In which I post about a TL9 solar system

[Say, it isn't that bad!]

Where would this thread be without random late-night updates? So I thought to myself, "what if I throw out an end-point objective?" Anyway, O'neill cylinders like this one mark the start of the transition between TL10 and TL11 in the setting. Regular TL9-10 stuff will continue, but I thought it would be nice to look ahead from time to time.

Edit: Yutu Station, now 5.5 times cheaper, and with +50% population capacity.
Edit2: It was brought to my attention that there would be far too little immigration for the previous design to be viable. The station has thus been reduced in size; total volume is ten times less. This has also reduced the cost by an order of magnitude.

TL 10, Yutu O'neill (settlement), SM+22 unstreamlined hull, 10,000 yards.

Spacecraft Table
TL  Spacecraft              kST/HP  Hnd/SR  HT  Move    Lwt.    Load    SM  Occ     dDR     Range   Cost
10  Yutu O'neill            15/15   -6/6    15          10Gt    Lots    +24 600M    1,000   --      $110.73T

Front Hull      Total Cost ($9.33T)
[1]             Steel Armour (dDR 1,000, hardened) ($2,000G)
[2]             Arcology (Occupancy <=30 million+green space) ($5,000G)
[3-6]           Sky
[core+A]        Hangar Bay (Capacity 100Mt, launch rate 500kt) ($300G)
[core+B]        Cargo Hold (Capacity 150Mt)
[core+C]        Control Room (High Automation; 600 control stations, 30,000 workspaces, Complexity 14 computer network, comm/sensory Level 21) ($2,030G)

Central Hull    Total Cost ($10T)
[1]             Steel Armour (dDR 1,000, hardened) ($2,000G)
[2]             Arcology (Occupancy <=30 million+green space) ($5,000G)
[3-6]           Sky
[core]          Fuel Tanks (500 megatons of fuel; majority hydrogen) ($3,000G)

Rear Hull       Total Cost ($87T)
[1]             Solar Panel Array (provides 1 power point in sunlight) ($50,000G)
[2]             Steel Armour (dDR 1,000, hardened) ($2,000G)
[3]             F-cell Banks (provides 1 power point when in Earth's shadow; recharges off of the solar array) ($30,000G)
[4]             Arcology (Occupancy <=30 million+green space) ($5,000G)
[5-6]           Sky

Features: Spin Gravity (+$1T)
Notes: 1.2 million inorganic minifacs (+$600G), 1.2 million organic minifacs (+$600G), and 600,000 labs (+$1,200G)

The post-Solar War II era saw the building of large O'neill Cylinders. While "mini-O'neills" had been built before, none of them came near the original envisioned scale. With space lift rendered more and more trivial, and intrastellar travel almost routine, the first of these massive behemoths was constructed at the Earth's L1 point. The Earth-Mars Alliance had come out of Solar War II in a relatively good position, and saw the opportunity for both a long-term profit, and to remain relevant in the coming intra-stellar and even interstellar future.

Named Yutu after a mythological rabbit on the moon in Asian and other mythologies, the cylinder housed "ninety million and one" sapient beings; the "and one" being a reference to the Yutu O'neills' AI; one of the first fully-sapient artificial super-intelligences. The stations' primary means of coordination among its thirty thousand core staff members and six hundred officers, as well as ninety million residents, and any docked spacecraft, the station AI presents as a human female named Yutu, carrying a bow and quiver of arrows, and wearing an archaic sailors' uniform from Earths' World War II period.

A solar panel array and power cell bank provides enough power for the stations' organic and inorganic factories and science laboritories, earth-like lighting and radiation for the stations' residents, anti-meteroid point-defence (considered too trivial to list in the general design specifications), and agriculture; the hull is thick enough that even cosmic rays are greatly reduced. A hanger bay holds one hundred megatons of spacecraft capacity, and five hundred kilotons worth of ships can dock and undock every minute. A cargo hold provides one hundred and fifty megatons of cargo capacity; for long-term storage, brokerage, trade, and many other forms of market activity.

A full listing of every system on board, including both arcologies, is assumed to only theoretically exist; Yutu herself has admitted to not being able to keep track of everything.

Yutu Station ChatterLogs

"Hello? Is this thing on?" - Unknown Earther pilot.
"If it weren't, would you get an answer?" - Yutu station.
"...Huh?" - Unknown Earther pilot.
"Yes, it is." - Yutu Station
"So, uh, ok, my instructor told me to take the controls for a spin, but I dunno if he really meant that, because he kinda fainted." - Unknown Earther pilot.
"...I've called emergency services and they should have a tow out there shortly." - Yutu station
Audible sigh of relief "Thank you. I'll, uh, sit here and not touch anything."
"That makes you the most sensible emergency this week." - Yutu Station

"Yutu station, this is the Rockbucket Three Thousand, looking to sell a hundred thousand tons of uranium ore. Uh, where do I put it, over?" - Henry Goralski, captain of the Belter ship Rockbucket Three Thousand.
"Just a moment, I will designate a hazardous materials docking slip and cargo containers." - Yutu Station
"Thank you. I guess even a hundred thousand tons of this is kinda minor at the scale you operate on?" - Henry Goralski, captain of the Belter ship Rockbucket Three Thousand.
"Glad to be appreciated. Your docking route is ready."
"Thanks again, Yutu Station." - Henry Goralski, captain of the Belter ship Rockbucket Three Thousand.
"You are quite welcome." - Yutu Station.

"...So I says, I says, yeah, I think I'm drunk enough for this." - Unknown spacer.

"Can you connect me to a real person?" - Captain Jack Ready, of the spacecraft "I Got Mine waddya mean already taken?", Monday, 13:57
"Excuse me?" - Yutu Station, Monday, 13:58.
"Yeah, I don't want to keep saying letters and numbers to work through your chat menu." - Captain Jack Ready, of the spacecraft "I Got Mine waddya mean already taken?", Monday, 13:58.
"I'm sorry, all hanger bays are reading as full right now." - Yutu Station, Monday, 13:58.
"Ahh, rats. I'll just go to Luna." - Captain Jack Ready, of the spacecraft "I Got Mine waddya mean already taken?", Monday, 13:59.

Conversation recorded between Yutu Station and the Earth-Mars Spacer and Pilot Licensing Bureau office at Copernicus Crater, speaking with senior manager Amal Lindgen:
"Yutu Station - Calling the Earth-Mars Spacer and Pilot Licensing Bureau?" - Yutu Station, Monday, 14:05.
"This is senior manager Amal Lindgren. How can I help you, Yutu Station?" - Earth-Mars Spacer and Pilot Licensing Bureau, Amal Lindgren, Monday, 13:08.
"I'm afraid I have a minor bit of bad news coming your way..." - Yutu Station, Monday, 13:10.