United Communities (Space Race Didn't End)

United Communities is the only organized political group within the United States Luna system of communities on the surface of the Moon. It runs the overall government of American Luna communities. It was established April 2, 1985 at Tranquility Base, which is now a National Historical site. The community is made up of the 4 Luna cities, 18 towns, 36 village size communities and several dozen mining or industrial bases. It has no established boundary instead it is located all over the surface of the moon, many of these communities are next to similar communities from other countries. All the largest communities have large sub-lunar caverns that have been dug-out. These communities provide 99% of all new orbital raw materials used in construction of mass space colonies.

History
When the first American walked on the moon in July of 1969, few could have envisioned the massive public support, and huge public and private investment that would take place over the next few decade. The United States has been on the moon continuously since the establishment of its first exploratory bases in 1972. By 1978 its main base Alpha (now Nixon) had reached a population of 160 and was supporting several other small bases. With the new Neptune VI fully reuseable rockets dropping the per lbs cost of launching cargo to a fraction of the old Saturn V's and the NERVA nuclear rockets pushed the payloads from LEO to higher orbits or trans-Lunar orbit. Therefore moving to LEO or the moon was relatively cheap.

Alpha base was set-up to receive prefabricated modules on a daily bases and support a growing work force. With large nuclear-powered deep-hole drilling rigs, the bases could rapidly expand. Add the fact that their is no EPA concerns as their is no water or air to pollute and the background radiation is hundreds of times higher then a full nuclear meltdown could ever produce. Added hundreds of residents monthly as the the base construction ramped-up was no real problem. Adding to its growth was the setting up of a Electro-magnetic catapult launching site by Microrocket a company specialing in this new technology that only a dozen years ago was only a few equation and concept papers.

By 1980 Alpha's population had reached 550 people and dozens of small communities had from a few workers to a few dozen workers the moon was growing rapidly. With all these bases many nothing more than a mining operation with people their to fix automated machines that were very primitive and programing was poor. As the early communities grew many workers or scientists had their families moved up added to the growing pains.

There was a great amount of confusion in the tax code for the new colonists who did not want to pay the state taxes of their previous home states. There was also a growing amount of administrative cost associated with launching timetable, food and water costs and a steady air supply and who is responsible for problems, shortages and price gouging and finally a lack of leadership from NASA who was mostly 250,000 miles away on Earth.

With dozens of new bases authorized the few established communites needed to take control of the situation. Most of the early meetings took place via telephone, however, little was getting done. The first face to face meeting between the communities organizers also saw business leader and NASA officials. The group pointed out that try were not trying to "sneak around" or start a revolution; especially in light of the fact that the early communities were in no way able to "do it own their own," under any circumstance. With 70% of food still being shipped up and new colonist arriving faster then food expansion could keep up with.

After the first meeting a committee, to lay out the goals of the group, was set up and the group sent a Letter of Intent to the president of the United States and congress. While many people on and off the moon thought it was premature, as the population was only several thousand, the United States government quickly embraced the idea as many believed that NASA held to much power and had made too many mistakes.

It was quickly decided the statehood could not be seriously considered but that some kind of representative democracy in the American tradition was the only possible choice. While some believed that a new type of government, more in line with socialism, would make more sense, due to the need for a constant and reliable air suppy, in addtion to water and food. In response to these concerns a new group the Socialist Party of Tranquility was quickly set up. The new party set up conferences in the different communities to explain their point of view. However, both of America's traditional political parties quickly followed suit and as most people were already capable of legally voting and members of either the democratic or republican party; the socialist quickly lost their footing.

The debates over how the each communities should be set up, how the overall luna community should be set up and how NASA would turn over control, quickly became the talk of the moon. While the American communities were by far the largest on the moon and only the Soviets had bases at this time; a growing fear of the Soviets was that the Americans were going to seize the whole moon. This fear was felt more in Moscow then on the moon as little contact between the Soviets and Americans took place as it was. At this time there was no Luna Commision to solve problems or disputes among the various groups. But since neither the Soviets or Americans had any military force in space or on the moon only saber- rattling took place and a watch and see attitude by the Soviets. However, a growing paranoia, within the communities against the Socialist, in the belief that the Socialist were planning to overthrow the communities and join the Soviets became a real problem. Many ever believed that recent arrivals from Earth were part of a conspiracy to seize control.

This fear started an international incident when a group of cosmonauts from a damaged surface base tried to seek shelter in an American mining community. The newly built mining base had at first denied the right to enter, despite international laws requiring immediate help for anyone in the open and seeking assistance not doing so can leave the person dead, very quickly. The American though they were being invaded.

In addition to the incident with the Soviets a, witch hunt-like, rampage was taken place in the communities. The offices of the Tranquility Socialist in Alpha Base (now Nixon city) were robbed by someone looking for names. Fortunately, their were no injuries and the loyalities of the socialists were proven to be without question. During and after these incidents, the work of forming a government was taking place. It was decided that as the bases grow to village- size communities and larger that they would have their own local governments. While mining or industral base away from the larger communities would fall under the oversight the United Communities. This system was very similar to any government in the United States. However, the socialist won the argument about the air supply within the larger communities that would be solely under governmental control and freely distribited. Private production was legal and necessary in the smaller bases but travelers, in need, could not be denied air or shelter.

The first election for assemblymen and community leaders or mayors were organized by the end of 1985. While an interim moon-wide goverment was formed and headed by Admiral John McCain. Admiral McCain in early 1986 resigned his commission to become eligibile to run for a full term. With the basis of a government set up and the federal government on board; taxes and immigration to the moon became the leading issues. One thing that needed to be established was control on all American moving to the moon. With cost to entering LEO already reduced to the level anyone with a dream of space travel or to start over some where new, could afford with just a some amount of savings.Other option were to seek out employment with one of the many spacefaing companies or upstarts all of which paid very well.

It was of course very differcult for anyone moving to the moon, as there was constant danger. However there was so much government and private money going into research and development ,and construction and mining that all anyone really needed was a desire to go up. The biggest driving force in the early years was the mining of recently discovered ores. Since the start of colonization movement in the early 1970's both orbital and Lunar efforts centered around the launching of low cost prefabricated modules that were launched as fast as possible. Now the obital colonies are being build from scratch and require massive amounts of ores for their construction. With the head start that the moon has had in regards to mining the "belt prospectors" have been unable to affect the steady growth of the luna communities.

Efforts on the moon now centered around digging of large sub-luna caverns that offered "outside" like spaces.The building of these underground homes attracted even more people to migrate "up." With little slow down in site the population is expected to to quadruple over the next decade.

See Science and Technology for further discussion on the science and construction of the Luna Communities.

Government
The current Secretary-General of the United Communities is Barack Obama, he has held this office since January 3, 2005 after he sucessfully defeated Robert Zubrin who was seeking a 3rd term. Obama has called the moon his home since late 1984.

The government of the United Communities is similar to the United Nations with the biggest difference being that the Secretary-General and assemblymen are all voted into office by eligible voters. The primary role of the body is to legistrate laws that effect the smooth movement of goods and services between the Communities, the regulation and enforcement if mining operations (however there was no body to investigate untill 2003) and set standards for community construction.

The role of the Secretary-General is to head the United Communities Secretariat; the Secretariat is charged with gathering information from the communities, conducting studies and make recommendations to the assembly. The Secretary-General's role is to head the Secretariat. He is also the defacto chief mediator between quarraling parties (a role that continues even after the court system was set up in 1999). Finally the Secretary-General meets dignitaries from non-American communities and works to represent American interests on the moon.

Demographics
The population of the United Communities has grown dramaticly since its creation. It is currently 139,809 as of July 1, 2012 and has grown 38% since the official census in 2000. The population is highly diverse and is largely a mirror image of the general American population. It does have a very large amount of non-American working in the science alone with American scientists. There is also worker from several nations taking up temporary residency within the United Communities until their own bases are completed.

Economy
The GDP of the United Communities is $150 billion; with a per capita income of $107,000 the highest within the United States of America when ranking compared to the 51 States. The United Communities has a very active mining operations and provide 99% of the raw materials needed in the orbital communites.