Luna

Luna (also called "The Moon") is the only significant natural object orbiting Earth. It boasts two cities, Serenity and Poseidon, with a third, Tranquility, still in development. Luna's population currently hovers around 150,000.

Pre-Space Exploration
Luna has always held the attention of humanity, even before space travel. Many cultures placed great significance on Luna's phases, often as a way to mark time.

Modern Era
Luna was the site of all of humanities early space achievements. In the mid-20th century, the United States and the USSR (now Russia) engaged in a "space race" as part of their post-war tensions, in a conflict referred to as the Cold War. The Space Race is considered to have concluded in July of 1969, when US Astronaut Neil Armstrong became the first person to walk on the moon.

Afterwards, interest in Luna dwindled until the mid-21st century, when it became the focus of many companies' efforts to break into the space tourism market.

Tourism
In 2020, Mercer Corporation announced they were going to have the first tourist space walk by 2030. Many sneered at this prediction, but in 2026, as part of the Excelsior mission, Cynthia Allen became the first tourist to walk on Luna's surface.

After this point, lunar tourism became a very popular pastime for the wealthy. They would board shuttles run by any number of space tourism corporations, go on short lunar walks, have their pictures taken, and return to Earth. As companies were seeking to eek out an edge over the others, they began looking for ways to cut costs, and Virgin Galactic was the first company to build a structure on the moon, at Nectaris, intended to house photography equipment, in order to avoid the cost of shipping it with every trip.

Colonization
In 2086, 60 years after Cynthia Allen's first steps on the moon, Mercer Corporation again made history, this time by creating the first dome habitat in Mare Serenitatis. This pressurized dome allowed occupants to walk about without space suits and other survival equipment. Many hotel chains took advantage of this, and rented space in the dome to build hotels for tourists to stay in, extending their visits from a few hours to a few days. Operating in a manner similar to a cruise ship, the hotels would hire out a shuttle, and bring all supplies and support staff with them. The hotels would only be open for short bursts, usually no more than a week, before shutting down again until the next excursion.

Lunar vacations became a sign of wealth, the longer you stayed, the richer you were perceived to be. Many guests demanded longer and longer windows for travel, until finally the hotels stayed open year-round, and merely shuttled people to and from Earth on a regular basis.

In 2092, the dome at Mare Serenitatis was renamed Serenity, and declared the first successful colony.

Poseidon
As guests began to stay longer and longer (some even made Luna their permanent home), support staff began to move to the moon as well, and a second, less opulent colony was established at Posidonius in 2093, named Poseidon. While Serenity was a testament to luxury, Poseidon was little more than a barracks, with only the bare needs of it's residents met, and their paychecks were quickly gone paying for oxygen and water from Earth.

Luna's War
Tensions quickly boiled over due to the severe income disparity between the two classes of citizen on Luna. In 2101, Luna's War broke out, causing mass panic, and a crash in the Lunar tourism industry. Eventually, the two sides came to an uneasy peace, and signed the Treaty of Tranquillitatis in 2105.

For more information, check out the full article on Luna's War.

Industry
Over the next 25 years, research and mining facillities opened up on Luna, bringing resources back to Earth, and facilitating the creation of the Observation Station at Archimedes.

Current Climate
Lunar citizens are vastly different from their Terran or Martian counterparts. Many are avowed communists, and support the idea of seeking independence from the United Nations, and forming their own communist state. However, the lack of supplies and cost of shipping them to Luna, which is usually subsidized by the UN, kills most of these revolutionary leanings in the cradle.

Elise Parker is the current administrator of Luna, assigned by the UN in 2184. While parker handles the major political affairs, most of the logistics are handled by an AI named Ophelia.

Popular Culture in 2188
Radio has seen a resurgence in the 22nd century as an easy form of entertainment when Earth based internet services are too slow to successfully stream. The most popular radio station on Luna is LQQD, which plays a lot of party music.