Mauna Loa

''Note: X and Y are coordinates (light years on XY plane) relative to Terra at (0, 0)

Owner History

 * 3095 - Deep Periphery

Planetary History
Mauna Loa was a planet located in the Dark Expanse with a climate evidently similar to that of the moon Titan when it was first the subject of terraforming measures by the Star League. The sixth planet in the system, Mauna Loa sat further away from the most ideal terraforming range within the system, the "goldilocks zone", making it far from habitable in its original state; nevertheless, it was the subject of an extensive operation conducted by the Department of Mega-Engineering. A large series of solar mirrors was established in polar orbits above the planet, and two more mirror arrays were established, one at the L4 Lagrange point and one at the L5 Lagrange point. These latter two arrays received bursts of microwave energy from solar collectors located on one of the inner planets in the system, energy that was then transmitted down to Mauna Loa.

When explorers from Interstellar Expeditions rediscovered Mauna Loa in 3088 there was nothing other than a Star League Catalog number to indicate that the system was even known to the Star League, but their investigations uncovered the terraforming efforts - efforts which the Department of Mega-Engineering evidently either couldn't shut down, didn't shut down, or didn't want to shut down. Whatever the long-vanished Department had intended for Mauna Loa, the effect their efforts had resulted in extensive changes to Mauna Loa. Interstellar Expeditions researchers believed that the extensive mirror arrays were intended to warm the planet up to a liveable temperature within a decade, but after three hundred years of operation the planet was overwhelmed by the amount of energy poured into it. The planetary surface had been frozen, but in 3088 the surface was boiling under thick clouds of water vapour. More damaging still, the stresses put on the planet as a result of the melting ice caused an ancient supervolcano to become active again; this huge volcano was still pouring out enough lava in 3088 to cause one side of the planet to glow orange when in its night phase, and gave rise to the name Interstellar Expeditions bestowed on the planet.