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Moon Moon, originally named Bernal I, is a space colony in Side 1 that is introduced in Mobile Suit Gundam ZZ. Also known as the Lost Colony, it is home to a primitive group of space dwellers, and has been largely forgotten by other residents of the Earth Sphere.

Overview[]

Moon Moon was a prototype space colony constructed by the Colony Public Corporation, a subsidiary of the Earth Federation, before the advent of the Universal Century calendar, at the Lagrange point that would one day be known as Side 1.[1] The structure was originally named "Bernal I" and employed the "Island One-type" or "Bernal-type"[1] design, also known as the "Sweetwater-type"[2] design, which was based on the concept of the Bernal sphere. Bernal I's purpose was to serve as a test bed to demonstrate if humans could survive long-term habitation in space, and after the experiment concluded it was intended to be dismantled and its materials recycled to help build the permanent space colonies of the Sides.[1]

Despite these plans, Bernal I eventually became home to a population of thousands of political dissidents belonging to a counterculture movement that sought to live outside of the Earth Federation's control and adopt a more natural, pre-industrial way of life. These settlers called themselves the Light Tribe, established their own culture and a hunter-gatherer society, and renamed Bernal I to "Moon Moon". They also cut off most contact with the world outside Moon Moon and lived in near-total isolation apart from regular supply shuttles. Due to weaker radiation shielding, the population of Moon Moon has a higher mortality rate.[1]

History[]

Construction of Bernal I[]

Over a century prior to U.C. 0092, before the advent of the Universal Century, the newly-established Earth Federation created the Colony Public Corporation to carry out the construction of space colonies to relocate the human population from Earth. The first generation of space colonies were "Island One-type" or "Bernal-type" prototypes based on the Bernal sphere design that were used to test the feasibility of long-term human habitation in space before work began on larger permanent structures throughout the Sides. Bernal I was one of these early space colonies. After the habitability experiments were finished, Bernal I and the other Bernal-type colonies were all slated to be dismantled so that their materials could be reused for the Sides.[1]

Instead, the Colony Public Corporation ended up selling the Bernal-type colonies to various private corporations to be refurbished. Bernal I was purchased by the Kamige Resort Corporation to be converted into a fantasy theme park and resort. However, subsequent government evaluations found that none of the Bernal-type colonies were suitable for permanent habitation due to thin outer walls that provided insufficient radiation shielding, resulting in the corporations' plans for the colonies all falling through. Kamige had already invested an enormous amount of money into Bernal I's new hotels and attractions and faced financial ruin, but managed to recover most of its losses many years later through a successful lawsuit against the Earth Federation.[1]

Founding of Moon Moon[]

In the wake of the destruction of Laplace and the death of Prime Minister Ricardo Marcenas in U.C. 0001, the Earth Federation took an authoritarian turn and embarked on a years-long crackdown on political dissent. With its lawsuit still slowly working its way through the courts, Kamige Resort Corporation feared that the vacated Bernal I would be seized by the Earth Federation outright, so as a stopgap measure it sold settlement rights to dissident and counterculture groups for a nominal fee. Kamige was able to squeeze further profits out of the situation by positioning itself as Moon Moon's sole external supplier, as the colonists wanted to live in isolation but the space colony's smaller size and design flaws meant they could not achieve self-sufficiency. Blocked from seizing Bernal I without another lengthy legal battle to prove that the colony's thousands of new residents had purchased it illegitimately, the Earth Federation conceded the lawsuit with Kamige and paid the company reparations. Meanwhile, Bernal I's residents gradually merged their separate communes into a cohesive society, the Light Tribe, and Bernal I was renamed Moon Moon.[1]

All along, however, Kamige had prepared to evict the colonists once the lawsuit was won and hand over Moon Moon to the Earth Federation to be dismantled, tying up the entire affair, but this scheme was stymied by the colonists themselves.[1] Some of the colonists had smuggled the seeds of a genetically-modified plant similar to erythroxylum coca onto Moon Moon and cultivated them to produce a kind of high-grade cocaine called "hycoca". This hycoca was traded with the organization Medicine, the intermediary group originally used by Kamige to supply Moon Moon, in exchange for necessary supplies and to guarantee Moon Moon's autonomy, since erythroxylum coca had become extinct on Earth.[3]

As time passed, the cultivation of hycoca led to a schism within the Light Tribe. The inventor of hycoca, a medical school dropout who was called Arzt or "The Doctor", began espousing an ideology that would later be likened to an early form of Zeon Zum Deikun's Contolism. Arzt claimed all souls were connected, but had to sever their connections to their physical bodies to rejoin the source, and he sought to proliferate the hycoca as the means to awaken the minds of all of humanity to a new age of enlightenment. To this end, Arzt split his followers from the Light Tribe, establishing a new group named Arzt after himself and declaring himself king of Moon Moon. When the fanatical Arzt group attempted to mix lethal concentrations of hycoca into Moon Moon's water supply, the Light Tribe went to war with them, eventually winning the conflict and banishing Arzt and his followers to the "Forest of Abandoned Children". This forest was where the Light Tribe traditionally exiled children born with genetic diseases caused by the colony's higher radiation levels, and also where Arzt had been growing its "poison smoke trees". The Arzt took in the abandoned children and raised them as their own. This divide in Moon Moon's society remained in place for decades to come.[3]

First Neo Zeon War[]

On March 25, U.C. 0088, Moon Moon became involved in the First Neo Zeon War, when the Argama and the Endra were caught up in the ideological infighting between the Light Tribe's religious leadership and commoners. The religious leaders sought to use the outsider ships to spread the Light Tribe's back-to-nature teachings to other space colonies, while those who opposed this plan feared that doing so would cause Moon Moon to become entangled in the outsiders' conflicts and end their way of life. The Neo Zeon crew of the Endra seized control of Moon Moon after mistakenly believing that the Light Tribe had imprisoned Chara Soon, and took Leina Ashta hostage. Further misunderstandings led to a brief skirmish between the troops of the Argama and the Endra that ended with the latter force conceding defeat and Judau Ashta being recognized as the Light Tribe's messiah by its prophet, Sarasa Moon.[2]

Judau confused Sarasa for her twin sister, Rasara Moon, insulting Sarasa and turning the Light Tribe against the Argama crew. They escaped with the help of Rasara, who detailed the source of the Light Tribe's desire to spread its teachings was Sarasa's belief that rejecting machines could bring an end to all war. Seeing an opportunity, the Endra pledged their loyalty to Sarasa to try and gain control of Moon Moon, another skirmish ignited. The Argama crew expelled the Endra crew, and quelled the Light Tribe by reactivating a long-dormant Catl mobile worker, and Sarasa was found to have been manipulated by the priest Role, who wanted to open Moon Moon out of a desire to reconnect with the outside world. After convincing Sarasa it would be better for Moon Moon to maintain isolation due to the ongoing war outside, the Argama departed the space colony.[4]

U.C. 0092[]

In U.C. 0092, the Gundam Mk-IV G-Doors' head and Psycho Plates collided with Moon Moon's outer wall, causing the colony's environment system to fail. The Light Tribe dispatched a spacecraft to ask the Colony Public Corporation for repairs, however the spacecraft is lost during a battle between Neo Zeon's Atalante 3 and a Londo Bell squad.

Abandonment of Moon Moon[]

In Mobile Suit Crossbone Gundam: Dust, Moon Moon residents returned to Earth after the Zanscare War that occurred in U.C. 0153 and settled there. However, Earth's natural environment proved harsh for the Spacenoids and they withdrew to the underwater city Ryuguujo, which had an environment similar to a space colony. In U.C. 0169, there is a dispute between the ruling class who wish to return to space with assistance from the Jupiter Republic and the "Surface Alliance" who want to adapt and remain on Earth.

Known Inhabitants[]

Gallery[]


Notes & Trivia[]

Appearances[]

References[]

Universal Century Locations
Asteroids
A Baoa Qu/Gate of Zedan | Axis | Fifth Luna | Luna II | Moussa | Palau | Pezun | Solomon/Konpei Island
Earth
Adelaide | Antarctica | Augusta Base | Belfast | California Base | Cheyenne Base | Dakar | Davao | Dublin | Great Canyon | Hickory | Hong Kong | Jaburo | Kennedy Spaceport | Kimberlite Base | Lhasa | Mount Kilimanjaro | Murasame Research Institute | New Guinea | New York | Odessa | Oenbelli | Seattle | St. Anges | Sydney | Torrington Base
Moon
Aires City | Amman | Anaheim | Granada | Von Braun | Neo Cartagena
Space Colonies
Cosmo Babylonia | Laplace | Londenion | Moon Moon | Side 1 | Side 2 | Side 3 | Side 4 | Side 5 | Side 6 | Side 7 | Side 8 | Sweetwater | Tigerbaum
Others
Penta | Magallanica | Side A (Arcadia)
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