Bhaskara Station (Fidem Pacis)

Bhaskara Station is an internationally run scientific research station located within Bhaskara Crater on the Moon. The majority of its residents are scientific personnel, but it has a permanent population of some 615 individuals, making it the largest manned outpost outside of Earth.

Bhaskara was founded in 1948 by the Albic Royal Aerospace Force and is the oldest permanent lunar base. Among its early purposes was to test the possibilities for space-based military research, and it provided a source of lunar rock for testing the Project Hammerfall orbital kinetic bombardment system. However, the base was attacked and destroyed by Lithuanian forces in 1962 at the resumption of the Third World War, and the majority of its results were lost with it.

The station was reestablished in 1967 with strictly peaceful purposes, as the Moon had by that time been declared a demilitarised zone. It was soon opened up to scientists from many other countries, as well as industry, and in 1992 was turned over to the newly-founded International Near Space Administration. Today Bhaskara is a flourishing community that is largely self-sufficient, and the material opportunities to be found on the lunar surface have turned its investors into some of the wealthiest entrepeneurs in the world.