Arcturus Solar-system

System Specs:

  • Stellar Mass:  1.1 Sol Masses
  • Stellar Class:  K1.5 III
  • Luminosity:  170 Sol
  • Planets:  3
  • Moons:  0
  • Asteroid Belts:  1
  • Asteroids:  1
  • Objects:  2

Arcturus is a type K1.5 IIIpe red giant star located in the constellation of Boötes and, seen from Earth, is the fourth brightest star in the night sky. When the Charon Relay was activated in 2149, Jon Grissom‘s exploratory team found that the relay led to Arcturus, 36 light years from Earth. Arcturus in turn had several other mass relays in close proximity, which enabled humanity’s rapid expansion into space.

Arcturus is from the generation of stars born before Sol. Its worlds are either gas giants (in this case, Themis) or ice chunks. While some rocky debris exists, metals are rare, and tend toward lighter elements.

Arcturus’ origin is also unique. It is actually from the galactic halo, one of a cluster of 52 stars that are “crashing through” the disc of the galaxy. In a billion years, Arcturus will be sailing through the depths of extragalactic dark space.

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Planets Directory:

  1. Alcyoneus (asteroid)
  2. Themis
  3. Arcturus Station
  4. Eirene
  5. Eunomia
  6. Mass Relay

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Alcyoneus:

  • Orbital Distance:  2.1 AU
  • Orbital Period:  0.6 Earth-years
  • Keplerian Ratio:  _
  • Radius:  1,052 km
  • Day Length:  61.6 Earth-hours
  • Atmospheric Pressure:  (trace) atm
  • Surface Temp:  -23 °C
  • Surface Gravity:  0.38 g
  • Mass:  0.01 Earth-masses

Alcyoneus is a sizable asteroid, one of many towed through the mass relay to help build Arcturus Station in this metal-poor system. Like many of the asteroids in the belt, miners built small habitats on Alcyoneus to live closer to their excavation sites. When the station was finished, a transient population moved in.

Belt communities were too small for the Reapers to bother harvesting. Blasts from their weapons pierced the habitats’ protective domes and burned through anti-collision kinetic barriers. As far as can be told, the belt’s population is now zero.

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Themis:

  • Orbital Distance:  3.5 AU
  • Orbital Period:  1.3 Earth-years
  • Keplerian Ratio:  25.37
  • Radius:  56,484 km
  • Day Length:  14.1 Earth-hours
  • Atmospheric Pressure:  _ atm
  • Surface Temp:  _ °C
  • Surface Gravity:  _ g
  • Mass:  _ Earth-masses

A hydrogen-helium gas giant, Themis is one of Arcturus‘s stable satellites. It rapidly orbits the massive star.

There are multiple asteroid-mining facilities in this planet’s orbit.

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Arcturus Station:

  • Orbital Distance:  _ AU
  • Orbital Period:  _ Earth-years
  • Keplerian Ratio:  _
  • Radius:  _ km
  • Day Length:  _ Earth-hours
  • Atmospheric Pressure:  _ atm
  • Surface Temp:  _ °C
  • Surface Gravity:  _ g
  • Mass:  _ Earth-masses

This Space station is in the L5 Lagrange point of the planet Themis.

Mass Effect: Evolution 

Arcturus Station

After the conclusion of the First Contact War, General Desolas Arterius arrives at Arcturus Station to exchange prisoners with General Williams. Jack Harper and Eva Coré are traded for a group of turian soldiers, and then examined in a medical bay. Williams gives Jack and Eva his personal shuttle to track down Desolas and learn more of his plans.

Mass Effect: He Who Laughs Best 

HWLB Arcturus Station

In 2183, Arcturus Station is the site of the first test flight of the newly-completed SSV Normandy, an Alliance stealth frigate designed in collaboration with the Turian Hierarchy. Alliance captains David Anderson and Dillard attend the test flight with Hierarchy official General Invectus. The test flight takes an unexpected turn when pilot Jeff “Joker” Moreau traps the Normandy’s original pilot on the station, locks himself in the ship’s cockpit, and hijacks it to prove that he can pilot it far more effectively. Although a patrol of fighters is scrambled to disable the Normandy, Joker evades them and returns the ship to its dock unscathed. Impressed by his skills, General Invectus pressures the Alliance to assign Joker as the Normandy’s pilot.

Mass Effect 3 

Arcturus Station is the site of a battle between the Alliance’s Second, Third, and Fifth Fleets and Reaper forces on their way to Sol. While the Alliance defends the station from a dozen Reaper capital ships, the bulk of the Reaper fleet rushes through the mass relay. Admiral Steven Hackett realizes he can not win, and is forced to abandon the station and sacrifice the Second Fleet to allow the Third and Fifth Fleets to escape.

Sometime afterward, Arcturus Station is destroyed by the Reapers. According to Donnel Udina, the entire Alliance Parliament and Prime Minister Amul Shastri were on the station at the time of its destruction and were killed.

Intelligence from the Battle of Arcturus can be salvaged from the remains of the station.

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Eirene:

  • Orbital Distance:  6.8 AU
  • Orbital Period:  3.6 Earth-years
  • Keplerian Ratio:  24.262
  • Radius:  44,077 km
  • Day Length:  10.3 Earth-hours
  • Atmospheric Pressure:  _ atm
  • Surface Temp:  _ °C
  • Surface Gravity:  _ g
  • Mass:  _ Earth-masses

One of Arcturus‘ hydrogen-helium gas giants, Eirene had infrastructure in place for fueling civilian and military starships with helium-3 and anti-protons. None of this infrastructure has survived the Reapers.

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Eunomia:

  • Orbital Distance:  13.4 AU
  • Orbital Period:  10.0 Earth-years
  • Keplerian Ratio:  24.061
  • Radius:  4,758 km
  • Day Length:  63.6 Earth-hours
  • Atmospheric Pressure:  (trace) atm
  • Surface Temp:  -170 °C
  • Surface Gravity:  0.36 g
  • Mass:  0.199 Earth-masses

Eunomia is largely made of ice–frozen around a metal-poor core. Its deposits were of little use to the humans building Arcturus Station, who favored materials from the asteroids towed into the system. Eunomia lies neglected in the void. There is no obvious Reaper presence here.

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