Ross 128

Ross 128 was surveyed very early after the Ascent by United Earth. It was discovered that the system had no planets at all and was of little use for the expanding United Earth. But sine it is close to Earth it was claimed anyway and at first a Space station was established, first simply for presence reasons. A long range fighter base was added as potential war against the Freons loomed.

Thew base grew into a stop over and logistics distribution place as the fact that it held no planets was an easy stop over system gravity well for Hyper Jump drive equipped ships. When the Isah drive became widely available the importance of Ross 128 declined somewhat but the base was kept operative.

During the 3rd Intergalactic War a major battle was fought at Ross 128 and the Station destroyed.

After the Peace Hawk period ended, it was decided to built up the fleet. To have a future main fleet base where all ships could be serviced, repaired and large numbers built, the idea of a Thorus an artificial ring around Ross 128 was born, first ridiculed as phantastic and impossible, but the speech of a 14 year old Pan Saran boy visiting the Assembly changed the reception of that idea and it was decided to go forward. (3416)(The young Pan Saran said: Nothing should be impossible for the Union and that such a construct would provide many new inventions, new technologies and new construction techniques.)

The panning and  preparation alone took decades. First Construction activities Planning and engineering begun in 3417 (See Ross Thaurus )

Ross 128 is a small star in the equatorial zodiac constellation of Virgo, the virgin. The apparent magnitude of Ross 128 is 11.13, which is much too faint to be seen with the naked eye. Based upon parallax measurements, the distance of this star from Earth is 10.89 light-years (3.34 parsecs), making it the eleventh closest star or star system to the Sol System. It was first cataloged in 1926 by American astronomer Frank Elmore Ross.

This low mass star has a stellar classification of M4 V, which places it among a category of stars known as red dwarfs. It has 15% of the mass of the Sun and 21% of the Sun's radius, but generates energy so slowly that it has only 0.036% of the Sun's visible luminosity. However, most of the energy being radiated by the star is in the infrared band, with the bolometric luminosity being equal to 0.35% of solar. This energy is being radiated from the star's outer atmosphere at an effective temperature of 3,180 K. This gives it the cool orange-red glow of an M-type star.

Ross 128 is an old disk star, which means it has a low abundance of elements other than hydrogen and helium, what astronomers term the star's metallicity, and it orbits near the plane of the Milky Way galaxy. It is classified as an active flare star since it can undergo unpredictable and dramatic increases in luminosity for a period of several minutes. Because of the low rate of flare activity, it is thought to be a magnetically evolved star. That is, there is some evidence that the magnetic braking of the star's stellar wind has lowered the frequency of flares, but not the net yield.

On multiple occasions this star has been examined for the existence of a low stellar mass or brown dwarf companion orbiting at a distance of at least 1 astronomical unit from the primary. However, no companions have been discovered.The star also lacks a strong excess of infrared radiation. An infrared excess is usually an indicator of a dust ring in orbit around the star.

Ross 128 is orbiting through the Milky Way with an orbital eccentricity of 0.122, causing its distance from the Galactic Center to range between 26.8–34.2 kly (8.2–10.5 kpc).[20] This orbit will bring the star closer to the Solar System in the future. The nearest approach will occur in about 71,000 years, when it will come within 6.233 ± 0.085 ly (1.911 ± 0.026 pc).