Despina is an inner moon of Neptune, with a diameter of 150 km. It orbits Neptune in 0.335 Earth days.
Basic data[]
Despina orbits Neptune below its geosynchronous orbit, which implies that its orbit is slowly decreasing. The moon is already close to Neptune's Roche limit, which implies that Neptune's gravity on the surface almost equals moon's own gravity. At some point in the far future, Despina might break into a ring or will fall on Neptune.
It is thought that Despina is a remnant of Neptune's initial moon system. The former moons were destroyed when Neptune captured Triton. If that is the case, Despina can be made of coalesced fragments kept together by its weak gravity or could be a large fragment.
Despina was not imagined in large enough detail. We don't know much about its surface or internal composition. Its surface is made of water ice with some impurities. There is a chance that the moon contains also fragments of former rocky cores of Neptune's initial moons, but this theory needs to be verified.
Colonization[]
Because Despina is too small, it cannot hold an atmosphere and cannot be terraformed. Being close to Neptune's Roche limit, the moon is a risky place to build. Any building needs to be anchored on the surface. Tidal forces might also create fissures in rocks, threatening underground constructions.
Still, Despina is suitable for building small bases and colonies. Limited industrial centers can exist on the moon too.
It will be easy to fly between Despina and other inner moons of Neptune, but hard to reach Triton, the outer moons and Halimede interplanetary base. Because of this, Despina will have its economy strongly connected to the other inner moons of Neptune, which might form an autonomous region if Neptune one day will be a free state.