Pandora (Planet)

This article is about the first Alpha Centauri moon and colony of Pandora. For other uses, see Pandora (disambiguation).

Introduction
Pandora is the fifth moon of the gas giant Polyphemus, which orbits the closest star to the sun, Alpha Centauri A (Athena). Settled in 2107 C.E. by the UES Pandora, the planet is unique that it is home to not only Human colonists but the native Na'vi.

Star Geography
Alpha Centauri is binary star system 4.37 light years away from Sol.

Its individual component stars are designated Alpha Centauri A or Athena, with 110% of the mass and 151.9% the luminosity of Sol, and Alpha Centauri B or Hephaestus, at 90.7% of Sol's mass and 50.0% of its luminosity. During the stars' 79.91 year orbit about a common center, the distance between them varies from about that between Pluto and Sol to that between Saturn and Sol.

A third star, known as Proxima Centauri or Proxima, is gravitationally associated with Alpha Centauri Proper. Proxima is now placed at the slightly smaller distance of 4.24 light years from Sol. Proxima from Alpha Centauri Proper is about 13,000 AUs, equivalent to 400 times the size of Neptune's orbit.

Athena is the principal member or primary of the binary system, being slightly larger and more luminous than Sol. It is a solar-like main sequence star with a similar yellowish-white color, whose stellar classification is spectral type G2 V. From mutual orbital parameters, Athena is about 10% more massive than Sol, with a radius about 23% larger.

Hephaestus is the companion star or secondary, slightly smaller and less luminous than Sol. This main sequence star is of spectral type K1 V, making it more an orange-yellow color than the whiter primary star. Hephaestus is about 90% the mass of Sol and 14% smaller in radius.

Proxima, is of spectral class M5Ve, a small main sequence star (Type V). Its mass is about 0.123 M, or 129 Jupiter masses. Alpha Centauri A (Athena)
 * Alpha Centuria A I (Aphrodite)
 * Alpha Centuria A II (Hera)
 * Alpha Centuria A III (Oceanus)
 * Alpha Centuria A IV (Crius)
 * Alpha Centuria A V (Polyphemus)
 * ​ Pandora

Proxima Centauri ( Proxima)
 * Alpha Centuria A Ve ​ (Pandora)
 * Alpha Centuria B (Vulcan)
 * Alpha Centuria B (Hermes)
 * Alpha Centuria B (Aphrodite)
 * Alpha Centuria B (Gaea)
 * Alpha Centuria B (Ares)
 * Alpha Centuria B (Zeus)
 * Alpha Centuria B (Zeus)
 * Alpha Centuria B (Cronus)
 * Apha Centuria B (Poseidon)

Planetary Geography and Climate
Pandora, despite being almost as large as Earth, is only a moon of the gas giant Polyphemus, which has thirteen other moons. However, due to the smaller size, its gravity is 20% less than Earth's.

Depending on the position of the various moons, Pandora can have two or even three moons in its sky at once. Pandora and the other moons cast large black shadows on Polyphemus.

Pandora receives significant light from Hephaestus. As a result, Pandoran nights are never dark during half of the Polyphemian year, but instead are more like Earthly dusk. At the closest point in its orbit, Hephaestus is about 2,300 times as bright as Earth's full moon; at its furthest point, it is still one hundred and seventy times as bright. During the other half of the year when Hephaestus is in the daytime sky, many Pandoran nights are illuminated by both Polyphemus's huge disk and the reflected light from other nearby moons. Truly dark nights are uncommon. Polyphemus occasionally eclipses Hephaestus at night for about one hundred minutes, but the light reflected by the planet still keeps the night from being dark.

When Hephaestus shares the daytime sky with Athena, at its closest it adds about half a percent to the total illumination. When the 2 stars are close together in the sky, the effect of Hephaestus' more orange light is unnoticeable. But, as they separate over the years, an orange tint may be seen in areas shadowed from ACA's direct illumination. At its most distant, Hephaestus is about 2,700 times dimmer than ACA and does not produce noticeable lighting effects. However, it still appears as a blindingly-bright tiny orange disk in the sky.

several large areas of the moon's surface contain the extremely rare superconducting mineral unobtanium. This mineral is worth twenty million standard dollars per unrefined kilogram and twice that in its refined state. The mineral's superconductivity makes it a baffling scientific discovery.

Because of its high axial tilt (29°), Pandora exhibits considerable annual variation in the day-to-night ratio. In addition, its elliptical orbit produces seasonal temperature variations and a range in daytime illumination of about ten percent.

The terrain on Pandora differs somewhat from place to place. With each terrain region, there is a different clan to go with it. Humans have settled in the jungle regions near the Hallelujah Mountains.

As with all gas giants, Polyphemus is surrounded by a lethal halo of charged particles; the innermost moonlets of Polyphemus have reported radiation in excess of 4500 rem per day (Io receives 3200 rem per day), which is aggravated due to the higher metallicity in the planets' internal composition. Pandora resides just outside the main radiation belts of Polyphemus, except for a week, when rotating along the night side of Polyphemus. At that time, the planet is shrouded at night in a shimmering aurora, and receives a scourge of radiation. Pandoran life has evolved to not be bothered by strong ionizing radiation, but Humans on Pandora routinely take iodine supplements and seek protection during radiation storms; even then, incidences of radiation-related sicknesses absorb a significant part of medical treatments for personnel stationed on Pandora.

Biology
Like on Earth, the forests of Pandora contain a wide diversity of flora and fauna. These are all part of the giant neural network that covers Pandora. There are different ecosystems within each region, but frequently the wild life, such as the banshee, is the same.

Pandora looks like a lush paradise by Earth standards during the day, but at night, virtually all life on the planet exhibits bioluminescent qualities in various shades of blue, purple and green.

Due to Pandora's lower gravity, most creatures on Pandora are hexapods (six-legged), although the Na'vi resemble Humans and have only two legs. Creatures roam the air and forest canopy below, similar to Earth's animals, but on a scale several times larger.

One of the creatures on Pandora is the direhorse, a gray-skinned, hexapodal horse-like animal with bioluminescent qualities that the Na'vi ride when hunting. The Na'vi also ride the mountain banshee to hunt from the air, but the hunter can become prey in the presence of the great leonopteryx. In the canopy below, other deadly yet exotic animals roam: vicious packs of viperwolves, thick skinned hammerhead titanotheres and the most fearsome creature of all, the thanator.

Other than the color, the trees resemble those of Earth. They have the familiar trunks, branches and leaves, though due to the difference in planetary gravity, many of the shapes appear strange to humans and the proportions are greater because of the lower gravity.

History
Read More: Pandora Program

In 2060, one of the first acts of the newly formed United Earth Legislative Council was to announce the Pandora Program, a colonization mission sent to settle the Alpha Centauri A moon of Pandora, which long-range scans and telescope sweeps had confirm to have an Earth-like oxygen atmosphere and apparent water on its surface. The action was met with highly positive opinion among the public at large and the idea of settling Earth's first extra-solar colony captured the minds of almost two generations of Humans.

High in Lunar orbit, construction began in 2061 on the first interstellar ramscoop Ark meant to led the colonization operation, the UES Pandora. It was followed in quick succession with the construction of the UES Voyager in 2066, the UES Mariner in 2069 and UES Constellation in 2073.

During this period the United Earth government had successfully confirmed the workings of Zefram Cochrane's experimental warp drive and modified the UES Conestoga to act as a scout. The vessel and its crew of thirty, entered suspended animation and cruising at a warp factor of .65, began the seventeen year expedition to the system.

Construction on the UES Pandora was completed by 2067 and vessel launched on its 29-year long journey at a warp factor of .53 towards Alpha Centuria 4.37-light years away. 2072 saw the launch of the UES Voyager with seven thousand, five hundred colonists, soon followed by the UES Mariner in 2075 with nine-thousand and the UES Constellation in 2078 with ten-thousand. With each completed ship, construction times decreased, scale of ships increased and the capable warp factor of each ship improved.

In 2078, the UES Conestoga arrived at Pandora and quickly determined that the world was not only habitable but also home to a sentient species, the primitive Na'vi. By the time the UES Pandora arrived in 2107, the crew of the Conestoga and even several of their descendants had spent almost three-decades studying, interacting and laying the ground work for eventual Human-Na'vi cooperation.

With the arrival of the first colonists to Pandora, the first colony of Hellenic was founded on the great floating unobtanium shards, christened the Hallelujah Mountains, that drifted over planet's surface. With the arrival 2113 of the UES Voyager and Constellation (the ship's warp factor had been increased to allow it to arrive concurrent with its sister ship), the colony soon grew in size and even began to attract Na'vi citizens from surrounding clans.

Unfortunantly nationalist sentiments began to rise, as fears rose that Earth could cause similar environmental damage and over-population trying to continue colonization of Pandora. In 2113 a declaration of independence was voted on by the Pandora Council, however the resolution failed to pass with enough votes.

However by the time of the UES Mariner's arrival in 2121, a new motion to break away from United Earth and gain independence passed overwhelming. Pandora declares itself a republic, broadcasting its declaration of independence back to the Sol-system and electing Thomas Atkinson as its interim president. The new Republic of Pandora government became staunchly eco-friendly, prefering to merge cities with the landscape or floating on the ocean than actually removing flora for settlement. Even in modern times, less that 10% of the Human population live on land. By 2123, Pandora held its first regular elections, electing Thomas Atkinson to a six-year term as president of the Republic. This is the first election where the native Na'vi are allowed to participate, though only 20 individuals do so.

It was not until 2126 that word of the Pandoran secession reached Sol. Diplomatic attempts for reconcilation were met with failure and though many more volitile elements in the government called for military action, the launching of a military force to Alpha Centuria was at the time impossible for the current government, prefering to show its best example with the Vulcan Confederacy moving into better relations with United Earth, trade had already helped to repair the immense funds spend on the Pandora Project.

The following year the United Earth Parliament voted to end the Exodus Fleets for an indefinite period, shifting funds for expanding infrastructure in Sol, Sirius and Taurus, re-purposing the Europa and Utopia Plantia Shipyards for trade ship construction and expansion of the United Earth Starfleet, to act as an exploration and military agency for Earth's expanding empire. Before its completion alone the Exodus Project launched over 250,000,000 colonists to what is now being referred to as a the Outer Solar Colonies, which unlike Pandora, largely remained loyal to Earth.

2129 saw the election of James McKnight as the second president of Pandora and followed in 2135 by Janet Hwang as the third president of Pandora. Thomas Atkinson became the first person to hold the President's office twice when he again took a second term in 2141. Most significantly, by 2152, the first Na'vi President was elected, Rok'voru took office to much fanfare.

While the Pandora Republic continued to prosper, its lack of a dedicated military still left it vulnerable. Many believed that by being sandwiched between United Earth and the Vulcan Confederacy would give the nation enough of a defense. Yet in 2151, Klingon maruaders attempted to annex the Pandora colony to use its unobtanium to leverage themselves into a higher position in the Klingon High Council. The UES Enterprise prevented the Klingon attempt with the help of a colonist and native population led army. In the spirit of cooperation and the increasing presence of a larger yet friendlier United Earth, Pandora votes to rejoin the nation as a member state. When the Interstellar Coalition was formed, the colony joined when United Earth signed the Coalition Compact.

During the Xindi Conflict, Pandora became the site of two major battles between Xindi forces and Coalition ships. In May 2154, the First Battle of Alpha Centuria was fought in the outer regions of the Athena-system, between the ICS Everest engages the Xindi-Repitllian frigate XSS Yeriun, catching the enemy on a spy mission. Both vessels exchanged fire before Yeriun retreated with heavy damage.

In December, 2154, Pandora itself was the site of the Second Battle of Alpha Centuria, a major Coalition naval victory over the Xindi Navy. The Coalition, after a defeat at the Battle of Forren, sent a large force to track down and destroy the victorious Xindi cruiser squadron. Two Xindi cruisers, three light cruisers, and three auxiliaries—attempted to raid the Coalition supply base at Atlantis Station. A larger Coalition squadron detected the advance cruisers early on, and all except XSS Drosod and the auxiliary XSS Seydlitz were hunted down and destroyed.

Following the Klingon Blitz of the Borderlands during the early years of the Xindi Conflict and the conquest of the Orion Syndicate, Pandora passed a special resolution to allow a sizable number of Eloran, Tarlac and Orions to settle on their world. Nearly two-million refugees ultimately settled on Weytahn, Coridan, Pandora and Mars following the special resolution, mostly in Hellenic and Ngim-a Kilvan.

Armed Forces

 * Pandoran National Guard:

Society and Culture
(Dress)

(Customs)

(Language)

Galactic Location
Pandora is located in the Alpha Centuria-system, 4.37-lights from Sol. Because of this it maintains close relations with the Human homeworld.

Provinces and Cities

 * Hellenic : Capital city of Pandora, where a joint Human-Na'vi Parliment holds session. The city is built on a massive unobtanium shards, christened the Hallelujah Mountains, that drift over planet's surface.
 * Ngim-a Kilvan: The Na'vi city was the first built by the Na'vi on a portion of the Hallelujah Mountains that drifts over the southern coast. In English its name is Long River, given the unobtanium shard floats over the Or'ant river basin. Ngim-a Kilvan is also home to a sizable population of Eloran, Tarlac and Orions.

Points of Interest

 * Hallelujah Mountains: Great masses of unobtanium, when properly stimulated by magnetic friction during plate tectonics, have managed to break free of the surface and now hover on the landscape, creating Pandora's fabeled floating mountains. 
 * Atlantis Station