The Terran Defense Force maintains the Solar System's largest -- and most heavily defended -- research and development site in Charon. Engineers hollowed out a significant fraction of Charon and built the Winter Base facility several kilometers beneath the satellite's surface. The space around Pluto is tightly controlled: its defensive systems are programmed to automatically engage any nearby spacecraft not emitting a friendly IFF transponder signal. Crews aboard Winter Base have orders to engage any spacecraft -- even a friendly -- if it does not have proper authorization upon approaching within 150,000 kilometers of Charon.
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An artist's impression of Pluto and Charon
Credit: European Southern Observatory
Once a ship has docked, anyone who wishes to enter Winter Base proper must possess Infrared-level security clearance and proper authorization to enter the facility. Anyone who enters the base without clearance and authorization faces detention and trial for violating Terran Defense Martial Code 144.368.29, one of the few Terran laws that carries a death penalty.
Winter Base is headquarters for the Russian Winter Project, a crash R&D effort similar to the 20th-century Manhattan Project. Areas of research include new weapon systems and armor, improvements to trans-dimensional drives and other applications of new Trans-D theory, and magnetogravitic propulsion.