Pallas — a large asteroid in the main belt. No permanent UN administrative presence; operates under consortium law and consortium money. Home to the Rusty Anchor, a miners’ bar known system-wide. By 2147, the Ark is under construction in high orbit near Pallas, drawing crews, freight, and attention from mining operations across the belt. By 2164, Ark engineer Pietro Galli lists Pallas as his address on UN Patent Office filings covering the Ark’s hull configuration. The 2165 Colonial Census recorded ~39,000 residents — a company-town profile similar to Vesta. By 2175 the settlement also feeds the Ark’s agricultural shells: soil production from Pallas host-rock waste per the Cradle protocol began in 2167 (scaled to sealed 100 m² modules in 2171), with 3,100 tonnes of living soil in production or storage as of 1 June 2175 and first planting in a shell scheduled for 2178, per the Ark Project’s Project Notice ARK-PN-2175-01. The 2195 Citizen’s Guide records the Ark as still under construction at Pallas under private registry, not a UN vessel. The November 2195 census recorded 59,000 residents and named Pallas the Ark’s construction site. The Ark left Pallas on 19 December 2199, clearing the control volume at 04:12 with 5,400 colonists and 620 crew aboard; a Luna Interplanetary Court warrant granted two days later had nothing at Pallas to serve on.
Sources
- TWN: What’s Actually Being Built at Pallas (2147)
- TWN: Dr. Nathaniel Argus Names Himself the Ark’s Funder and Voice (2149)
- Pietro Galli — Superconducting Magnetic Decoupling Collar, Patent UNPO-L/2166/0317 (2166)
- Martian Radio “Iron Orbit”: The Ark Publishes Its Specification (2168)
- UN Colonial Census Bureau — The Settled Sphere, 2165
- The Ark Project — The Cradle at Pallas: Organic Soil, Not from Earth (2175) — Pallas-made soil for the Ark’s agricultural shells
- UN Office for Colonial Development: Citizen’s Guide to Governance (2195) — Ark under construction under private registry; not a UN vessel
- UN Colonial Census Bureau — The Bounds, Revised: The Settled Sphere in 2195 (Nov 2195) — Pallas 59,000; Ark construction site
- UN Weekly: The Ark Leaves Pallas Early as Argus Denies the Copies (22 Dec 2199) — Ark clears the Pallas control volume on 19 December; warrant served on nothing