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Worldbuilding

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    $\begingroup$ Scientific American published a paper about interplanetary highways in the Solar system 10 or 15yrs ago. The author (authors?) argued the interplanetary trade hubs would be at Lagrange points of pairs of massive planetary bodies and most of the payload (by mass) would remain on them and on the higways between them, not transfer onto planets, because it would be a waste of gravitational potential energy. In other words, the highways of the future are along the crest lines of the total gravitational potential in the Solar system and hubs are on its hilltops. $\endgroup$
    – François Jurain
    Commented Jun 27 at 5:57
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    $\begingroup$ If there is a quasi-continuous ring of asteroids which intersects these highways at a few well-defined points, it makes sense to have transportable hubs hop from one asteroid to the next as the highway sweeps through the ring. As the most massive of these asteroids, Ceres is also the least interesting of them. $\endgroup$
    – François Jurain
    Commented Jun 27 at 5:58
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    $\begingroup$ That being said, surface gravity on Ceres is only 3% that of Earth according do en.WP. $\endgroup$
    – François Jurain
    Commented Jun 27 at 5:59
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    $\begingroup$ The Interplanetary Transfer System is fine and dandy if you can afford to spend a few decades going from one planet to another. $\endgroup$
    – armand
    Commented Jun 28 at 1:24
  • $\begingroup$ For some activities a mass to absorb heat/vibration/momentum would be very useful, but a dime-a-dozen sub-km rock should serve for most cases. $\endgroup$
    – Anton Sherwood
    Commented Jun 29 at 20:20