So you have probably heard me mention MS Gundam Awakening, Escalation Confrontation (A.K.A MS Gundam: The Novel) once or twice already. This is a written work by Yoshiyuki Tomino who wrote the first MS Gundam series (the anime) and, like a premonition of Frozen Teardrop, decided to write it all down but make it all his own. The novel is very much aimed at a young adult market compared to the younger audience of the anime - I haven't seen the anime myself, but there's a a definite amount of nookie and a plot point about pubes in the book which I doubt was included in the show.
You do you, Tomino.
As Amyole wrote in her post about Space Habitats, MS Gundam is the only verse in which the term 'Side' is used to describe or designate a colony. The novel also likes to provide detail. Onerous amounts of detail at the detriment of the plot at times (Neither Tomino nor Sumizawa the author of Frozen Teardrop manage to adhere to the show-don't-tell approach of writing.) but in terms of world-building, it's scraps we can glean out to fit to our own purposes. There are certainly elements which can't be applied to Gundam Wing, but as the precursor which spring-boarded Wing's creation, it can be helpful to know some of the numbers that have been put out there regarding the facts and figures of the colonies.
It's worth checking out Amyole's post above if you haven't already done so, as it adds more context to the rest of this post. It should also be noted that all of the colonies in the UC verse are O'Neill's cylinders, whilst in GW most are presumed to be the Stanford Torus type.
Luna II, Solomon, A Baoa Qu.
The first major difference that we can kick to the kerb in the AC era is the idea of Luna II. See the two captures below:
Juno is located beyond Mars in the asteroid belt. This means that for whatever reason, the folks of Universal Century (inasmuch as the novel tells us anyway) by-passed Mars in order to pull back a moon, and then never did anything with the Red Planet afterwards. In Gundam Wing, travel past Mars isn't mentioned and doesn't seem likely given that they've only just started seriously looking into using Mars for any purpose at all by the end of the series. This isn't quite like Jupiter where we can go for a quick boogie around Europa just for kicks. Travel still seems to be limited to the Earth-Moon system.
Solomon and A Baoa Qu are both space fortresses, not colonies. As far as I know, the only equivalents would be Barge or Peacemillion in the AC era.
Reason For Construction and the Order of Construction
The novel provides some of the background that GW glosses over as to why and how the colonies were established in the first instance, and provides some insight into which of the colonies is the oldest, and which is the newest. The following 3 screenshots are consecutive text in the novel.
Based on the above then, if we take this as fact and translate it over to Gundam Wing verse; L5 is the oldest colony, with 2 separate Colony Clusters within it. FYI, Side 1 is later destroyed completely. L4 is the next oldest colony, again with 2 Colony Clusters within it. L1 is the middle child, which might explain a lot, and L2 is the second to youngest, each with one Colony Cluster. Well... Kind of. L1 has 'Texas'. It is not, in fact, a permanent residence but:
So in this version; the whole of the L1 colonies have been ruined, leaving one dilapidated tourist and agricultural unit behind. A startling contrast to the bland big city-block version of L1 we see in GW. (By all means, though please send me your Cowpoke Yuy and Space Western AU headcanons. As they say, save a horse...)
And last but not least, L3 is the baby of the colonies.
I feel like this order of events (with the exception of L1) does have a nice little tally with the characters there; L5 and L4 do feel to me like the oldest; L4 the most established and L5 the most archaic. L1 is the kid that had its disaster years but it benefits from being between the Earth and the Moon and has made a tidy buck and a prodigal come back. L4 is residential-led whilst L2 and L5 are the most militarised. And L3 remains a question mark.
External Dimensions
As I said, Tomino loves to throw in facts and figures. All of the colonies in UC verse are O'Neill Cylinders, and we get some idea of the possible scope of colony sizes.
The un-named colony at Side 7 at L3 is unfinished in the story, and is small, a mere 3km in diameter by 25km long, occupied by some 13,800 civilians, plus troops.
In L2, the 'Mahal' colony (yes, colonies have actual names in this verse) is identified as the smallest but is similar in size only to the colony in L3's eventual size.
The L2 colonies are further described in the next three screenshots, which are consecutive text in the novel:
Pretty big, huh? And it drops in the idea that L2 colonies are kind of robust and chunky but more artificial in their environment than other places. There's no glass or 'windows' to allow you to look out or simulate sky, whereas it suggests that other colonies elsewhere do just that. It also adds the fun idea that different colonies set their own region and temperatures. It makes sense, in part for agriculture to pick the best climate for what you need to produce, but in any case, I guess people will still make small talk about the weather, and bitch about it, even in space.
On the Inside
Finally, the novel provides one useful scene early on in which a battle takes place inside of the un-named, unfinished colony in L3:
This is then, an open colony, similar to the 1970's illustrations of O'Neill cylinders linked to in Amyole's post. There's some other nice nuggets of info as well, about the conditions inside, which the L2-based Zeon characters find surprising. L3 colonies are somewhat more 'greened' than others?
Oh Gene. We also can see that the L3 colony has clouds, dirt and trees.
There's a nod to the types of transport available to, also suggesting variance between colonies, and also within colonies:
And some details on the general arrangement of the colony:
So there you have it; a quick and dirty overview of the idea of the colony set up and Legrange points according to Tomino, and a scattering of lego-brick facts which may or may not be of use to you as you build your own idea of what the AC era could resemble.
Oh, and of course, the most important thing - the mental image of Heero Yuy in leather chaps.
You're welcome.
(Edited to correct earlier mistake in saying Juno was one of Jupiter's moons. One day I'll understand space, but not today.)