Terra Nova is a Space Station orbiting near Mars supporting thousands of citizens. It is our central hub, and governing body for asteroid mining. If you can afford to leave Earth and start your career as a Belt Miner, that's where you're headed.

HISTORY
In 2020 Earth was running out of resources. Global Resource Management (GRM) funded Beltminer, Inc. to create a starship. The ship would venture into space and become a self-sufficient asteroid mining and resource gathering platform.  

Simultaneously, GRM pursued another brute-force method of providing valuable resources to Earth. It landed a crew on a C-Type asteroid requiring low delta V to bring it to Earth. The crew landed, and processed the ice-water on the asteroid to create liquid-hydrogen fuel to burn in "steering rockets". The technique required aero-braking the asteroid in the Earths atmosphere on arrival. Dangerous, but the asteroid would provide the world requirement for steel, water, and organic compounds for several million years.