Shackleton Regolith Works

Shackleton Regolith Works has mined the lunar south pole since 2117, producing oxygen, aluminium, titanium and sintered building blocks from regolith. Much of the structural material at L5 Lagrange Station came from its furnaces.

Six Cascade Dropships move materials between the surface and orbit, each landing or lifting 220 tonnes. Four Atlas Heavy Freighters carry 52,000-tonne lots from lunar orbit to L5 and Earth orbit, flown by three pilots. A Gravitas Dock Barge assembles orbital storage depots, and ten Wren Microlifters carry workers between mining camps and orbit.

The Cascade was chosen for its ability to handle lunar dust, which destroys seals and bearings. Halcyon engineers added extra dust shields to Shackleton's dropships, a modification now fitted to all Cascades. Each dropship cost 185 million credits and flies with two pilots. The Atlas freighters are a newer addition. Before buying them, the company chartered space on other companies' freighters, but owning four Atlas hulls at 410 million credits each cut transport costs by almost 40 percent.

The company employs more than 6,000 people on Luna, most of them in the mining camps around Shackleton crater, and supplies oxygen to Halcyon's own Shackleton Base yard. The Wren microlifters, flown by a single pilot and costing 6.4 million credits each, are used for crew changes and emergency evacuation from the mining camps.

In 2184 Shackleton Regolith Works delivered 1 million tonnes of material to L5 in a single year for the first time. Dev Raman of Halcyon's Luna propulsion team works with the company on drive maintenance.