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Luna
Luna
Image from PortalHunter
The Moon in the Interplanetary Age

Luna - Data Panel

Type:Selenian Subtype
Primary:Earth
Diameter:3474 km
Gravity:0.166 gee
Orbital period:27.32166 days
Atmosphere:In the Current Era much of Luna is 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
Aioid 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 oldest human colony on another celestial object. 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 the new dating system became known as the 'After Tranquility' (A.T. or a.t.) calendar.

The first steps towards building a permanent colony on Luna began in 68 A.T., when remote-controlled 'telenaut' devices began constructing infrastructure there; no accommodation for humans was made at this stage. Human colonisation began in 91 A.T. and even in 119 A.T. the largest settlement, Artemis, held only 200 people.

An extensive array of black-silicon or aluminium-mirror solar-power collectors powered these new colonies. Many of these panels were situated in a wide band around the equator to supply power to the equatorial mass driver; this was actually a series of launching ramps connected by a freight railroad network, which was set up to launch exports of iron, titanium, aluminium, oxygen and hi-tech goods 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.

Another major product of Lunar mining and construction in the early history of the colony was orbiting solar-power collector satellites; a large swarm at the Earth/Sun L1 Lagrange point delivered extra power to Luna, exported power to Earth and helped to propel spacecraft via an early boostbeam system.

Luna - nearside
Image from Steve Bowers
Colonies on the Nearside of Luna in 300 AT

Territories established under the Luna Exploitation Agreement 2100 c.e. (131 A.T.)

Nearside

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

State of Excelsior, United States of America - Armstrong, Schmitt; :: Independent corporate territories - Aldrin, Aristarchus :: European Federation initiative Tycho City (an important cultural centre - the Tycho Museum of History is a popular tourist stop) :: Russian Republic 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) :: Syndicate of Chinese Provinces lunar canton Chang-e :: Syndicate of Chinese Provinces lunar canton Yeung Koon:: South Asian Compact 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) :: Greater South Africa Republic colony Mandela :: Syndicate of Chinese Provinces 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) :: Russian Republic dependent territories Korolev



Lunar society became a model of integration between nearbaseline, superior and AI culture, with many of the earliest superturing entities (such as Mycroft) becoming respected members of Lunar society.

Unfortunately the chaos of the Technocalypse caused both loss of life and degradation of artificial intelligence substrates. After the Great Expulsion, billions of refugees from Earth were accommodated in vast underground warrens in terrible conditions.

Luna became the new capital world of the Solar system when the Dark Age came to an end, though sometimes since it has lost the title to Mars or Ceres. 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.

Luna in the Current Era

Luna in 10600 AT
Image from Steve Bowers
Luna in the Current Era; the Far Side from Earth is covered in worldhouses, while the Nearside is kept relatively pristine
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 maglev railways. On the side of Luna that faces Earth, most signs of civilisation are camoflaged, in order to make the Moon appear as untouched as possible as seen from GAIA's Earth.

For more details of Luna in the current era, see here.

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, 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 Organisation
 
Development Notes
Text by Anders Sandberg
Additional Material by Steve Bowers
Initially published on 17 October 2008.

 
 
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