Lovell City

Lovell City on Luna. The New Hague United Nations complex is located there.

Description

Luna’s largest settlement and de facto capital, Lovell City, spreads out around the primary lunar spaceport. Little of the city is visible from the surface. Just like its sister cities on Earth, Lovell City contains warehouses, commercial centers, office complexes, shipyards, convention centers, hotels, prisons, residential areas, and schools. Pedicabs carry passengers on short trips through the city’s tunnels, but mass transit tube stations are scattered throughout Lovell City, connecting its farther-flung districts.

Spaceport

Lovell City’s spaceport is almost unique in the system, its ancient docks having been dug out of the lunar surface. Tugs guide vessels in and out of Aldrin docks, which are large enough to house entire ships within them. And unlike in the spin stations of the Belt, where vessels sit in vacuum while docked, Luna’s docks have retractable seals, allowing them to be filled with air so maintenance and repair crews can comfortably work on the parked ships.

The waiting area for the terminal is housed in a large false dome designed to impress tourists. The whole structure is underground, but the massive chamber is covered floor to ceiling in high-definition video screens showing the outside view.

New Hague

New Hague is a district in Lovell City that contains Luna’s United Nations complex, including administrative offices and courts. Anyone unwilling or unable to go down the well to the UN’s main headquarters in New York can conduct their business with the government here. The United Nations Science Service is based in New Hague as well. The science service has had a presence on Luna since the days of the original moon base, and constructed the first broad-array telescope on the moon, free from the distorting effects of Earth’s atmosphere. Over the centuries, however, the frontiers of science have moved to the Outers, leaving the UN science service a shadow of its former self.

Trivia

• Lovell City may be named in honor of James A. Lovell, Jr., former astronaut and Spacecraft Commander, of the Apollo 13 space mission, which failed on route to the moon due a malfunctioning cryogenic oxygen system. Due to his quick thinking, and the efforts of his crew and ground controllers, they were able to survive the rigors of space, and return to Earth
• Aldrin Docks are named in honor of Edwin Eugene "Buzz" Aldrin Jr, former astronaut and fighter pilot. Aldrin was the pilot of the Gemini 12 mission, and the lunar module pilot of the Apollo 11 mission. He and mission commander Neil Armstrong were the first two humans to land on the Moon.