Minerva

Planet Minerva photo taken by Hermes spacecraft. Photo dates back to more than 300 years ago. Today, Minerva is green planet.

## Planetary Overview

### Atmosphere Composition

79.8% Nitrogen, 14.4% Oxygen, 3.6% Helium, ~2% Water Vapor

### Life

Unicellular (Native), Multicellular (Imported from Earth)

## Homeworld

### Capital

New Constantinople (Seat of Eridani Congressional Planets)

### GDP

86.522 Trillion USD

**Location Location:** Milky Way Galaxy/Local Cavity/Epsilon Eridani System

**World Category:** Garden World

**Minerva** is a garden world and the second planet orbiting the star Epsilon Eridani in the Epsilon Eridani System. It orbits the star at 0.72 AU and has three moons. Minerva is the forth body after Venus, Europa and Pandora that humanity found a life harboring body. The planet is very similar to Earth and gets a score of 0.97 on Earth similarity index. The planet was discovered in 2082 by Hawking Space Telescope.

Minerva was colonized by Mavors Imperium in 2160 and is one of the most populated human planets and an important industrial hub. Minerva is also the first place that human xeno-archeologists found remains of an unidentified spacefaring species known as The Architects. The name of the planet was chosen after the goddess of art in Roman mythologies.

Minerva is now the capital of Eridani Congressional Republic, the first independent Human government outside of the Solar System.

## Physical Characteristics

### Geology

Minerva is a relatively young planet roughly 700 million years old Compared to the 4.5 billion years of Earth and is geologically stable. It is a bit smaller than Earth, with a radius of 6,036 km, compared to the 6,378 km radius of Earth. Minerva's surface is empty deserts and towering mountains. The surface is doted with meteor impact craters which suggests the planet was once the subject of asteroid invasions, probably during the genesis of the system, with some of them forming large lakes.

### Atmosphere

When humans arrived at Minerva, the planet's atmosphere was not breathable due to having about 3.4% carbon dioxide in its atmospheric composition. But due to the perfect condition of the planet, heavy investment were put into the Terraformation of Minerva and in about 34 years the planet's Terraformation was complete. Today, Minerva is perfect for any lifeform from Earth.

## Biosphere

Minerva biosphere is only composed of water based Oxygen producing microbes similar to what Earth had 3 billion years ago. The planet has just passed its first stage of giving birth to life, and is now in a stable evolution phase. Humans have imported many species from Earth to Minerva, specially any species in danger of extinction such as Elephants and Lions. Gray Wolves, Owls and Rats are some of the other species brought to Minerva as well.

## Moons

### Tonga

Tonga is the largest natural satellite of Minerva, with the two other being Nur and Tianjin. Tonga's interaction with Argos is similar to the Interaction of Luna with Earth, Regulating Minerva day/night cycle and ocean tides. Tonga has a thick atmosphere of Carbon Dioxide with bodies of surface water.

### Nur

Nur is the furthest natural satellite of Minerva. Nur has no atmosphere, but bodies of frozen water can be found in dark parts of this moon.

### Tianjin

Tianjin is the smallest moon of Minerva with a radius of only 43 km, and is under heavy mining for its large deposits of Titanium and Uranium.

## Colonial History

### Imperium Era

Minerva was colonized in mid-22nd century in a rush to compete with EUSI. In early and mid 21st century EUSI had colonized Alpha Centauri System. Mavors Imperium, determined to not lag behind Earth. rushed to Epsilon Eridani to colonize the seemingly habitable planet e. The expedition by the Imperium became a success and the name Minerva was chosen for the new colony. Minerva became the center of attention for the Imperium and heavy investments were put on it. In the next 44 years after the colonization, The population of Minerva reached 50 million people. When the Interplanetary War broke out, several Imperium fleet were stationed there to protect the planet from any attempted EUSI invasion. This invasion never came, but when the defeat of the Imperium became obvious, the commander of the Eridani fleet declared the planet independence from the Imperium, and the Eridani Congressional Republic was born.