Lagrange One

( Charles Lee Lesher )

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Republic of Luna Time-line: 2024

Short Story: 6000 words/15 pages

Format: Adobe Reader (pdf)

This story is about the early days of Lagrange One space station. Starting out as a simple modular station, it quickly becomes the bustling hub of humanities first major push off planet Earth. Through it passes the treasure of Luna’s natural resources as Earth begins construction on a fleet of Solar Power Satellites.

Lagrange point L1 is the perfect location for humanity’s next major space station, the natural gateway to the moon. This one-of-a-kind point in space is located on the direct line between Earth and Luna about 200,000 miles from Earth, or conversely, a mere 39,000 miles above the geometric center of Luna’s nearside.

Similar to the ISS, the first station at L1 will be a simple affair constructed of cylindrical modules whose size will depend upon the heavy lift capability of our biggest cargo launchers. However, it will not remain this way for long.

As we develop the moon’s resources, this station will grow as humans and their robotic partners transform it into a bustling manufacturing hub. It may one day contain a host of materials processing plants supported by large scale lunar mining operations centered around Luna’s first Mass Driver.

L1 is also the perfect location for the first practical Space Elevator down to the lunar surface. L1’s foundries will forge the first geosynchronous Space Based Solar Power Satellite and other mega structures that will eventually occupy L4 and L5. Until something better comes along, L1 will serve as a fine jumping off point to the rest of the solar system.

We are not short on designs for these mega stations. A Bernel sphere will support 10 to 30 thousand colonists, the classic Stanford design is a torus capable of supporting 140 thousand, and Gerald O’Neil favored a huge cylinder supporting millions. I suspect the final shape at L1 will be a compromise between a sphere and a torus thereby taking advantage of the meta-stable nature of the point to eliminate station keeping.

Energy will be the cash cow that initially drives its economy and tourism, both real and virtual, will also play a role, but it will be the spirit of adventure that draws our young people to brave the vast inhospitable frontier of space.

One thing is certain, Lagrange point L1 is unique, and if America does not move quickly, other nations will. After that, we can only hope to rent a room on their space station. Take your pick, owner, renter, or outsider looking through the knothole. Pardon me, but I much prefer owner.

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