New Sahara

New Sahara is a planet located in the region of space known as The Triangle, and is one of two marginal Class M worlds in the Oeth System, the other being New Siberia.

As the name implies, New Sahara is a desert world with a hot, dry climate and little surface water outside of two oceans located near the polar regions. The planet would be uninhabited if it was not for a compound found within its vast quantities of sand. Known as Hard Sand, the compound can be used to create one of the strongest high-temperature ceramics in the galaxy. Hard Sand has even been used in the construction of starship engines.

As the planet has few, if any other resources, most of its supplies must be imported, including water from neighboring New Siberia.

The government of the two planets, New Sahara and New Siberia, are shared. The Grandmaster, the leader of the government, is elected to a five year term, along with 60 Grand Senators (30 from each of the two planets).

Both planets consider themselves to be unaligned to any major power. (FASA reference book The Triangle)

Although not stated, the name of the planet implies that it was settled by Humans, or mostly Human colonists.