Aster › Space program › Belt Junction
Belt Junction
Position on the route: 27/157 · level needed 1 · journey (Mk0 engine) 10.9 h
By the numbers
| Place | The main asteroid belt, ≈ 3 AU |
|---|---|
| Power | 25 MW solar + 8 RTGs |
| Communications | relay and radar |
| Berths | 12 per member |
The story
Belt Junction is the Terra Empire’s port in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, a few days from Ceres and Vesta. Sunlight is about a ninth of Earth’s; 25 MW of panels and eight RTGs are enough. The station sits on the busiest lane of the belt.
Ore-loading docks and a refinery process the cargo that mining ships bring. A tracking radar warns of bodies with a collision risk; a fuel depot and a repair gantry are there too. The belt is actually very sparse: asteroids are millions of kilometres apart.
Missions
- Real counterparts: Dawn (Vesta and Ceres), Psyche (a metal asteroid)
Colony note
A port, not a settlement. Only members of the Terra Empire may dock (join from the War tab).
What probes bring back
- The main belt holds one to two million asteroids over 1 km, but they are so far apart that spacecraft pass through easily. Their total mass is about 4 % of the Moon’s.
- Dawn (2011–2018) orbited both Vesta and Ceres, the belt’s two largest bodies.