Troy (Superpowers)

Troy is the second extra-planetary Roman settlement, having been established on the 9th July 1970. It is located in the Valles Magnus running along the Martian West near the Equator in the Tarshisha territory. Unlike in the founding of Heliopolis, there was no unmanned probe sent to prepare the site, only a single probe meant to determine the regions suitability as the site for a city.

Currently the largest settlement in space, more than double Heliopolis' population, Troy is one of the six Martian settlements in operation. Relations with four of the others are on economic terms, though the government of Rome has placed a trade embargo on the fifth.

The cities location was chosen for two reasons alone. The particular location is stable and very suitable for underground construction. The valley is perfectly visible from even Earth and so the psychological impact of the city's presence is further magnified.

Background
Once the Luna Program had shown the feasibility of space colonization, the interest of the Roman government was immediately piqued towards the issue. Since by the 60's lunar colonization had become a trivially easy undertaking, the Romans could finally set their sights on a more lofty goal, the colonization of an entirely separate planet, Mars. Since the Mayan Itzamna Mission had utterly failed, competition would be rather low for years to come, even completely non-existent by the 70's.

Though concepts had been considered, it was not until March of 1963 that any real funding was put in to make the idea a reality. By late-1966, an interplanetary space propulsion system was invented, allowing for a rapid transit within the via planitia of Earth. Construction was begun in December of 1967 and the Aeneas Mars Colonizer was finally completed exactly two years later amongst New Year's celebrations.

Before the ship could set off, several Ares unmanned probes were launched to create a long-distance communication satellite in Martian orbit. It could connect to a network of 22 other satellites allowing rapid connection with Earth at any time of the terran or martian years.

Following a following a nearly seven month journey starting in January of 1970, ''Aeneas finally arrived in martian orbit on the 2nd of July. Following seven days of set-up, the city of Troy was considered established on the 9th of July 1970 with the connection of the cities communications to the solar network, and therefore to Earth.