United Nations Association of Caelonesian Polities

The **United Nations Association of Caelonesian Polities**, often called the **UNACP** or simply **Caelonesia**, is a **United Nations**organization focused on the cooperation of the various civilian space stations in the region of **Caelonesia** in **Earth** orbit, as well as to lobby for their political rights within the United Nations. The UNACP is headquartered on the Backbone of Night station, in GeoSync. With a population of 1.4 million permanent residents, the UNACP is technically the most-populous United Nations organization, approximately 200 thousand ahead of the Administration of Jerusalem.

## Astrography

The term *Caelonesia* (from Latin: *sky islands*) is first recorded in 2026 by British astronaut Louis Faulkner to describe the regions traditionally known as *Cis-lunar space* and *Deep space*. The term was formalized to describe the volume of space around Earth.

According to the **United Nations Space Administration** and United Nations Statistical Office, Caelonesia is defined as the region of space between the edge of Earth's atmosphere (100 kilometers above sea level) and the edge of Earth's Hill Sphere (approximately 1.5 million kilometers from sea level). This extends in all directions to form a sphere around the Earth.

Caelonesia has typically been divided into four main regions: Low Orbit (100 to 37,400 kilometers from Earth's surface); Geosync (37,400 to 49,000 km); High Orbit (49,000 to 326,000 km); and Exonesia (448,900 to 1,609,344 km). Between High Orbit and Exonesia is Selenesia (326,400 to 448,900 kilometers), which is dominated by Luna's sphere of influence and orbit. There are also five Earth-Luna Lagrange points, which function as separate subregions of Selenesia.

## History

### The Earth-Luna System

In 1772, Joseph-Louis Lagrange published a paper designed to tackle the "three-body problem" of orbital mechanics, which outlined five points in a two-body system where a third body could exist in a stable orbit for an indefinite period of time, known collectively as the Lagrange points or *L-points*. Since then the study of these regions has been a focus for the dynamics of the Earth-Moon system, examples being the discovery of the Kordylewski clouds at the L4 and L5 points of the Moon's orbit.

As well, studies of orbital dynamics in relation to Earth soon returned the result that an object that orbited 35,786 km above the Earth would complete a full orbit in the same period that the Earth would complete a rotation (from a sidereal reference frame). Early satellites launched to this geosynchronous orbit became instrumental to the development of navigation and communications systems.

### Early Caelonesian Exploration

The earliest Caelonesia settlement dates back to the 1970s, when the first temporary space stations were launched by the **Soviet Union**, as part of the *Zhemchug* program. *Zhemchug* consisted of several small, one-module stations launched into highly-inclined orbits and temporarily inhabited by small crews for a couple of weeks at a time. *Zhemchug 1*, launched in 1971, would be the program’s first station and the first crewed space station in history. While only partially a scientific program (three of the program's twelve stations were undocumented military surveillance stations, used against the **United States** in the **First Cold War**), the program still made huge strides in figuring out how to live and work in microgravity.

The*Zhemchug* program would continue into the early 1980s, when it was discontinued in favor of the *Luna* and *Buran* programs. Work on larger facilities able to host crews for longer durations, however, would continue into the 1980s. 1988 saw the launch of the Soviet (and later **Eurasian**)*Mir-1* station, the first modular space station. It would be followed by the American *Freedom Star* station in early 1989. Both would be constructed through multiple launches of both nations’ reusable orbiters, the *Space Shuttle* and *Buran*, respectively. The modular nature of stations pioneered in this era would allow for larger, more well-equipped facilities, able to perform more activities and hold larger populations on much longer timescales. The 1990s and 2000s, while an era primarily focused on Lunar exploration, would still see the growth of Earth orbit through the expansion of existing space stations and the launch of new national stations (**Japan’s** *Tengoku* in 2003, the **African** *Osiris* in 2004, and **Bharati** *Aakaash* in 2007). However, the largest development in Caelonesian colonization efforts in the latter years of the 20th century was the launch of the *International Space Station* in 1994.

Originally a collaboration between the United States, Soviet Union, and **Europe**, the ISS project eventually expanded to include other emerging powers in orbit, such as Japan, **Oceania**, Canada, Africa, and **Brazil**. Over time, the International Space Station would come to serve as the foremost orbital hub for scientific and engineering research as well as international cooperation, with the United Nations facilitating easier access to space for nations without mature space programs. Private organizations would begin to enter the orbital theatre in the 2000s, as well. Large aerospace firms such as **StarCo** and **Falcon Exploration Technologies** would begin operating in the early 2000s; first launching unmanned, reusable orbital spacecraft, but later graduating to vehicles that could operate beyond Low Orbit and, more importantly, manned vehicles. StarCo’s launch of the first space tourism missions in 2005 and 2006 would make private spaceflight into a major player in the aerospace market, now cooperating and competing with the national programs. The launch of the first private space station, StarCo's *Aetheria*, in 2012 would cement the place of “Private Space” in the orbital theatre.

### Second Space Age & Caelonesian Space Race

**Luna** and Greater Selenesia would become a major focus of the 2010s and 2020s, with the start of colonization and the Second Space Age. The advent of facilities and industries on the surface would mirror the growth of orbital infrastructure through public-private partnerships. More nations established stations in this period as well, with Oceania, **Turkey**, the **Mashriq**, Indonesia, and Korea all launching civilian space stations to either Lunar orbit or one of the neighboring L-points, between 2020 and 2040.

The **Second Cold War** and subsequent Caelonesian Space Race would bring about some of the most dramatic expansion in the region. As the need for rare elements, metals, and water-ice continued to grow both in orbit and on Earth and Luna, some nations began considering asteroid mining as a potential avenue. The Americans would be the first to successfully capture and redirect a Near-Earth Asteroid specifically for mining use in 2028, capturing 153814-Bridenstine and transferring it into Lunar orbit, where it was then mined for metals and ice. This would begin a wave of asteroid mining, with Eurasia, the European Union, Japan, and private companies capturing, redirecting, and processing NEA’s, using their resources to sustain and further develop their Caelonesian assets. This would, in turn, bring about an economic boom, as more and more stations popped up and tens of thousands flew into orbit to "strike gold" (literally or metaphorically) in the Asteroid Boom.

This explosion of both economic output and population in Caelonesia would warrant the need for ever-more-massive orbital habitats. The first of these so-called "mega habs", as they were called at the time, would be *Conquistador Station*, operated by the **Union of South American Nations** in Lunar orbit, starting in 2043. With a population of five thousand residents, *Conquistador* was the largest object ever constructed in space at the time of its opening, in turn dramatically shifting the balance of power in space to the USAN and its ally, the Eurasian Union, overnight. This pressured the United States to construct its own megahab, in the form of the *Collins* and *Jemison* Stations in 2045. This new space race between the two power blocs would continue through the end of the Second Cold War and beyond, as the nations of Earth strived for greater power in Caelonesia. By the turn of the century, there were over 140 megahabs in Caelonesia, carrying a combined population of nearly 1.4 million humans permanently living and working in orbit, and an additional 750,000 temporary workers at any given time.

## Demographics

### Population

The Caelonesian Statistical Bureau estimates the population of all Caelonesian habitats at 1.4 million permanent residents in 2110. Of this, 30.7% live in GeoSync, the most populated region. Following GeoSync, Low Orbit and the various L-points each contain about 23.5% of the population, followed by 21.4% living in High Orbit. Only about 0.71% of Caelonesians live in Exonesia, translating to about 10,000 people.

#### Non-permanent residents

While the permanent population of Caelonesia is approximately 1.4 million, the UNACP is home to an additional 1 million