Luna

Luna in 300AT
Image from Steve Bowers
The Moon in 300 AT already held several colonies belonging to different nation states

Luna - Data Panel

Type:Selenian Subtype
Primary:Earth
Diameter:3474 km
Gravity:0.166 gee
Orbital period:27.32166 days
Atmosphere:Much of Luna is now paraterraformed under Bluesky domes
Surface temperature: vacuum: -153C to 107C
paraterraformed zones: 12C to 27C
Administration:Solar Organisation member world
Population:Biont 300 million
Vec 140 million
AI 5 million
Cyborg 120 million
Other 3 million

Earth and Luna
Image from Steve Bowers
The Earth and Moon in the Interplanetary age, when the Earth still had a hi-tech civilisation on its surface. Since that time, of course, the Earth has been almost completely depopulated during the Great Expulsion; however Luna is still a thriving world, the most ancient of all human colonies.

Natural satellite of Earth. Home to permanent human settlement since the late information age, Luna (originally called the Moon, as it was the first one known by humankind) is a densely populated world, rich in history. The first humans to set on the Moon were Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin in 1969 c.e. (Note c.e. = the old Common Era calendar used on Earth). The new Lunar colonies adopted this date as their year zero, and this new calendar was called the 'After Tranquillity' (A.T. or a.t.) designation.

An extensive array of black silicon or aluminium mirror solar power collectors powered the new colonies, and the equatorial mass driver; actually a series of launching ramps connected by a freight railroad, set up to launch the exports of iron, titanium, aluminium and oxygen into orbit. Many of the spacecraft that explored and colonised the worlds of the old Sol system were built partly or wholly from lunar materials.

Territories established under the Luna Exploitation Agreement 2100

Nearside

(status at 2300 (Lunar calendar 331 A.T.)

Former United States territories; Armstrong, Aldrin, Schmitt; :: New Seattle Territory (Aristarchus) :: European Federation initiative Tycho City (an important cultural centre - the Tycho Museum of History is a popular tourist stop) :: Former Russian Federation dependent territories Lunograd, Flamsteed :: Japanese Corporate Republic Tsukuyomi :: International free port Artemis, the largest and oldest city :: International free port Copernicus (Crater completely pressurised) :: International free Agriculture development station Earthview (Plato) (Crater completely pressurised) :: Chinese Republic lunar canton Ch'ang O :: Hindustan colony Chandra :: Brazilian colony Mar das Chuvas, (Mare Imbrium) (the Chandra and Imbrium colonies are centres for the processing of KREEP, a lunar rock containing uranium)

Farside

Luna Silicon Initiative (Neumann dominated mining company) :: Central African colony Mandela :: Chinese Republic lunar canton Heng-o :: Indonesian Corporate development Darkside (Planck Crater) :: Galton AMSL nation state (Birkhoff Crater) :: McKendrick Moon Mining combine (Vec dominated mining company) (Mendeleev Crater) :: Former Russian Federation dependent territories Korolev



Lunar society became a model of integration between nearbaseline, superior and AI culture, with many of the earliest superturing entities becoming respected members of Lunar society. Unfortunately the chaos of the Nanoswarm period caused both loss of life and degradation of artificial intelligence substrates. After the Great Expulsion from Earth Luna became the new capital of the Solar system, though sometimes since it has lost the title to Mars. The Lunar Calendar starting at 1 A.T. was widely adopted in the Solar system, and after the establishment of the First Federation, this system became a widely used standard throughout the Terragen Sphere. As the Lunar Calendar has the same year length as the old Earth calendar, dates can be easily converted. See also Calendars and Timekeeping in the Terragen Sphere.

Although Luna has never been fully terraformed. The idea was raised a few times during Empires era, but was vehemently vetoed by the Lunarians, who described it as terranist environmental imperialism. There are extensive bluesky domes, as well as a number of underground settlements. Tourism in the non paraterraformed areas includes observation domes and the scenic maglevs.

Major Lunarian cities include Artemis (where one can find a nanoreplica of the original first moonbase), Lunograd, Tycho City (an important cultural center - the Tycho Museum of History is a popular tourist stop), Earthview (with its magnificent above surface bluesky biosphere), Armstrong, Copernicus (with its quaint First Federation period architecture) an array of large surface bluesky parks and recreation areas, Aldrin, Schmitt, Tsukuyomi, Imbrium, Serenatis, and Darkside.
 
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Appears in Topics
Inner SphereSolar OrganisationSystems & Worlds K - L
 
Development Notes
Text by Anders Sandberg and Steve Bowers

Initially published on 17 October 2008.