Toledo Station

Toledo Station is a space habitat in a recently-formed system in American space, notable as a hub for trade related to mining the unique elements which can be found in nearby planets, moons, and asteroids.

Structure

The station itself has went through a gradual period of change. Its oldest components date back to the tail end of the Interstellar Dark Ages, when a mining company in a star system American Space opened a stargate to another nearby one which had recently (in astronomical terms) formed, for the purposes of setting up operations. Toledo Station was built in orbit of a small airless world, similar to Mercury in the Sol System, and has remained largely in the same orbit for the 200-some metric years since its construction.

The "first" Toledo Station consisted of two small spin rings with adjacent orbital docks and storage facilities to handle the capturing of shipments from the surface and transferal to interplanetary torch freighters which would carry them to the stargate and out of the system. Its planet's close orbit to its sun required the station be shrouded in a thin layer of reflective tinfoil for thermal regulation. This original station was expanded over the decades and grew into a full settlement, but structural deficiencies and safety issues began to be identified.

These issues eventually led to a massive overhaul which built the station into a rocky asteriod brought in from elsewhere in the system, dismantling the original structure and spreading it out over the surface. Interior cavities within the rock provided space for spin drums and spacecraft berths, and once again the asteriod was wrapped in reflective coating to keep its interior temperatures manageable.

Ships seeking to travel to Toledo Station are advised to have similar themoregulation equipment fitted out, or to rely on a robust set of radiators, as this station is closer to its sun and thus experiences much more solar flux than most other orbital habitats in the Starweb.

History

Toledo Station still retains its role as a mining outpost handling the flow of materials from its primary's surface. This usually consists of precious metals such as platinum, and other valuable or unusual elements such as aluminium-26, a short-lived radioisotope of aluminium which can only be found in young star systems where it has not yet had time to decay away.