The Venus spaceport and embassy

From the Solar System's perspective, the strategic value of Venus is Venus low-orbit. Someone's got to play stationary-bandit here. That'll be done from a higher orbit.

In the central Solar System the major players are: Earth, Moon, planetside Venus, colonies orbiting Venus, and Venus' Libration Stations. Of these the Earth and Venus planets, further, share gravity.

Since Venus has no regular seasons of her own, most Venus colonies will share, for a calendar, the Earth-Venus synodic 19.18 month year. They call Mars and the rest, "Outworld". One exception is Venus L5, which we'll get to.

Belter, Earth, and Martian flights on their own synodics may whiz an Opposition trajectory past Venus on their respective "Fry-by", en route to wherever. Any such plows through Venus' orbit, at their own angle, dumping ores, ices, and passengers to whomever can catch them. From eccentric Mars, this is five months after departing thence. These vary in expense, about one in seven being the most costly and - therefore - delivering the worst-tempered passengers.

Venus orbital stations potentially charge rents on whatever does the fry-by, going through. (This may be why libertarian author L Neil Smith, notoriously, proposed disintegrating the whole planet.) I am further assuming Hop David's general thesis that interplanetary intercourse should run between high-orbits and even between Librations; not direct from the Galapagos to Ishtar Terra.

Venus cloud cities are to house interplanetary travellers and, for the outworlders going to Earth, to acclimatise them for Earthlike G. Also the cities grow food for the Venus complex of colonies and for outgoing craft.

Whatever major System interests any offworlder maintains on a given planet, must rotate a consulate into the stations of that planet's orbital tier. I presume that all the embassies have apartments on one central station. Over Venus proper, SVL2 is the best location so the choice for the main embassy-site. To what extent 'L2 "rules Venus" will be grist for political thrillers.

Earth in particular tries to keep a permanent consulate on every Venus station. The outworlders in Venus tend to videoconference, or else must air their grievance in the SVL2 Station or - at last - at SVL5 Capitol.

UPDATE 1/4 AM: split off the orbital mechanics and the sketch of the central station, into their own sections.