 | ||
| Saturn | ||
|---|---|---|
| System | Sol | |
| Type | Gas Giant (Sudarsky I) | |
| Astronomical Classification Index | FHJOV-mJ | |
| Affiliation | Colonial Administration Assembly | |
| Location | Sol System | |
| Natural Satellites | Titan, Rhea, Iapetus, Dione, Tethys, Enceladus, Mimas (+139 others) | |
| Artificial Satellites | 9 | |
| Population | 2,952 (2114) | |
| Equatorial Radius | 60,268 km (37,449 mi) / 9.449 R🜨 | |
| Gravity | 1.065g | |
| Atmosphere | H, He | |
| Rotational Period | 10 h 32 m 36 s | |
| Axial Tilt | 27.63° | |
| Mass | 0.29941 M♃ | |
| Orbital Period | 29.4571 yr | |
| Orbital Radius | 149,598,023 km (92,955,902 mi) | |
| Orbital Eccentricity | 0.0167086 | |
| Inclination | 7.155° | |
Saturn, or Sol VI, is the sixth planet from Sol (the Sun) and the second-largest planet in the system, after Jupiter. An archetypal ringed Sudarsky I gas giant, Saturn is mainly composed of hydrogen and helium, in gaseous, liquid, and metallic layers surrounding a rocky core. A mostly transient population of around 3 thousand is engaged in research, tourist, and military activities in and around the Saturnian system.
Today, Saturn remains the outer limit of civilian travel in Sol, hosting a transient population of some thousand tourists at any given time, in addition to a vast quantity of Sol Defence Corps personnel.
Saturn's isolation and large reserves of lunar resources allows the gas giant to host the home basings and fleet yards of the 4th and 6th Fleets of the Sol Defence Corps Navy.
Unlike the much more populous Jupiter, Saturn has no Colonial Administration of its own, and is directly administered by the United Nations' Colonial Administration Assembly through the ad hoc Saturn Colonial Affairs Office (SCAO), located on Earth with satellite branches across the Saturnian system. The current Director of the SCAO is Theio MacHallan.
Residents of the Saturnian system are referred to as Saturnians, or more rarely as Kronians.
History
First orbited by the United Nations Ringwatcher I Expedition on 20 August 2078, repeated Ringwatcher expeditions sent by the UN Colonial Development Office (CDO) throughout the 2080s established permanent infrastructure in Saturnian orbit, as well as on the moons of Titan, Enceladus, Iapetus, and Mimas.
Prior to the development of modern fusion propulsion and warp drives, Saturn expeditions required multi-year interplanetary transfers for each journey, preventing long-term human habitation in the Saturnian system until the 2090s.
Economy
Saturn's economy is based on two sectors — interplanetary tourism, and the military activities of the Sol Defence Corps.
The SDCN quickly reserved large portions of Saturnian orbital space and lunar surface for military use after initial exploration, keen on developing the gas giant and its moons into a base for outer-system patrol and anti-piracy operations. SDC installations in the Saturnian system include SDCSS Temperance, SDCI Collins and SDCI San Martín, sprawling naval dockyards in low orbit of Titan, as well as SDCI Hatta, a research and development facility on the surface of Enceladus, and SDB Titan, a large multipurpose military base on Titan's surface. Both fleets are officially based at SDCSS Temperance, though the scattered nature of both the 4th and 6th Fleets allow for a much smaller portion of vessels docked at home at any given time compared to the rest of the SDCN.
Saturn's ring systems and massive quantity of moons are frequent tourist destinations for the rich and super-rich, who can afford the expensive fusion liner journey outbound to Saturn and back. Enceladus offers a more remote and exclusive undersea ocean experience than Europa, while Titan's methane lakes and human-powered flight pull travelers from across the Sol system.
Culture
Home to the most remote civilian population in the Sol system, Saturn's culture is marked by its isolation, even more so than even some extrasolar colonies — transport links to Saturn are still primarily serviced by slower-than-light fusion liners sailing months-long journeys, with warp vessels under construction prioritized for the Final Frontier Project and SDCN.
Moons
Saturn's major moons number 7 — Titan, Rhea, Iapetus, Dione, Tethys, Enceladus, and Mimas. Of these, Titan, Enceladus, and Iapetus are inhabited, with Titan, the largest moon, also by far the most populated, hosting a population of approximately 2 thousand people on the Titanean surface and orbital space.
Titan
Titan (Saturn VI) is the only moon in the Sol system with a dense atmosphere, composed of nitrogen, methane, and hydrogen. Scattered methane lakes and liquid features across Titan combine with methane rain and cloud formations to form a methane cycle and seasonal weather system, one of very few in the Sol system.
Civilian and scientific activity on Titan is concentrated at Huygens Complex, informally nicknamed 'Krakentown', a sprawling city of tourism properties and research stations on the eastern coast of Kraken Mare. Daily tourist flights from Huygens Complex tour notable Titanean surface features, including Sotra Patera, Kraken Mare, and Xanadu, though the moon's largest attractions are human-powered flights offered from large expedition balloons. Regularly orbiting above Huygens Complex is Cixin Liu Station, assembled by the Ringwatcher III Expedition in 2081, which serves as Titan's main civilian dockyard, and is the most populous civilian space station in the Saturnian system.
Enceladus
Enceladus (Saturn II), like Jupiter's more famous moon Europa (Jupiter II), possesses an expansive undersea liquid water ocean. Less surveyed than Europa, expeditions in the 2100s to Enceladus' deep sea have produced samples of simple microbial life in hydrothermal vent environments like those that support Europa's more complex biosphere, as well as that sit underneath Earth's oceans.
Civilian and scientific activity on Enceladus is centered in Hatta City, an underground settlement surrounding the SDCN science facility SDCI Hatta. Both share the use of the Kusanagi-built Enceladean Surface Traverse (EST), a kilometers-long borehole elevator-tunnel offering rapid access to the Enceladean undersea ocean. Enceladus' only major orbital station is London Station, a prefabricated communications relay and port of entry assembled by the Ringwatcher III Expedition in 2082.