Atlas – Moon

Atlas is an inner satellite of Saturn. Its dimensions are 40.8 × 35.4 × 18.8 km, and its volume is ≈ 14400 km3.

Atlas was discovered in 1980 CE from Voyager photos and was designated S/1980 S 28. In 1983 it was officially named after Atlas of Greek mythology, because it "holds the rings on its shoulders" like the Titan Atlas held the sky up above Terra. It is also designated Saturn XV.

Atlas has a roughly spherical center surrounded by a large, smooth equatorial ridge. The explanation for this is that ring material swept up by the moon accumulates on the moon, with a strong preference for the equator due to the ring's thinness. In fact, the size of the equatorial ridge is comparable with the expected Roche lobe of the moon. This would mean that for any additional particles impacting the equator, the centrifugal force will nearly overcome the tiny gravity, and they will likely be lost.

Atlas is significantly perturbed by Prometheus and to a lesser degree by Pandora, leading to excursions in longitude of up to 600 km (~0.25°) away from its orbit with a rough period of about 3 Terran years. These interactions make the orbits of Atlas, Prometheus and Pandora chaotic.

First surface survey was conducted by an United Earth Astronaut team under the lead of United Earth Space Force Captain Rick Sanchez in 2098 OTT. United Earth Sol System Expedition 67 “Ring Moons Mission”. Atlas was placed on the [http://Sol System Objects - List Sol System object list] as Open; the first Colonists arrived in 2109 and established the city of Clymene.

Initially the colonists mined ice and minerals at the equatorial ridge. While they had an acceptable level of income, they struggled a bit to improve it. Due to the publicity of the Union versus Hamilton Case and that Atlas is the closest satellite to the sharp outer edge of Saturn's A ring, the colonists soon found themselves swamped by tourists. Today, due to the colony's response, tourism is their main source of income.