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I see that Mal has added this tag to the top of the FenWiki page for http://www.fenspace.net/index.php5?title=The_Main_Belt]The Main Belt:
Quote:A Word of Mod
At some point the future all, or almost all the named rocks here will have seperate FenWiki pages for themselves. Watch this space for updates.

Okay, here's a contribution for Vesta. Discussion, additions, and pointing out of boneheaded ideas are welcome. (Can I even do this with the image link? I don't want to upload an image to the FenWiki until sometime next year, when we'll have a decent photo of the rock...)



{{planetbox
|name=4 Vesta
|image=[%[link=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Vesta-HST-Color.jpg]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Vesta-HST-Color.jpg]
|orbit=aphelion 384.72 Gm, perihelion 321.82 Gm
|diameter=578×560×458 km
|gravity= 0.022G outside handwaved chambers
|year=1325.15 days
|day=solar: 0.2226 days
|temp=min -188 °C, max -18 °C outside handwaved chambers
|atmosphere=none outside handwaved chambers
|waterice=0% outside handwaved chambers
|population=Unknown
|political=[[Fenspace Convention]
|government=Representative Democracy (Vesta), Meritocracy (Novyi Petrovichi), Direct Democracy (other settlements)
|capital=Novyi Petrovichi
}}

The brightest asteroid in Earth's sky, Vesta has a reputation of being one of Fenspace's "university towns", where knowledge is prized above the usual indicators of success.

== History ==

Vesta was discovered by the German astronomer Heinrich Wilhelm Olbers on March 29, 1807, and named after the Roman virgin goddess of home and hearth. It was the fourth of the first four asteroids to be discovered.

During the early days of Fen expansion into the Solar System, the [[Browncoats] and [[Heinleinians] argued over who was entitled to [[Ganymede], based on their fandoms' pre-handwave fiction. (The [[Fivers] eventually got the two groups to share.) The Asimov fen saw this, acted quickly to claim Vesta as their own, and built the first post-secondary educational institutions in space there: the '''Vesta Institute of Biochemistry''' and the '''Vesta Institute of Robotics''' teach the two scientific fields most associated with Prof. Asimov.

== Geography ==

The second-most-massive body in [[The Main Belt] (after [[1 Ceres]), Vesta has a 460-kilometer-diameter crater near its south pole, believed to have been created in a collision less than one billion years ago. The floor of the crater is 25 km below the rim; this protection from Solar and Jovian radiation and the ease of locating the feature from space lead early Fen settlers to locate '''Novyi Petrovichi''' (Vesta's first permanent settlement) there.

The [[Belters] funded construction of the '''Vesta Beam''', a massive communications laser at Vesta's North Pole, in the early days of Vesta's settlement. This was one of the main communications relay points in Fenspace before the [[Wizards]' InterWave communications hub at [[476 Hedwig] made long-range lightspeed communications obsolete. It is still used for local communications where a lag of one or two seconds doesn't matter.

In order to keep Vesta's skies as clear as possible (and because the Asimov Fen who founded Novyi Petrovichi respected their favourite author's fear of flying), a monorail was built to connect the Vesta Beam installation and Novyi Petrovichi. Smaller settlements, including '''Little Brooklyn''' on Vesta's equator, have sprung up along the track's course.

NASA launched the ''Dawn'' probe to Vesta on September 27, 2007. Their original plan was to have it map Vesta from August 2011 until May 2012, then proceed to Ceres; however, Fen expansion into the Solar System and [[Soviet Air Force] exploration missions in [[The Main Belt] made that plan redundant. ''Dawn'' is currently in orbit around Vesta, having been retrofit to serve as a communications relay.

== Government ==

Vesta as a whole is a representative democracy. Any group of five hundred residents can choose one of their number to represent them in the Vestan Assembly, but no person may be a member of more than one such group. The Vestan Assembly meets in Novyi Petrovichi and chooses its own Speaker to lead the Assembly.

Novyi Petrovichi is a meritocracy. Administrators are selected by examination; anyone is free to take the examination, and the successful examinees serve for three-year terms. There is no limit to the number of consecutive terms an administrator may serve, as long as he, she, or it continues to pass the examinations.

Little Brooklyn, the Vesta Beam installation, and the other settlements on Vesta are small enough that they can use various flavours of direct democracy for their day-to-day government. Little Brooklyn employs a Chairperson whose job is to liaise with other governments and set the agenda for the town's weekly meetings, while the staff of the Vesta Beam installation decide ''everything'' by referendum.

Vesta and all Vestan settlements have signed the [[Articles of Convention].

== Trivia ==

Well-known [[Senshi] geneticist [[Leda Swansen] graduated at the top of the first class through VIB's genetics program in 2010.
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012
First glance stuff:

Quote:During the early days of Fen expansion into the Solar System, the [[Browncoats] and [[Heinleinians] argued over who was entitled to [[Ganymede], based on their fandoms' pre-handwave fiction. (The [[Fivers] eventually got the two groups to share.) The Asimov fen saw this, acted quickly to claim Vesta as their own, and built the first post-secondary educational institutions in space there: the '''Vesta Institute of Biochemistry''' and the '''Vesta Institute of Robotics''' teach the two scientific fields most associated with Prof. Asimov.

Rephrase:

Fans of Issac Asimov, watching the arguments between the [[Browncoats] and [[Heinleinians] over "ownership" of [[Ganymede], acted quickly to establish a claim on Vesta. They built the first post-secondary educational institutions in space, the '''Vesta Institute of Biochemistry''' and the '''Vesta Institute of Robotics''', the two fields of study most associated with Professor Asimov.

Quote:lead early Fen settlers to locate '''Novyi Petrovichi''' (Vesta's first permanent settlement) there.

should be "led," not "lead." Also, is Novyi Petrovichi a direct reference? Seems to me if they're going Russian for the name it should be Novyi Petrograd.
Mr. Fnord interdimensional man of mystery

FenWiki - Your One-Stop Shop for Fenspace Information

"I. Drink. Your. NERDRAGE!"
Quote:Also, is Novyi Petrovichi a direct reference? Seems to me if they're going Russian for the name it should be Novyi Petrograd.
It's a reference, but maybe not the one you're thinking of. Petrovichi, Smolensk Oblast, Russia is the birthplace of Isaac Asimov.
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012
And http://www.fenspace.net/index.php5?title=4_Vesta]it's up, with Mal's suggested changes. One down, thirty-three to go...
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012