Questions - Places - Life on Oberon

Basic Info (wikipedia):

It is the second largest and second most massive of the Uranian moons, and the ninth most massive moon in the Solar System. The moon consists of approximately equal amounts of ice and rock, and is probably differentiated into a rocky core and an icy mantle. A layer of liquid water may be present at the boundary between the mantle and the core.

Its orbital period is around 13.5 days, coincident with its rotational period. In other words, Oberon is a synchronous satellite, tidally locked, with one face always pointing toward the planet.^[6] Oberon spends a significant part of its orbit outside the Uranian magnetosphere.^[20] As a result, its surface is directly struck by the solar wind.^[8] This is important, because the trailing hemispheres of satellites orbiting inside a magnetosphere are struck by the magnetospheric plasma, which co–rotates with the planet.^[20] This bombardment may lead to the darkening of the trailing hemispheres, which is actually observed for all Uranian moons except Oberon (see below).^[8]
Because Uranus orbits the Sun almost on its side, and its moons orbit in the planet's equatorial plane, they (including Oberon) are subject to an extreme seasonal cycle. Both northern and southern poles spend 42 years in a complete darkness, and another 42 years in continuous sunlight, with the sun rising close to the zenith over one of the poles at each solstice.^[8] The Voyager 2 flyby coincided with the southern hemisphere's 1986 summer solstice, when nearly the entire northern hemisphere was unilluminated. Once every 42 years, when Uranus has an equinox and its equatorial plane intersects the Earth, mutual occultations of Uranus's moons become possible. Uranus is now entering northern hemisphere spring, and on December 7, 2007, the north pole of Uranus will see the Sun for the first time in 42 years.

The current state of the icy mantle is unclear. If the ice contains enough ammonia or other antifreeze, Oberon may possess a liquid ocean layer at the core–mantle boundary. The thickness of this ocean, if it exists, is up to 40 km and its temperature is around 180 K.^[23]

Scientists have recognized two classes of geological feature on Oberon: craters and chasmata ('canyons'—deep, elongated, steep-sided depressions^[27] which would probably be described as rift valleys or escarpments if on Earth).^[6] Oberon's surface is the most heavily cratered of all the Uranian moons, with a crater density approaching saturation—when the formation of new craters is balanced by destruction of old ones. This high number of craters indicates that Oberon has the most ancient surface among Uranus's moons.^[28] The most prominent Oberonian canyon is Mommur Chasma

http://www.planetary.org/explore/topics/our_solar_system/uranus/moons.html

Timeline

2105 Citizens from Moscovia join up and move to Oberon;

2109 June 14^th George Engle breaks from The Canaan Foundation to form Engle Integrated Networks (EIN)

2110 The Midsummer Moon War between newly formed EIN and Moscovia, for the right to colonize the moons of Uranus; EIN wins and Moscovia retreats to Triton

2111 First TransSolar Gate created and used

Questions

• Why did EIN want these particular set of moons
• Why Uranus?
• Was it something enticing on the moons themselves, or as a jumping off point to other places – out into the oort cloud or back into the system – as a post to keep tabs on Canaan?
• Why did they want to kick out Moscovia?
• Since Moscovia was there first – they must have wanted something – perhaps there is something in the chasma or craters that they found interesting
• Or perhaps they just wanted breathing room and could not get out to other places
• One good thing is that they would have initial infrastructure there to work with
• What kind of infrastructure?
• To live there, they would need protection from the cosmic rays (since Oberon is out of U’s magnetosphere) as well as no atmosphere and gravity supplements
• They are getting this from RTA and Indus, at what price or favor?
• What kind of War was the Midsummer’s War?
• What kind of ships or ops were used?
• I don’t see a newly formed EIN blasting its way out, but Moscovia, yes,
• Hell, that’s the point – they used the miuties to ‘alter’ the odds and sent the moscovians licking their wounds
• Perhaps it was their first test? No, that seems too convenient
• But why did they not try to take over other’s new homes?
• They wanted to work the diplo route as well, of course
• Few people are allies with Moscovia so in doing so they could help solidify some poly points
• I will plan when in the 42 year cycle they were when the Midsummer’s wars came about and what it is now.
• Also need to figure out how long it would take a space craft (arc) to make the journey from Titan to U’s moons.
• As noted above, the infrastructure would need to withstand a lot, plus it is cold there – an understatement. However, since there could be water (I will say yes to this) it would prove important to utilize for energy needs.
• Also, I see most initial colonies under ground for a large part of their early life, which is easier on the building materials (I think) and helpful for rays and radiation
• Course, maybe that is helpful for the miuties – they can soak up the rays as normal baselines do to get a tan….
• I have thought that
• Titania is the main hub for EIN, and also seeing how it is where the majority of gates are located
• Ariel is the children’s cache for developing miuties – Miutygarden – which has a gate of its own? This is strange – where does it go (I need to look that up)
• Umbriel is the military complex – or the gate creation area?
• Oberon is the administration area?
• Who actually makes the gates?
• What other corps know about the mad-miuties in the midst?