he largest single colony off planet Earth
is in orbit. Lagrange Station is situated
at L4 – the fourth Lagrange point – a
gravitationally stable location in the
Moon’s orbit around Earth.
The central habitat, a squat, tuna-can-
like cylinder, is all but lost in a wider
inf rast ructure of support facilities:
a sola r sa il for stat ion-keepi ng, a n
extensive radiator farm, and ring-shaped
mirrors that provide the habitat with
sunlight. The interior of Lagrange is
spectacular, with a farmed landscape curving up
over the visitor’s head. But this is a place of work,
for 10,000 people. It was from here that the first
crewed Mars missions were launched.
Now, t houg h, Lag ra nge’s ma i n customer is
not Mars but Earth. Led by such prestigious
bodies as the Cambridge University Centre forT
Climate Management, founded in 2025, large-
scale geoengineering initiatives are underway
in an attempt to salvage Earth’s climate. Among
t hem is ‘albedo ma nipulat ion’ – cooling t he
planet by reflecting or deflecting away some of
the sunlight. By now, the tremendous orbital
mirrors and lenses tended by Lagrange crews
are themselves planetary in scale.
All this is controversial on Earth, because such
solutions inevitably favour some nations over
others. Amid rising sea levels, the desiccating
tropics, and gathering migrant flows, there is a
feeling of a slide to war.
However the citizens of Lagrange a re more
concerned about their own politics, rather than
Earth’s. Here, on the Moon, and even on Mars,
debates are underway on the future of human
rights. A confined colony in space will always be
an intrinsically tyrannous environment, becausePart Three
The Decade
of EarthTHE SPACE HABITAT
2040
- 2049