SPACE COLONIZATION

The space colonization program was begun in response to looming problems of pollution and overpopulation. In the year UC 0001, when the program was launched, Earth was home to 9 billion people. By the year UC 0050, the human population had swelled to 11 billion, of whom 9 billion were housed in the space colonies.

These colonies, giant metal cylinders approximately twenty miles long and four miles in diameter, are located at gravitationally stable points in Earth orbit. They're grouped into clusters called Sides, each of which consists of 40 to 80 space colonies and houses hundreds of millions of people. These Sides orbit around the Earth in the same fashion as the moon, and the radius within which they orbit is referred to as the Earth sphere.

Lagrange Points

The Sides are parked at points in Earth orbit technically referred to as libration points, but more commonly called Lagrange points after the mathematician who calculated them. At a Lagrange point, the forces acting on an object - the gravitational forces of Earth and the moon, and the object's own orbital velocity - all balance each other out, so that a space colony placed at this point should stay put indefinitely. Lagrange points 4 and 5, the most stable points, are home to two Sides apiece.

Here's a diagram of these five Lagrange points. The outer circle is the path of the moon's orbit around Earth; the Lagrange points are defined in relation to the moon's position, so objects placed at these points rotate around Earth at the same speed as the planet's natural satellite.

Map of the Earth Sphere

The precise placement of the space colony clusters known as Sides is a matter of some controversy. The original series proposed one arrangement, the sequel Z Gundam another, and subsequent animated features have endorsed both. In general, it seems that anything set prior to Z Gundam (the original Gundam series, Gundam 0080 and 0083, and The 08th MS Team) uses the classic map, while later series use the Z Gundam arrangement.

This classic map is used in the original Gundam, The 08th MS Team, Gundam 0080 and Gundam 0083. Note that the Sides effectively orbit around their respective Lagrange points.

This new map is used in Z Gundam, Gundam ZZ, Char's Counterattack, Gundam F91 and V Gundam.

In addition to Earth, the moon and the Sides, there are a few other noteworthy locations in the Earth sphere. Numerous asteroids have been placed in Earth orbit, including the asteroid Juno, which was used as a mobile mine during the heyday of space colony construction. It was later parked at Lagrange point 3, next to Side 7, and turned into the Earth Federation asteroid fortress Luna Two. Meanwhile, the Zeon Dukedom's asteroid fortresses of A Bao A Qu and Solomon were constructed near Sides 3 and 1, respectively.

Earthnoids and Spacenoids

During the first fifty years of the Universal Century, billions of people were forcibly emigrated from the polluted and overcrowded Earth and packed into the orbiting space colonies. These people and their descendants are now referred to as spacenoids. A subset of the spacenoid category is the lunar population, referred to as lunarians; lunarians tend to be politically neutral, siding with Earth or the space colonies as they see fit.

The political and social elite who organized this mass emigration then excused themselves from it. These people, who exploited their position in order to remain on Earth, are known as earthnoids. Only those with government connections or a government-sanctioned excuse - like preserving an indigenous culture - are permitted to stay on Earth.

The Space Colonies

The space colonies seen in Gundam are modeled on the Island 3 design proposed by scientist Gerard O'Neill in the 1970s. Typically 32 kilometers long and 6.5 kilometers in diameter, these immense cylinders generate artificial gravity by rotating about their lengthwise axis approximately once every two minutes. They're divided into six lengthwise strips, three land panels alternating with three glass panels through which sunlight enters the colony. Thus, this design is sometimes referred to as an open colony. Attached to the colony are huge mirrors which reflect light in through the glass panels, and a ring of small agricultural and manufacturing plants.


Two views of an open colony based on the Island 3 design. Note the glass panels, external mirrors, and ring of agricultural and manufacturing plants.

The space colonies are usually depicted as suburban paradises, with ample greenery and prosperous citizens chugging about in ecologically-sound electric cars. High-speed monorails run along the exterior of the colony cylinder, and non-rotating sections at one or both ends of the cylinder provide zero-gravity docking facilities for visiting spacecraft.

When the Earth Federation halted its emigration program in UC 0050, it also halted the construction of new space colonies, and as the population increased the colonies began turning into overcrowded slums. Side 3 addressed the population problem by converting its colony cylinders to a windowless sealed colony design illuminated by central lighting tubes, thus doubling the habitable surface area. The carnage of the One Year War provided a more dramatic solution. With half the human race killed, the colony populations became much smaller - typically less than ten million people per colony - and the survivors' standard of living correspondingly higher.

The principal source of energy for the space colonies is solar power. Huge arrays of solar panels are located at each Side, and solar power satellites in geosynchronous Earth orbit transmit power to the planet's surface in microwave form. The first UC century also saw the advent of practical fusion power, using a "clean" fusion reaction that emits very little harmful radiation. However, this reaction requires the rare helium-3 isotope, and a Jupiter Energy Fleet was established to ferry this fusion fuel from the gas giant's helium-rich atmosphere.

The Moon

Though the moon's low gravity - one-sixth that of the Earth - makes it an unattractive choice for colonization, it too houses a substantial population. The lunar cities are typically subterranean, to protect them from asteroid impacts. The principal activity of the lunar cities is mining and heavy industry, and the moon's surface is dotted with magnetic accelerators called mass drivers that catapult raw materials to the space colonies. When mass driver payloads reach their destination, they're intercepted and decelerated by corresponding devices called mass catchers.

The first permanent lunar settlement was Von Braun City, completed in UC 0027. Though the lunar cities are largely independent of the Earth Federation and of each other, Von Braun City is considered the moon's unofficial capital. On the other side of the satellite - facing away from Earth - is Granada, a key base of the Zeon Dukedom during the One Year War. It was here that the first mobile suits were developed by the Zeonic Company, which was absorbed after the war by the lunar cartel Anaheim Electronics.

Non-Governmental Organizations

To carry out the process of space colonization, the Earth Federation created several independent non-governmental organizations. These operate seperately from the Earth Federation, and at times they take a neutral or even a quietly anti-Federation stance in the conflicts of the Gundam world.

The Colony Corporation is responsible for constructing and maintaining the space colonies. After the effective halt of colony construction in UC 0051, its primary responsibility is colony management.

The Public Corporation of Space Transport was created to relocate billions of colonists from Earth to the space colonies. It began as the Frontier Settlement Transport Bureau in UC 0016, and was reorganized into an independent entity in UC 0034. Over a hundred years later, it still handles the lesser traffic of day-to-day travel into space.

The Jupiter Energy Fleet is one of the most powerful and mysterious non-governmental organizations of the Gundam world. Its purpose is to ferry rare resources, primarily the helium-3 isotope that fuels fusion reactors, from the atmosphere of the gas giant Jupiter back to the Earth sphere. This organization dates back to the very first years of the Universal Century, though presumably there wasn't great demand for bulk quantities of helium-3 until development of the Minovski-Ionesco fusion reactor began in UC 0047.

Mobile Suit Gundam, Z Gundam, Gundam ZZ, Char's Counterattack, Gundam 0080: War in the Pocket, Gundam F91, Gundam 0083: Stardust Memory, Gundam 0083: Last Blitz of Zeon, Gundam: The 08th MS Team, and Gundam W: Endless Waltz are copyright Sotsu Agency and Sunrise. V Gundam, G Gundam, Gundam W, and Gundam X are copyright Sotsu Agency, Sunrise and TV Asahi.