Venus Equilateral - Venus Equilateral Relay Station

Venus Equilateral Relay Station

The setting for most of the stories in the series is Venus Equilateral, a space station three miles long and one in diameter that serves as a communications relay between Venus, Earth, and Mars whenever interference from the Sun prevents line-of-sight communication between them. Venus Equilateral was formed out of a nickel-iron asteroid that was moved into Venus' L₄ point. At the time the stories take place, the asteroid has been completely reworked, resulting in a burnished steel cylinder with a large docking port at one end and a bank of communications dishes at the other.

Venus Equilateral spins on its axis to provide its roughly 3000 inhabitants with centrifugal pseudo-gravity. On the outermost level, with just over one Earth gravity, are living quarters for the station's crew. The next level in consists of offices, recreation centers, stores, churches, the cafeteria, and Joe's: the station's only bar. The innermost level, surrounding the station's zero-gravity axis, houses automatic machinery, the hydroponic farms, storerooms, the servogyroscopes and their beam finders, and the air plant (which consists of genetically engineered Martian sawgrass that efficiently renews the station's air supply via photosynthesis).

The Venus Equilateral Relay Station is owned and operated by Venus Equilateral, Inc., a closed corporation. Venus Equilateral, Inc. is licensed by the Interplanetary Communications Commission to maintain interplanetary communications. Under the terms of the license, Venus Equilateral must relay at least one message every twenty-four hours. Venus Equilateral, Inc. also owns and operates an interplanetary spaceship called the Relay Girl that is based at the station.