Penelope (world)

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Penelope/Five Sisters (Spinward Marches 0533)
Milieu 1116
C560642-4
StarportC Routine: No Construction, Major Repair, Unrefined fuel
Size5 Medium (8,000 km, 0.40g - 0.57g)
Atmosphere6 Standard
Hydrographics0 Desert World 0%
Population6 Moderate (3 million)
Government4 Representative Democracy
Law2 Low Law (no energy weapons)
Tech Level4 Industrial (combustion)
See also UWP
System Details
Primary F6 V M2 V
Worlds 10
Gas Giants 3
Planetoid Belts 2
Cultural Details
Government Representative democracy
Law Level Low
Cultural Extension 2511
Army Size (BEs) 100
Economic Details
Technology Level 4
Economic Extension
853-5
Resources8Moderate
Labor5Moderate (300 thousand)
Infrastructure3 Very limited
Efficiency-5Extremely poor
Importance Extension -1
Resource Units 60
GWP (BCr) 1
World Trade Number 3
Trade Volume (MCr/year) 0
Starport Details
Classification Class-C
Port Size 0
Building Capacity (Tons) 2,550
Port employees 0
Port passengers (annual) 0

Penelope is a rich, desert world with a shirt-sleeve atmosphere but no free-standing water. The system has a population between 1 and 10 million sophonts, lacking the industrial base to be completely self-supporting, but possessing adequate wealth to compensate. It is a member of Third Imperium in the Five Sisters Subsector of Spinward Marches Sector and in the Domain of Deneb. Penelope, as a member world of the Third Imperium, holds the estate of an Imperial knight and the fiefdom of a baron. Both are members of the Imperial Nobility charged with overseeing the world.

Astrography & Planetology

Penelope is a member of the Spinward Main.

Binary Solar System

Penelope Binary Star System
Star Name Hierarchy Category Mass (Sol) Temp (K) Luminosity (Sol)
Penelope

F6 V

Primary Main Sequence 1.25 6280 - 6350 2.18366
Unit Diameter Min Distance Hab Zone Jump Shadow M-Drive Limit
AU 0.0063 0.1226 1.36 - 2.36 0.63 6.3
Orbit #  * 0 4 2 6
Star Name Hierarchy Category Mass (Sol) Temp (K) Luminosity (Sol)
Penelope

M2 V

Secondary Main Sequence 0.44 3470 - 3560 0.0565
Unit Diameter Min Distance Hab Zone Jump Shadow M-Drive Limit
AU 0.0021 0.0197 0.25 - 0.48 0.21 2.1
Orbit #  *  * 1 0 4

History & Background (Dossier)

No information yet available.

Imperial High (Landed) Nobility

Penelope, as a member world of the Third Imperium, holds the estates of two members of the Imperial Nobility, who are charged with overseeing the world.

History-Mileu: New Era

A pleasant desert world located in the middle of the subsector. It had the unlikely role, in the last years before the Civil War of being the downfall for the Imperial Ministry of Colonization.

At the same time that the MoCol was initiating the Jonkeereen project, it was researching desert world terra-forming methods in a parallel project. Penelope became one of several worlds, scattered around the Imperium, that were settled as "test beds" for these methods. Previously unsettled, a colony of researchers and pioneers was established after the Third Frontier War to test the MoCol's terra-formation protocols.

As MoCol began to develop excessive zeal and hubris in the 1000s, the project began to take on grandiose dimensions. The research had produced limited but promising results, and project managers began to expand their efforts from simple research projects into application of it towards real terra-formation. A number of test bed worlds were converted into full terra-formation projects, and of these Penelope was the most hyped and fully funded.

MoCol is estimated to have poured trillions of credits into these mega-engineering projects, despite objections from their own scientific staffs, the IISS and the Ministry of Science over their scale, cost, dubious methods and feasibility. Many projects bogged down in bureaucratic stonewalling and inter-agency disputes.

But Penelope had the benefit of its remote location and the support of the local nobility to keep it going. Under MoCol supervision from its offices on Iderati, the world was bombarded with redirected cometary debris. Vaporaters extracted subterranean water and expelled it into the atmosphere. Massive "groomers" altered the world's albedo to reflect more sunlight. A sulfide haze was created to further cool the world surface. Plant life was introduced around reservoirs to provide shading. And an extensive underground network of cisterns and canals were constructed, criss-crossing the world. There was even talk of using Meson Guns to heat the world's interior to induce volcanism, thereby bringing more moisture to the surface.

In the end, after nearly a century of work, the Penelope had yet to create a single natural body of water, and the planet was scarred by worthless construction projects and their debris. Disgusted with MoCol, the First Regent terminated the program in 1134. Citing Penelope as clear evidence of the Ministry's ineptitude and superfluousness, Norris sacked it, merging its personnel with the Ministry of Conservation in 1136 to form the Ministry of Interior.

With the termination of the project, Penelope's population was suddenly unemployed, but were buoyed up by development money released from the appropriation funds for the project. Ironically enough, the world's emergence into an integrated member of the Regency was overseen by chastened former project managers now working for MoI.

The local economy is now self-reliant thanks to dry agriculture methods and mining of its under-developed mineral resources. To aid in the world's development, Jonkereen were permitted to settle the world in the 1140s and now make up 12 percent of the population.

References & Contributors (Sources)

This list of sources was used by the Traveller Wiki Editorial Team and individual contributors to compose this article. Copyrighted material is used under license from Far Future Enterprises or by permission of the author. The page history lists all of the contributions.