Hell's Gate

Hell's Gate

The facility formerly known as Resources Development Administration Extra-Solar Colony 01 (RDA ESC 01), but generally known as Hell's Gate, is the main center for all human colonial activities on Pandora, and contains the planet's only spaceport. It is in a constant state of siege from both the toxic environment and dangerous animals.
A pentagonal perimeter fence (each side 2.3382 km or 11.69 km--7.264 miles--total) encloses 9.406 sq km (approx. 3.6317 sq miles). Major weapon towers at each apex provide heavy munitions defense against surface and air intrusions by large hostile Pandoran wildlife, while four smaller towers spaced 250 meters apart along each side handle intrusions by smaller life forms, including burrowing attacks. A cleared, thirty-meter-wide strip surrounds the base, which is regularly patrolled by automatic plant-clearing machinery that keeps the jungle at bay through regular administration of acidic mining byproducts. Slightly more than a third of the site is taken up by the shuttle runway, VTOL pads, hangars, equipment storage areas, and garage structures. A similar area is occupied by the armor bay, vehicle storage sheds, and a light industrial plant mainly used for fabricating parts for mining equipment and ammunition for base defense. The unobtanium refinery complex takes up the western side of the facility.
The remainder of Hell's Gate is composed of administrative structures such as: a barracks for SecOps staff, studio-style apartments for technicians and mine workers, an airtight condominium for senior staff, as well as Sci Mod that is part of the utilitdor-connected Hab Mod and Ops Center structures.
Recreational facilities such as the base commissary (popularly known as Hell's Kitchen) are shared, except for an unpressurized section between the research labs and the landing zone mainly used by members of the Avatar Program for athletic training. The recreational facilities are on the fifth floor, along with the gym.

Facilities

Valkyrie landing in the Airfield

Airfield

The airfield takes up two thirds of Hell's Gate. The layout features a runway and 2 landing pads connected by a taxiway. The landing Valkyrie flies over the unobtanium mine as it begins its final approach. It is then escorted by Scorpions until it switches its thrusters to vertical and descends to a landing pad. Other landing air vehicles descend to a landing pad and then hover taxi to the hangar area. There is a Control Tower for monitoring air traffic.

Armor Bay

The Armor Bay is where vehicles come to get stored, repaired, or refitted. This building is the main storage area of all AMP suits. There is also a small weight room inside a weapons locker that Miles Quaritch uses. Designed for security and rapid force deployment, the Armor Bay is the core of Hell’s Gate’s defenses. Housed inside its large, fortified hanger and at the ready are Dragon Assault Ships configured for battle domination, Scorpion Gunships, Samson Tiltrotors, Heavy Duty Model 10 Slash-Cutters and an array of AMP suits, among other attack craft, support vehicles, and assorted battle-ready machinery.

Quaritch talking to Sully in the Armor Bay

The Hell's Gate Armor Bay and its munitions stockpile is believed to be one of the largest concentrations of light to medium weaponry outside Earth. The Armor Bay is protected by meter-thick walls of concrete and fused local rock. Its doors are made from reinforced, magnetically actuated titanium alloy. The roof is constructed of three-meter-thick reinforced concrete with a surface layer of glassified local rock for additional strength and protection. Its specifications are believed to be sufficient to resist physical assault by the largest known Pandoran megafauna with a safety margin. Much of the Armor Bay was originally designated for mining equipment storage, civilian vehicle parking and maintenance, and additional recreational facilities. Instead, the fabricators that were brought out for mining equipment maintenance were repurposed to make ammunition and razor wire; the mining machines themselves were used to dig defensive earthworks or fitted with armored cabs and giant knives and sent OTW (outside the wire) to engage Pandoran megafauna.

Avatar Compound

Jake Sully in the Avatar Compound

The Avatar Compound is where avatar controllers train and store their avatars. The station is located on the outskirts of Hell's Gate. It is made up of a wild Pandoran forest-like environment that avatar drivers can use for training purposes. The station also houses several watch towers, lakes, basketball courts, a wooden longhouse, a large electric fence to keep Pandoran wildlife out and several sanitary and science stations, modified to be used by avatars when working on projects or experiments. The location is also used by scientists, who normally stay inside the longhouse during the daytime, and leave during nighttime when the human operators leave their avatars.

Biolab

The Biolab is a small laboratory adjacent to the Operations Center. The amnio tanks containing Jake Sully and Norm Spellman's avatars were unloaded into the room on arrival. The room has several workstations in it for scientific purposes. Jake recorded his first log entry at one of them.

Hell's Kitchen

Grace Augustine in Hell's Kitchen

The mess hall of the base, commonly known as Hell's Kitchen, serves a range of food, including tapirus. There are two menus, one for before and after midday. Scientists and SecOps personnel eat together on long benches. The cafeteria area is also used for meetings; Quaritch's briefing to the soldiers prior to the Assault on the Tree of Souls took place there.

Operations Center

Parker Selfridge practicing his putts in the Operations Center

Located near the Armor Bay and SecOps barracks, the RDA Operations Center, or OPS Center, occupies the largest building in the main Hell's Gate administration complex. It is the nexus for communications and operational control on Pandora. Fortified tunnels connect the center to the communications array, with three large antennae and a space resonator for communications outside the local system, and five smaller antennae for accessing Pandoranet communications and geolocation satellites.

Stereolithography Plant

Every piece of human machinery used on Pandora must be made at the Stereolithography Plant. Stereolithography is a form of 3D printing which allows the humans to construct practically anything they want as long as they have raw materials.  The limited ability of the plant to construct advanced computers is one of the reasons why the humans were not able to use up-to-date technology in their vehicles. If machinery is in need of an update, the blueprints must be brought on an ISV so the plant has a template for the construction. Another thing that must be brought on a starship is some of the more advanced materials used to make the objects, most raw materials are however collected on Pandora.

Vernacular System

Diagram showing cross-section of pipes

The numerous corridors that riddle the base are lined with a series of pipes, which are used for transportation of waste gases, water, electricity and coolant. HVAC pipes (Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning) run at floor level, which are brought up via vertical feeds and diffused into the rooms from above.