Description
The GNY-001 Gundam Astraea (aka Gundam Astraea, Astraea, Gundam Astraea Type B) is a 2nd generation prototype Gundam in the side story of Mobile Suit Gundam 00P. It is piloted by Ruido Resonance and Chall Acustica. The Astraea was later upgraded by Fereshte into the GNY-001F Gundam Astraea Type F and later the GNY-001F2 Gundam Astraea Type F2.
Gundam Astraea is one of the many successor units to GN-000 0 Gundam and the predecessor to GN-001 Gundam Exia; a intermediary design and 2nd Generation prototype Gundam. The unit was designed and developed by Celestial Being’s Krung Thep engineering team. It was a testbed for a number of experimental technologies (primarily in GN-weapons development) incorporated in pursuit of a greater combat performance and utility. While Astraea was not a specialized combat unit, the prototype helped fine-tune many weapons found in third generation Gundams. Of the four prototypes produced, Astraea’s design and purpose most closely mirrors those of 0 Gundam: a general-purpose combat MS.
For weapons and combat, the Krung Thep team developed Astraea to be an adaptable and versatile combat MS. As a testbed for experimental GN technologies, Celestial Being engineers created a series of prototype weapons from GN Blades to GN Rifles to refine GN weapons development. Because of the wide range of weapons developed for Astraea, it can easily be reconfigured to become a close combat-type, heavy assault-type or a combined variation with its assortment of equipment. The Astraea’s basic armament consists of a pair of GN Beam Sabers stored on the rear skirts for quick access, a GN Beam Rifle for ranged combat, and a GN Launcher for heavier firepower. While the launcher itself can be powered directly from the drive, it requires the removal of one of the clavical antennae.
The clavical antennas on Astraea are not as advanced as those on the later Gundams and they have a large interference area. Thus, the head antennae are downsized to avoid interference and at the same time, powerful antennae are additionally installed at the side of the face to suppress the GN Particle interference to the minimum. Astraea’s GN Drive featured a three-thruster design and its control mechanism differs from that of 0 Gundam; it has a higher output as the system pushes it to the limit in order to extract the maximum performance. However, as a consequence it made the drive more unstable.[2]
A reason why 2nd Generation Gundams don’t apply the cone-type propulsion system is because of the effect it has on their balance; the Gundams’ systems aren’t suitable for it.[2] This was discovered during an experiment where Astraea was fitted with a cone type GN vernier thruster system, a configuraton that was classified as GNY-001B Gundam Astraea Type B. During its testing, Astraea contained the Trans-Am System. However, the black box within Astraea had yet to be activated and remained a hidden feature until the death of Aeolia Schenberg in AD 2307.
After Celestial Being engineers gathered enough data on Astraea, its technical and combat data was used to develop GN-001 Gundam Exia; Celestial Being engineers were not finished with Astraea either. Because it still had tactical value, Astraea was transferred to the Fereshte team. Assigned as part of the shadow support team to the primary team (consisting of the 2nd generation Gundams), Fereshte redeveloped Astraea. Its overall system and combat capabilities were enhanced: its face is masked, given a red paint job, and was re-classified as GNY-001F Gundam Astraea Type F.
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