Europa

Geography

Europa, the smallest of Jupiter's Galilean moons, is 9800KM equatorial circumference. Covered in a 25km thick surface of ice, the small moon is a wellspring of scientific data and much needed water for the the rest of the solar system.
There are several impact sites and crater sites that are used to distinguish the mostly unbroken surface of Europa. One of the main sites is Conamara Chaos a location of shifting ice that looks similar to ice rafts in the old Arctic before the great melting.
Due to the potential for shifting ice, the main science team, chose Conamara Chaos as the first settlement location. Test drilling was done to make sure the shift ice wouldn't create fissures or potential breaks for any structures to potentially fall through.
Even here, the relative thickness of the ice is between 18KM and 22 KM thick. The topside settlement was built in 405AF. With the Hive, the underwater science station built three years later.

Ecosystem

Above the ice, there is very little. A thin atmosphere of oxygen and water vapour cover the moon and it's bombarded by asteroids and flying space debris that get caught in the small moon's orbit. There is very little sun, it takes the light from the sun roughly 44 minutes to reach Europa. There is no plant life, nothing has been found to grow on the ice even through sampling by the science teams.
However, under the ice, there are tidal shifts and thermal vents deep in the Europa ocean that has the potential for bacterial and other kinds of life forms. Currently they are still doing selective testing along the branch of thermal vents twenty metres down within five metres of Hive.

Ecosystem Cycles

There's very little seasonal activity but the tidal forces do change how the volcanic activity and thermal vent chambers open and close. As the tides shift and the volcanic activity moves, the thermal vents open and close, shutting down for weeks and months at a time while other vents open in other places within the chamber system.

Localized Phenomena

Volcanic activity is so regular and dependant on the other celestial bodies floating around Europa that the term old faithful has been reused for a series of water vents that respond to an asteroid orbiting no Europa but Ganymede. For the last seven years the iron dense asteroid has been locked in an orbit of Ganymede, kept in place there by the Ganymede Mining Company. As a result of the size of the asteroid and it's make up, it has shifted the volcanic activity enough that when it passes through Europa's orbit it causes a chain of water spouts to spray vapour into space.

Type

Planetoid / Moon

Location under

Epsilon

Owner/Ruler

Anyu Qilaq

Ruling/Owning Rank

Director/Chief Science Officer

Owning Organization

Epsilon Free Citzens League

Related Ethnicities

• Space Truckers -- Ex Terra, et nunc inter astra*

Contested By

• SpOre

Inhabiting Species

• Greedy FIre Devourer