Star Way

The Star Way was built in the early twenty-sixth century. It is first and foremost a transportation system. From the Solar System to the Centauri System huge lightsails kilometers across are driven by lasers to speeds fast enough to make the trip in a little over six years. The light from the Sun or Alpha Centauri A is fed to giant solar arrays which power the tremendous energy needs of the lasers. The laser light is refocused every one-hundred astronomical unit by giant lenses at beam relay stations and sent forward or redirected to power the lightsails. At the time the system was the largest engineering project ever undertaken by humans.

The Star Way is not only a transport system, it is also an abode for human life. Almost every fifth beam relay station along the Star Way has an accompanying habitat. These habitats, usually cylindrical, slowly rotate to provide an artificial gravity for their inhabitants.

At a distance of thirty-seven billion miles, ten times the distance from the Sun to Pluto, the settlements are truly isolated from each other. Even a fusion ship takes over twenty days to travel from one settlement to another. And while still small compared to the Earth the total population of the Star Way amounts to almost three-hundred million people . . .

Source:

Sci-pedia - The Online Resource for Science - The Star Way