A space colony consisted of two counter-rotating cylinders. Each cylinder rotated on its axis to generate artificial gravity.
Description
Space colonies were placed at the five Earth-Moon Lagrange Points that are gravitationally neutral due to the relatively equal gravitaional pull exerted by the Earth and the Moon.
A cluster of colonies at was collectively grouped as a Side. If more than one Side shared a Lagrange Point, they stayed in close orbit to each other within the Lagrange Point.
All colonies were O’Neill “Island 3” type except for the close-type colonies in Side 3. There were only closed-type colonies at Side 3. There were no open-type colonies in the cluster. Closed-type colonies did not have glass panels to simulate the skies and did not have any views of space. This allowed larger residential capcities instead of wasting space for aesthetics.
Types
Island 1
An Island 1 type colony was a rotating sphere 500 metres in diameter. The equatorial region of the sphere was the residential space.
Island 2
The Island 2 type colony design was a rotating sphere 1.6 kilometres in diameter. Like the Island 1 type, the equatorial region of the sphere was the residential space.
Island 3
The Island 3 space colony was the standard design used by the Earth Federation. It consisted of two counter-rotating cylinders. The cylinders rotated in opposite directions to cancel out gyroscopic effects that would otherwise make it difficult to keep them pointed towards the Sun.
The cylinders were 8 kilometres in diameter and 32 kilometres long, linked to each other by a rod via a bearing system. Each cylinder rotated on its axis to generate artificial gravity via centrifugal forces direct on its inner surface.
Each cylinder had six stripes that ran the length of the cylinder. Three stripes were transparent windows that admitted light from outside the colony and allowed the view of outer space during artificial night time. The three other stripes were residential land surfaces.
An outher agricultural ring 32 kilometres in diameter rotated at a different speed optimised to support farming. The industrial manufacturing block was located in the core of the cylinder where there was minimal gravity to make some manufacturing processes more effective.
Colony clusters
Standalone colonies
- Moon Moon – an Island 1 type colony
- Laplace – a Standford Torus colony that served as the official residence for the prime minister of the Earth Federation until it was destroyed in UC 0001
- Hiland – a solar battery satellite