New Iridia (Cohen 136 IV / Iridia IV) is a terrestrial planet in the Iridia system.
Physical Planetography
New Iridia has a modest and benign atmosphere of nitrogen, oxygen, argon, carbon dioxide and water vapor reaching 750 mbar. The planet has a chilly average temperature of 3C with seasonal variation somewhat greater than Earth. The year is also longer than Earth's, compounding the rigor of seasonal variation.
History and Culture
Colonized after Iridia III, it lacks the phenomenal native metal resources of the other planet, but was markedly more hospitable, able to support Terran plant life. (And not having at atmosphere full of poisonous metal carbonyls.) Thanks to this plant life, the atmosphere now contains molecular oxygen, though not yet in concentrations sufficient to directly sustain human life. Habitats are provided with oxygen concentrators and carbon dioxide scrubbers to make the atmosphere breathable. When the Empire fell, the infrastructure to create the molecular sieves needed for oxygen concentrators was lost, and a population contraction occurred. Survivors made do with the limited stock of precious molecular sieves, oxygen obtained by chemical reactions and electrolysis, and abundant green plants. New Iridians are to this day said to be inordinately fond of vegetation in their homes and working environments.
In time, New Iridia recovered technologically and industrially, and recolonized Iridia III, the population of which had died out during the Collapse. The capital of the Allied Worlds is a space station orbiting New Iridia, created by hollowing out an asteroid.
New Iridia is governed by the Federal States of Greater Iridia, a democratic confederal republic and a member state of the Allied Worlds. The Iridian citizens directly elect all their representatives to the Interplanetary Assembly.
Economy
New Iridia has a fully-developed and self-sufficient economy, with a notable tertiary sector of interstellar significance. (The city of Boreas, a state capital and one of the earliest settlements, is considered the financial capital of the Allied Worlds.)
Luxury foods are exported to Iridia, and metals are imported. Metal building products are widely used on New Iridia since the recolonization of Iridia.