Jupiter
Description
Jupiter is a solar system in miniature, the single giant planet courted by over sixty moons, a rich concentration of resources in terms of electromagnetic energy, gases, water and minerals as well as a stopping point for most solar system traffic that still uses slingshot techniques for building up speed and reaching the outer solar system. Jupiter is an industrial and economic powerhouse, founded through massive investment by conglomerations of Earth corporations and governmental power the four Galilean moons, Io, Ganymede, Europa and Callisto are all home to extensive industrial colonies, scooping helium-3 from Jupiter’s atmosphere using beanstalk technology, tapping into the immensely powerful magnetic fields and searching for life beneath Europa’s icy shell. All of them tied together by an Earth naval presence and a Jovian peacekeeping force, independently funded by the Jovian companies. In many ways Jupiter resembles a pre-revolution America. A land rich in resources, out on the frontier of space but beholden economically and politically to those who made settlement there possible. The similarities are not lost on the Jovian colonists who increasingly begin to grate against the demands of the inner solar system and the impositions of the navy.
Government
As a public/private partnership the Jovian system is ruled over by a UN appointed governor who is, in turn, advised by a corporate council with representatives from each of the interplanetary industrial corporations involved in the Jupiter project. Colonists, unless they have shares in one of the companies, have no say in who the governor is or who sits upon the board but all decisions that affect the colonies are made by this group, most of which do not even live in the Jovian colonies. In opposition to this strong unions have begun to form amongst the colonial workers and a secessionist movement is strongly gaining grassroots support. The inexperienced attempts by the navy and peacekeeping force, under orders from the governor to stamp out this movement, have only increasingly backfired, creating a vicious circle of rebellion and oppression.
Geography
Only the largest moons, the Galilean moons, have settlements in large numbers upon them and the Europan settlement is largely limited to a single base upon the surface, afraid of contamination of any life that might be found. Due to Jupiter’s immensely powerful electromagnetic field most settlements are either within armoured and screened space stations or dug deep into the surface of the moons. Jupiter is unusual for a solar system colony by virtue of not only being self sustaining, but by producing an excess of water, food, power, fuel and people, all of which are exported to the rest of the solar system. Jupiter itself is orbited at great distance by Charybdis, a gigantic space station attached to a tether that descends into Jupiter’s atmosphere, suctioning up gas and filtering out the helium three for use as fusion fuel throughout the solar system, the main source of Jupiter’s riches.
Starport quality
B, Naval, Scout, Research
Size
A
Atmosphere Type
C
Hydrographic Percentage
2
Population
9
Government Type
4
Law Level
7
Tech Level
E
Price Multiplier
1.5
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