Baikonur

The colony world of Baikonur is the first planet in the Soyuz system. The planet is one of the closest colony worlds to Earth, located in the Argo sector.

Colonisation
Baikonur was one of the first worlds targeted for colonisation in the 2330s, with a significant population of Martian settlers landing on the planet in 2334. At the time of its settlement, Baikonur was viewed optimistically as a reasonably-habitable world with great terraforming prospects. Although the Martian economic boom had revitalised Mars during the second half of the 22nd century, a large population had been left behind the new wave of industrialisation and felt the "New Mars" had no place for them or their skillsets. These settlers primarily hailed from the regions between the major population hubs of the Mariner Sprawl and the Hellas Sea, which did not see quite as much benefit from the renewed focus on industry and began to see a major "brain drain" to the primary population centres. As interstellar colonisation opened up, the New Frontier was viewed as an opportunity to start anew - something especially welcomed by the nascent Martians for whom interplanetary settlement was a part of their cultural mythology. Baikonur was selected for colonisation, and was part of the first wave of colonies settled that would later grow to become known as the Inner Colonies.

Acclimation to the new world proved difficult for the Martian settlers, who struggled to adapt to the planet's 1.05G gravity - by the end of the second year of colonisation almost half of the initial settler group had succumbed to medical issues resulting from their failure to adapt well to the local conditions or had retreated back up the well to live in the more comfortable space habitats in orbit. The lack of resultant manpower on the ground effectively halted the schedule for infrastructural construction projects, and concerns began to spread about the potential for a total collapse of the colonial venture entirely. By 2342, almost 65% of Baikonur's population lived in space rather than on the ground - though a lack of any real economy in the system meant that most of the space-borne population were left jobless and simply subsiding on rations held over from the initial expedition.