• BTW
• The Good Moons

The Good Moons are three inhabited moons of Carlisle (New Europa VII), a large Saturn-like gas giant with extensive rings. They are Sirona, Damara and Rosmerta. There are two other large moons (Peitho and Milda), which are not inhabited, but are mined with robots in some cases. There are various tiny asteroidal moons.

Peitho, Sirona, and Damara are in an orbital resonance and are all tidally locked to Carlisle except Damara, which is only nearly tidally locked, its rotation having been disrupted by an impact in relatively recent geological time. Collisional debris from the impact are responsible for the late bombardment craters of Milda.

Physical Planetography

Sirona is a rocky moon with substantial volcanism driven by tidal heating, and a modest atmosphere (0.48 bar), which is mildly poisonous and not breathable. Pressure suits are not required, given adaptation. Mineral resources are abundant and the surface is geologically quite young. The surface has abundant colorful metal sulfides. The planet is rich in metals and silicates.

Damara is rocky moon with a tenuous atmosphere. It is has a subsurface liquid water ocean and relatively thin crust.

Rosmerta is a large moon with a fairly thick hydrocarbon-rich reducing atmosphere. Pressures are comfortable. It might be compared to a "warm Titan." Warm, here, is relative; the average temperature is still below the freezing point of water, at about -20C. Temperatures are consistent.

Peitho, not one of the inhabited Good Moons, is large, rocky, and geologically active. It has a trace atmosphere.

Milda is smaller, rocky, without an atmosphere, and heavily cratered, strewn with Damarian and other meteorites from a massive collision between Damara and a large asteroid.

History and Culture

Sirona: Population 480M. Extensively colonized with oxygen-atmosphere tensile structures, many movable.

Damara: Population 290M. Colonization is mostly of the ocean, or tunnels melted in the ice above.

Rosmerta: Population 660M. Colonized with an Imperial-era worldhouse, the maintenance of which was a cultural preoccupation during the Dark Age. It has a single government.

The constituent states of the Good Moons form the Arthurian League, which is a member state of the Allied Worlds, and closely allied with Heidelberg.

The moons are named after fertility goddesses.

Economy

Economy is varied and well-developed, with extensive intrasystem trade. The Heidelberg-Rosmerta Chemical Corporation is the Allied Worlds' largest organic chemical corporation. Formerly, Rosmertine Fleet Yards was the Good Moons' largest shipyard, but it went bankrupt after losing a maintenance contract with the AWSF in the aftermath of an incident in which the fusion drive of a rapid response ship was sabotaged. The company eventually emerged from bankruptcy protection, but its future prospects are uncertain.