The Bountiful Sky Project

The Bountiful Sky Project was a massive project by the Chinese government to construct a space-based infrastructure to provide cheap electricity and food for itself and for clients.

One of the many secret code names for the Bountiful Sky Project was 9876, a chinese numerological name implying 'long-lasting, sustainable prosperity for all, together in blessed happiness.'

History
While the launch of the first Bullet is when the project was revealed to the world, this was only the culmination of over a decade of work. More conceptual roots of the project have been documented to have begun long before even this.

The Bullets
A necessary element for bootstrapping the massive amounts of material needed for the project, these unorthodox (for their time) vehicles were also the first publicly visible part of the program.

Low Earth Orbit Transfer Station
Because of the limitations of launch vehicles at the time the project was started, it was more economical to launch cargo and passengers from Earth's surface to an orbit of 200km (120mi). Any cargo or passengers that needed to travel the rest of the way to the Main Hab or to the Moon would either wait for the vehicle to be refueled or transfer to another vehicle.

Farms
Leveraging the constant availability of sunlight in space, these low-orbit facilities grew high-yield food crops which were then packaged into unmanned drop capsules for delivery to China and to clients.

The Main Hab
This was the manufacturing site for power satellites, and therefore the site of materials extraction from lunar soil, and of construction. This was where nearly all space-based personnel lived and worked; all other locations were inhabited on crew rotations ranging from weeks to months.

The Moon Mine
This facility provided nearly all the raw materials for the Bountiful Sky project after the Bullet launches. Ore mined directly from the lunar surface provided aluminum for construction, oxygen for breathing, water for drinking, soil for crop raising, and many more resources. Mass-driver catapults launched the ore for capture by the ore tugs.

The Tugs
The project required large masses to be transported from lunar orbit to the main hab, and from low earth orbit to the surface. This was the purpose of the tugs, making them mission-critical components and one of the most critical failure points. The tugs served as counterweights, assisting in the tether-launch of the masses.

Crop Tugs
Vessels used to de-orbit packages of food from low earth orbit to re-enter the atmosphere, then use a nuclear-powered mass-driver to return to station.

Ore Tugs
Vessels used to tether-launch packages of lunar ore from low lunar orbit to the Main Hab for processing for construction. They then used a nuclear-powered mass-driver to return to low lunar orbit for the next launch.

Longer-Term Projects
The project had many plans to expand its infrastructure that were not realized due to the Collapse. Some of these ideas were later adapted to other purposes by the Saturnites.


 * Lunar Tether


 * Deimos Water Mine
 * Asteroid Capture
 * Electrodynamic Tethers