4799-PB-12 Habitat
"The first asteroid extracted from the Thresher-Belt for mining was a pretty big deal for Vaduz, so much so that after hollowing it out they turned it into a colony, to commemorate the success. PB-12 has became an important rest-stop for rock-drivers and miners of all sorts, and - in spite of being Vaduzian turf, and the ongoing hostilities between them and the FUC - the management insists on it remaining a neutral-zone for all parties, something that patrolling Union forces are more than happy on supporting with their short-spools."
"Used to be in my day, the rock was just that, a big lump of worthless mineral that happened to have an illegal still inside. Now it's spinning at point-three Gs and selling spa-days to flatlanders, and the still's a 'heritage site'. Still a nice place to do business, but it seems to have forgotten that it's the last stop for law and order before the Thresher, if you ask me. Seems the boss has also forgotten he's Vaduz... "
Purpose / Function
PB-12 is the primary staging-point for rock-driving expeditions out into the Tresher-Belt. Aside from offering short-term accomodation for relevant personel, it is also the presiding authority on distribution and sale of driving and mining-rights, determining which bodies are sufficiently rich in minerals and safe for rock-drivers to extract and auctioning the details off to various bidders. In more recent years, it has also served as a second demilitarized zone for Vaduz and the FUC, outside of the Artemis Port-City.
Alterations
Initially a simple mining-site built into the side of the 4799-PB-12 asteroid, the habitat has been greatly expanded over the decades for long-term habitation, primarily through hollowing and expansion of the nickel-asteroid's interior into a small-scale 'Cole bubble' style of habitate, constructing further amenities on the inner wall of the asteroid and producing artificial gravity by rotating it. The exterior has also been fitted with a multitude of docking-clamps and surveying sensor-arrays to better analyse the Thresher Belt's chaotic systems.
Architecture
Much of the exterior systems and installations retain the utilitarian designs of their original mining purposes, favouring compact, boxy affairs with easy-to-replace components and heavy armoring to survive the constant microimpacts of space. The interior however, while also retaining some of those similar architectural looks for the sake of heritage, has mostly been designed with more aesthetically-minded principals to suit its new secondary purpose as a habitation-area.
History
4799-PB-12 was first surveyed in 4801u, amidst Vaduzian attempts to remotely mine asteroids within the Thresher-Belt to meet resource-needs without growing further dependant on FUC importations, but was not selected for drone-mining due to most of the more needed minerals being situated deep in its core, which made the risk of a sudden anomalous-collision occuring before the departure of its drone more likely. It was only in 4832u that 4799-PB-12 was put back in Vaduzian sights when advances in propulsion-chemistry and surveying-techniques allowed for an attempt at the now-ubiquitous 'rock-driving' technique of moving an asteroid out of the danger of the Thresher-belt, where it can be safely mined without risk of collision.
The first Rock-Drive was a relatively clumsy affair, a proof-of-concept operation that involved quickly landing on the surface of PB-12 in its 'safest window' - the period in which an anomalous collision occurring in the vicinity is least likely to occur - and mounting several liquid-fuel rockets on its surface, to push the whole asteroid out of the range of the Thresher-Belt's chaotic spacial-anomalies. Despite numerous engineering-issues however, the operation was a complete success with no casualties. PB-12 was moved out of the belt and the rockets were refueled to push the object to its final point: an L2 orbit outside of Parime, where it could be safely mined without undue risk to the colony.
Owing to the historical value of being the first rock-drive in the system and the mineral riches it brought to Vaduz, the hollowed-out remnants of PB-12 and the extensive mining equipment and accomodations on its sole opening weren't dismantled and sent back to the belt as planned: Instead, they were kept in place as a monument to the monumental civic project that had taken place, and turned into a permanent fixture of the system. The asteroid-turned-station became a surveying-site for further rock-driving operations, that took its recommendations and orders on what asteroids were safe or unsafe to extract at the time as near sacrosanct.
Founding Date
4836
Alternative Names
The Rock, Last Stop
Parent Location
Owning Organization
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