Luna

Luna, often referred to as the Moon, is the only natural satellite of Earth. Luna is home to a large human population and the renowned Luna OCS Academy. Luna houses a number of skyhook defense complexes suspended in its low orbit.

History
Human beings took their first steps on Luna in 1969. By 1996, US Apollo 14 astronaut Edgar Dean Mitchell was the 6th human to have walked on the moon.

Human settlement
Humans began settling on Luna around 2080. During the Interplanetary War, Vladimir Koslov and his family were killed in a bombing at Lake Autolycus on Luna.

By 2492, a governing body of Luna was known as Luna Confederated States, the State of Mare Nubium being one of the said states. The Academy at Mare Nubium, known more generally as the Luna OCS Academy, was located here.

Human-Covenant war
Despite its proximity to Earth, Luna was home to some degree of Insurrectionist activity; shortly after 2530, the parents of Michael Crespo died attempting to detonate a bomb attached to a government building on Luna.

Around the time of the Fall of Reach, flights from the Manassas Spaceport on Reach went to Luna.

During the Battle of Earth in late 2552, Luna's skyhook defense complexes came under attack by the Covenant and were defended by ONI Security personnel. Other Covenant forces attacked Luna's cities to ensure that the UNSC would not be able to launch a sneak attack from their Lunar military bases. Both Luna and Mars got hit particularly hard compared to other colonies in the Sol system, although they both fared better than Earth. The human presence on the moon survived the Covenant assault relatively intact.

Post-war
Following the Human-Covenant War, Luna was home to the Office of Naval Intelligence vessel, which was deployed to Installation 00 in December of 2553 to investigate the disappearance of automated probes sent eight months prior and to determine the source of an unknown signal.

Topography
Luna has a barren surface and is atmospherically devoid. It's gravity is low, which has prevented large scale terraforming. Likely due to all this, the habitats on Luna are sealed from vacuum and interconnected by tubes. They are referred to as canopy settlements.

Locations

 * Naniwa
 * Crisium City
 * Daedalus Crater
 * Delambre
 * Mare Cognitum
 * Mare Nubium
 * State of Mare Nubium
 * County of Newton
 * Shadow Perimeter 3
 * Asimov Center
 * Luna OCS Academy
 * Mare Insularum
 * Armstrong Alley
 * Mare Imbrium
 * Ankara
 * Anakara Resiliency Chamber
 * "Bosque de Negro"
 * Mare Frigoris‎
 * Procellarum basin‎
 * Tycho Observation Facility

Known residents

 * Jacob Keyes
 * Miranda Keyes
 * Michael Crespo
 * The Rookie
 * Sarah Palmer

Trivia

 * Luna is the Latin word for Moon, and many Latin-based languages share the word.
 * In many Earth-based maps in the Halo games, the Moon often appears to be larger than in real life.
 * The Moon would be roughly 2059.6 cm further from the Earth in 2552 than present day due to tidal acceleration forces.

List of appearances

 * Halo: The Fall of Reach
 * Halo 2
 * Halo 3
 * Halo: The Cole Protocol
 * Halo: Evolutions - Essential Tales of the Halo Universe
 * The Impossible Life and the Possible Death of Preston J. Cole
 * Remember Reach
 * Spaceport
 * Halo: Cryptum
 * Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary
 * Terminals
 * The Commissioning
 * Halo 4
 * Halo: Escalation
 * Halo 2: Anniversary
 * Halo: New Blood
 * Halo: Hunters in the Dark
 * Halo Mythos
 * Halo: Envoy
 * Halo: Retribution
 * Halo: Legacy of Onyx
 * Halo: Bad Blood