"Peter F. Hamilton - A Night's Dawn Companion - The Confederation Handbook" - читать интересную книгу автора (Hamilton Peter F)

to import raw material, facilitating the capture of new asteroids.

The population of a mature asteroid settlement can reach 100,000, though it rarely
exceeds this. Politically, the high-orbit asteroids are nearly always under the control
of the planetary government. Certainly this is the case to start with; but as the star
system economy develops, companies may well fund their own capture missions and
mining settlements.

Free settlements
These can be sited anywhere in the star system, though investors prefer asteroids
close enough to the sun to use solar-power arrays, eliminating He3costs. Asteroids
with large and varied mineral reserves are sought, because of the disparate material
requirements of the industrial stations they serve. High-technology zero-gee products
are the only exports from these settlements, so they are usually founded several
decades after the first batch of colonists arrive on a planet, when a market for their
goods is beginning to materialize. Like the mining asteroids in planetary orbit, the
habitation chamber is hollowed out of the asteroid itself, providing the inhabitants
with several kilometers of rock as protection from cosmic radiation and attacks from
mercenary starships. That population is usually around 100,000, although the larger
asteroids, containing several habitation chambers, can carry populations as high as
250,000.

In parallel with the institutions that found planetary development, it is companies
which finance the construction of asteroid settlements, and their control is never
entirely relinquished. All asteroid settlements are essentially company towns. The
major (and rare) exception to this is when the star system is being developed by an
ideological or religious concern, in which case they will also pay for their own
asteroid settlements.


Defense
Attack by mercenary starships is a very real threat for asteroid settlements and
planets alike, and all governments fear an assault by a political rival using antimatter.
As a consequence, any industrial planet has to devote a healthy percentage of its gross
domestic product to building and maintaining a strategic-defense network. EarthтАЩs
OтАЩNeill Halo defenses are widely regarded as impregnable by any fleet another
Confederation world could throw at it.

In combination with the SD network, the major line of defense for any world is its
designated emergence zones. As a general rule, starships are not allowed to emerge
within 100,000km of an inhabited planet. They are required to jump into the
emergence zone, and request flight clearance from the local traffic control authority
before approaching their destination, giving naval ships time to perform an inspection
when deemed necessary. The SD platforms will shoot at any starship violating this
restriction, which is automatically assumed to be on a hostile strike mission.

In wealthy star systems, with a large interplanetary (non-FTL drive) spaceship fleet
shipping products between asteroid settlements and the inhabited planet, navy ships
are on regular patrol to prevent acts of piracy by starships who can immediately jump
out-system as soon as the looted cargo has been taken on board. It is this kind of