Western Annex: Ice Rock, Venitz Collective

Charles “Chuck” Dilland
2189

Chuck Dilland was one of the preeminent planetary prospectors from the early days of the Board of Exploration. He’s credited with discovering three systems which were eventually licensed and terraformed–Blanchard, Grant, and Venitz. His discoveries, along with those of his friend Oswald Newmar, became the foundation systems for the Venitz quadrant. They also made him very rich.

In 2189, one of Dilland’s probes revealed an un-inspiring system comprised of a blue-white primary with a few rocky planetoids, three gas giants, and a broad belt of asteroids. The system has no planets in the Goldilocks Zone, but a spectrographs revealed atmospheres on four of the twenty-seven moons of Dilland VI. Dilland reported the drone lost but recorded the coordinates in his own logs and returned in 2191 with a full exploration kit and discovered that one of the moons in question had a hot iron core and enough atmosphere to form carbon dioxide ice from the volcanic out-gassing.

By 2194, Dilland’s crew had established an orbital platform above the moon’s equator and had begun mining the ice for use in the manufacture a variety of products including oxygen, carbon nanotubes, and pellets for cleaning rocket nozzles and other delicate surfaces without. By 2198, they had established their own “beanstalk” elevator to lift materials out of the moon’s gravity well and developed a mining operation on the belt for metals.

In addition to carbon dioxide ice, Ice Rock exports liquid methane, liquid oxygen, and some small amounts of hydrogen and helium. They import food, textiles, and entertainment.

Ice Rock serves as an anchor system for the Venitz Collective, a group of six Toe-Holds formed by Dilland and his fellow prospectors between 2189 and 2202.