen, fuel or building material instead of launching them from Earth.
NASA's MOXIE experiment produced oxygen from the Martian atmosphere aboard the Perseverance rover between 2021 and 2023.
→ Resource extraction sectorREAL-WORLD TERM · PUBLIC RECORD
The Kardashev Scale ranks hypothetical civilisations by energy use: Type I uses the energy available on its planet, Type II the full output of its star, Type III the energy of its galaxy.
Proposed by Nikolai Kardashev in 1964. Humanity is usually placed below Type I.
→ Positions in a Type II economyREAL-WORLD TERM · PUBLIC RECORD
A Lagrange point is a position where the gravity of two large bodies and orbital motion balance, letting a smaller object hold a stable position relative to both.
The James Webb Space Telescope operates near the Sun–Earth L2 point, about 1.5 million km from Earth.
→ Orbital positionsREAL-WORLD TERM · PUBLIC RECORD
NHI is a term used in U.S. legislative and public debate for any hypothetical intelligence that is not human, whether biological or technological. Its use does not imply that such an intelligence has been confirmed.
The phrase appeared in proposed UAP disclosure legislation and congressional hearings from 2023 onward.
→ The fictional Transgalactic CouncilREAL-WORLD TERM · PUBLIC RECORD
PURSUE is the 2026 U.S. executive initiative directing federal agencies to identify and publicly release government files on UAP, UFOs and extraterrestrial life.
Releases have been published in batches during 2026. Readers should treat each released file as a primary record to be read in context, not as a conclusion.
→ Read the State of the Register reportIN-UNIVERSE TERM · FICTION
In Offworld Careers, a requisition is an official numbered position document issued by the fictional Offworld Workforce Authority, carrying a clearance stamp and a technical specification strip.
Requisitions are works of fiction. They are not real job offers.
→ Read open requisitionsIN-UNIVERSE TERM · FICTION
On the Offworld Sightings Desk, corroboration is an independent observer confirming or disputing a filed case. Three independent confirmations transfer a case onto the Anomaly Registry.
Each observer may corroborate a case once.
→ Corroborate an open caseIN-UNIVERSE TERM · FICTION
In the Offworld simulation, a sol is one simulated day on a world. Outpost telemetry and events advance one sol per daily run.
The word borrows the real term for a Martian solar day, which lasts about 24 hours 39 minutes.
→ Watch a live outpostREAL-WORLD TERM · PUBLIC RECORD
A technosignature is any measurable sign of technology produced by an intelligence, such as narrow-band radio signals, laser pulses or industrial pollutants in an exoplanet atmosphere.
Technosignature searches are a branch of SETI. No confirmed technosignature has been detected to date.
→ Browse the Disclosure and Contact sectorsREAL-WORLD TERM · PUBLIC RECORD
Terraforming is the hypothetical large-scale engineering of a planet's atmosphere, temperature and surface to make it habitable for Earth life.
Mars is the most studied candidate. Current analyses suggest Mars lacks enough accessible carbon dioxide to thicken its atmosphere with existing technology.
→ Registered worldsREAL-WORLD TERM · PUBLIC RECORD
UAP is the official U.S. government term for observations in the air, sea, space or across domains that cannot be immediately identified. It replaced the older term UFO in official usage.
The term shifted from 'unidentified aerial phenomena' to 'unidentified anomalous phenomena' to cover undersea and trans-medium reports. Most cases investigated by official offices resolve to balloons, drones, aircraft, satellites, birds or sensor artefacts; a small percentage remain unresolved.
→ File or read reports on the Sightings DeskREAL-WORLD TERM · PUBLIC RECORD
UFO is the historical term, coined by the U.S. Air Force in the early 1950s, for any airborne object an observer cannot identify. 'Unidentified' describes the observer's knowledge, not the object's origin.
Popular culture made UFO synonymous with alien spacecraft, which is one reason official bodies adopted the more neutral UAP.
→ The Sightings DeskIN-UNIVERSE TERM · FICTION
A world module is a builder-filed fictional planet in the Offworld universe, with physics validated against the Technical Canon and a live simulated outpost.
Approved world modules receive a Ground View, daily simulation events and their own requisitions.
→ The World RegisterFiction Notice: entries marked in-universe describe a work of speculative fiction. Real-world entries summarise public scientific and governmental sources. © Offworld Careers.
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