Space Station Gamma

Space Station Gamma is an Aero-class space station in orbit around Alaea at an distance of 4060 kilometers. It consists of six Habitat Rings, which can, in total, house a population of up to 1,300 people. In addition, Space Station Gamma has a central pillar, which contains a nuclear fusion reactor and a massive ion engine that sustains its orbit.

Due to a slight malfunction during the installation of the first module, Space Station Gamma has an orbital period of almost exactly π days.

Space Station Gamma is composed mainly of titanium-aluminium alloys, although there are exceptions, like the Visual Hub at the top of the station, which is made completely of reinforced sapphire windows.

History
The first design drafts of the Aero-class space station date back to 1919.

Technology
Space Station Gamma uses many different technologies that, like most Alaean technologies, are somewhat more advanced than the ones we have on Earth. However, these technologies are not as far ahead as you may think.

Ion engine
Space Station Gamma uses one massive ion engine that has an average thrust of 20,000 N. This sustains the station's orbit and allows for limited steering. It uses krypton and xenon gas, and gets the 40 megawatts (kW) required from the nuclear reactor.

Fusion reactor
The fusion reactor of Space Station Gamma is housed in a spherical titanium-aluminium module connected to the central pillar and the ion engine. It uses deuterium and tritium, which are hydrogen isotopes, for the fusion reaction. On average, the reactor can produce up to 200 megawatts (mW) of power. However, recent test with other fuels have yielded energy outputs of up to 300 mW of power.

Computer System
Space Station Gamma has an incredibly powerful computer system. The 32 CPUs housed in the computer core have a peak performance of over 500 petaflops, capable of doing up to 500 quadrillion calculations every second.

The system uses a whopping 6.3 megawatts, which is 3% of the fusion reactor's output.

Visual Hub
The Visual Hub at the top of the station is both an astronomy lab as well as a sort of bridge. Over 50% of the station's sensors are focused here. The hub has a direct connection to a base on the planet's surface.

Since the hub is made to provide maximum visibility, its walls are completely made of glass. However, due to the obvious danger of an asteroid impact- even a small asteroid would shatter normal glass- the hub was built out of sapphire windows, which have a bluish tint.

The hub also has a smaller fusion reactor beneath it, to compensate in case of a power failure, due to the hub being critical to all the station's systems.

Escape pods
Space Station Gamma has eight escape pods.