Mercury
The hottest and roughest place in the Solar System, Mercury is a center of trade and transportation. With the lowest population of any inner planet, it is inhabited mostly by the rich, powerful, and slightly crazy. Mercury has been extensively mined for hundreds of years, and the planet's mass is slowly shrinking as the rare metals concentrated at the poles is purified in batches of thousands of tons. Mercury's access energy and industry makes it the perfect place for megaconstructions, of which the planet bears three. Though some dispute its status, Hermes Base is officially classified as a megastructure, containing all the permanent habitations of the planet Mercury. The base contains over seventy million residents, and covers 7% of Mercury's surface. This makes the base as large in mass as one of the Menschen Stapel the The Citadel Initiative created, but with a tiny fraction of its population. Most of Hermes base is made up of automated factories, design studios, and steam power converters. The corridors are dark and cramped, and the temperature averages a cool 29 degrees Celsius. Hermes base contains massive metal refineries, is key to the planet's power conversion system, and houses the planet's second megastructure, the Star of Hope Laser array.
Orginially a weapon during the Hermian War, the Star of Hope was built in 306 and used in the Hermian war to destroy an Interplanetary Governance Council armada led by Commodore Michael Hense. The laser was then used to launch the Heart of Gold spacecraft away from the Solar system at unimaginable speeds. Little is known of the Heart of Gold, but the Star of Hope laser was later captured by the ICG and converted to peaceful uses. The Star of Hope would sit unused for nearly fifty years, its critical components sabotaged by loyalist Hermians after the war. The Star of Hope was officially rechristened in 351, and began service launching interstellar probes. Today the Star of Hope is a massive Gamma-laser installation, the most powerful internally generated laser in the Solar System. It extends two kilometers over Mercury's north pole, with massive plastic mirrors shielding Hermes base below from its light. Most say the Laser looks like a flower from the planet, and anyone within a million kilometers while it is activated will see a second sun in the distance. The gamma laser is powered by Mercury's massive orbital solar arrays, which receive light from focusing arrays of mirrors on the surface, as well as the Sun. Hermes base, and the majority of Hermian infrastructure, are not actually powered by solar arrays. The challenges the planet faces for being close to the sun outweigh the benefits, and the surface does not use solar panels. As the heating these panels can generate would raise the temperature to uncontrollable levels.
Mercury's third and largest megastructure is its means of power generation, which enables the Hermians to control temperatures across the planet, maintaining the heating of their mining machines despite the -200 C nights, and preventing them from melting while hibernating through the 450 C days. This massive construct spans the entire planet, wrapping around its equator like a gigantic serpent. This is the Trans-Planet Beltline, finished in 159, has supplied over ninety percent of Mercury's energy since its creation. The surface habitats don't use Solar Panels, which would transfer too much heat to the surface. Most of Hermes Base and Mercury's metal harvesters are run using pressurized steam, provided by the massive water reserves on the hot side of the Trans-Planet Beltline. The beltline holds millions of tonnes of water reserves, which can be separated into fusion fuel and oxygen in an emergency. Hermes base does have a fusion reactor, but it is only used when the base is on the planet's darkside. The beltline's second most important feature is its magnetic track, which also wraps around the planet. Using the magnetic tunnel around mercury, a spacecraft with some maneuvering fuel can accelerate to speeds high enough to escape Mercury's gravity and sling itself all the way to an Earth rendezvous.
Alternative Name(s)
The Steamworld
Remove these ads. Join the Worldbuilders Guild
Comments