The Ark

The Ark (formally Ark Station) was the orbital home for the humans whose ancestors escaped the nuclear apocalypse on Earth 97 years before the events of the series.

The Ark was one of the main locations during the first season of the show. After that, no one lived there and the Government & Science section of the Ark was left in orbit. As of the end of Season Two a nuclear component of the high-tech space station is in the hands of the Artificial Intelligence A.L.I.E.

History and background
The Ark was the orbital home where the Sky People survived on for 97 years while Earth lay seemingly uninhabitable. The original survivors numbered over 400, spread across the space stations of 13 nations. Of those 13 stations one was lost to conflict before the remaining 12 joined forces. Those survivors combined the 12 remaining stations and thousands of satellites into the Ark  and their population grew to 2658,  stretching life support to the breaking point. Due to the resource scarcity, all adult criminals were punished with death and juvenile offenders were imprisoned until they turned 18 when they would go before the Council and were either freed or executed. Life-support on the Ark was failing and even the best repair estimates had the work taking longer than the system could keep the population alive. As both a means of lessening the load on the system and testing the survivability of Earth, the Ark sent The 100 to Earth in a drop ship.

Not knowing if the 100 were alive or dead, still facing inadequate life support, and with only enough drop ships for 700 residents, the Ark was forced to cull an additional 320 sacrificial volunteers, bringing the population living on board to 2237. After Diana Sydney's mutiny crippled the Ark, the Sky People separated the rest of the stations from the Government and Science Station and used the Ark's thrusters to bring it to the ground, leaving only the Go-Sci ring in space.

12 Nations
The individual space stations of 12 nations were combined to form the Ark. Their national flags were paraded as part of the Ark's Unity Day celebrations. The known station names are listed with 12 nations below.

According to Finn, the 13th Space Station was destroyed in a conflict and the remaining stations decided to work together in order to obtain peace. Which country it belonged to is unknown.
 * 13th Station

Season One
Approximately one year before the start of the first episode, it had been discovered by Jake Griffin that The Ark's oxygen system was failing, which was the reason that the 100 were sent to Earth. This problem presumably continues to worsen as the season progresses. In the episode Unity Day, an Exodus ship is launched, severely damaging the Ark. In the episode, We Are Grounders (Part 2), Jaha sends all except the Central Government and Science (Go-Sci) Station to earth. The rest of the stations break apart in the atmosphere but Mecha, Alpha, and Factory Stations have shown to at least partially survive re-entry.

Season Two
Throughout the first two episodes the sole resident of the remnants of the Ark, Thelonious Jaha, finds a way to make it back down to Earth in order to help save his people. He spacewalks from one side of the Go-Sci ring to the other and, after disarming a nuclear warhead, he takes the space-to-ground missile to the surface, leaving the Ark deserted. The Ark is last seen in the episode Spacewalker when there are flashbacks of Finn Collins and Raven Reyes on the Ark.

Station Components
The major divisions of the Ark were functionally named ''Stations. ''





Government & Science Station
The Government & Science Station (Go-Sci for short) is the large primary ring of the Ark. Go-Sci and the Ark’s other ring stations rotate to create artificial gravity using centripetal force. Go-Sci is the location of the key command and operations sections of the Ark. It was also left behind in orbit when the rest of the Ark was de-orbited. It is the only remaining Ark-component that remained in space after project landing. Councillor Jaha stayed behind on this station.

Ark Station Medical

 * Ark Station Medical is located within Go Sci Station. Doctor Abigail Griffin worked there as the Ark’s senior medical officer. She was assisted by Doctor Jackson.

Earth Monitoring Station

 * Earth Monitoring Station is located within Go Sci Station. This was where "the 100" wristband monitors were tracked, and where Chancellor Jaha initiated station separation, allowing everyone else to attempt reentry to Earth while he himself stayed behind in orbit.

Agro Station
Agro Station (aka Farm Station) was the Ark’s agricultural facility. It grew soy used as food by the inhabitants, and was also known for moonshine. ("Earth Kills", mentioned) One of three stations evacuated after losing power during the Unity Day mutiny.
 * Jasper Jordan and Monty Green are both from Agro Station, and used their agricultural knowledge to grow "stuff".

Alpha Station
Little is known about Alpha Station but it was separated from the Ark, while descending to Earth. The crash site of Alpha Station on Earth is the center for Camp Jaha, where the remaining survivors of Project Exodus gather.
 * Clarke Griffin was from Alpha Station
 * Nathan Miller was from Alpha Station

Arrow Station
This station is at the end of the Ark, away from Go-Sci. The Arrow Station is the station adjacent to Mecha Station and is not, as opposed to popular belief, the station that goes through the Go-Sci ring. This station was called Shenzhen before the nuclear war.

Factory Station
Factory Station presumably manufactured items, needed by the Ark, from recycled materials and/or broken components. The Blake family lived there until Octavia Blake was discovered. Later, Bellamy worked there as a janitor. The Factory station had a rough landing due to it hitting the side of a cliff and shattering. There were no survivors except for Mel, who was rescued from the side of a cliff face by Bellamy.

Hydra Station
Hydra Station, often pronounced "Hydro" Station, and thus possibly water related. I.E. reclamation (and possibly aquaculture). One of three stations evacuated after losing power during the Unity Day mutiny. Its 4th bulb exploded during the process to get to Earth, which led into the destruction of the entire station.

Mecha Station
The Ark’s mechanical facilities were located in Mecha Station. Unknown to most, one of the station’s maintenance bays housed a 130-year-old escape pod salvaged from Mir-3 in 2102. One of three stations evacuated after losing power during the Unity Day mutiny. The station’s hull has a Brazilian flag painted on it,  implying that much of Mecha Station was converted from the original Brazilian national station. Mecha Station was the only station without casualties from the Ark separation, reentry, and landing.
 * Cuyler Ridley worked here.
 * Raven Reyes was from here.
 * Finn Collins was from here.

Prison Station
Prison station is also known as the Sky Box and Lockup. It is the station that contained the juvenile prison where the delinquents remained before being sent to Earth. The Sky Box is only seen in the Pilot episode but is mentioned in many others. Those who are under the age of majority when convicted of a crime are sent to the Sky Box until the age of 18. At 18, they are reviewed and it is decided if they should be executed or released. It was the fourth station that lost power during the Unity Day mutiny. (It was not mentioned if it was also evacuated.)

Tesla Station

 * Based on the names, Tesla Station may be the formal name for "Power" Station.

Little is known about Tesla Station, but it was shown on computer displays as one of the stations that separated from the Ark, and descended to Earth.

Power Station was only named once as stations reported ready for Ark separation and atmospheric reentry. Presumably it generated the majority of the electrical power used on the Ark. It was probably unable to function after the Unity Day mutiny due to damages made.

Other divisions of the Ark, include station sections and docks, with alpha-numeric designations:
 * Station Sections
 * Section 17 – location of the room where The Culling took place.
 * Section No. B-17 – the location of both Cuyler Ridley’s, and Bellamy Blake’s living quarters in Factory Station according to profiles shown onscreen.
 * B dock – The location that the 100’s Exodus ship was launched from.

Drop ships
Drop ships are dedicated reentry vehicles allowing return to Earth. After using one Exodus ship to send down the 100 and losing another to Diana Sydney’s mutiny, the Ark’s drop ship capacity was reduced to 600 people, however, the damage to the Ark was too catastrophic to be able to use the remaining drop ships.
 * Exodus ship – A large, 100-person drop ship.
 * Escape pod – A small, 2-person drop ship
 * Space shuttles – At least two shuttles can be seen docked to the Ark.

Thrusters
Thrusters are normally used to keep the Ark in its proper orbit since even in low-Earth orbit there is enough atmospheric friction to slow orbits over long periods of time. Each component station had thrusters and Chancellor Jaha came up with the idea to use the thrusters to make most of the Ark itself a large "drop ship".

Precursors
The Ark was constructed by merging 12 national space stations, two of which have been named.

Mir-3
(Russian: Мир-3; literally: “peace” or “universe”) was a Russian space station, and one of the 12 national space stations that The Grounders joined together to form the Ark. Mir-3 was launched 130 years ago, and salvaged in 2102.

Shenzhen
(Chinese: Shén (“divine”/“deity”/“spirit”/“magic”)Zhèn (“town”); pinyin: Shénzhèn; literally: “divine-town”) was a Chinese space station and one of the 12 national space stations that the Grounders joined together to form the Ark.

Shenzhen station is also known as the Arrow Station, as shown in the episode Spacewalker when in the flashback it shows Chinese writing. One of the metal box components on Government and Science Station has a Chinese flag on it, indicating that Shenzhen formed part of the Station along with the unnamed American space station (a US Flag can also be seen in front of the Go Sci Station). The airlock that was going to be used for Abigail Griffin's execution in Pilot had Chinese characters over the door, indicating that the airlock was originally part of Shenzhen. This was the same airlock used for Jake Griffin's execution, although whether or not it is the same one used for all executions is unknown. The words "Solid Waste Disposal" were written beneath the characters in English, although it is unknown whether they were part of Shenzhen's original design or if they were added later.

Residents
Current: None Past:

Appearances
In this section, the Ark is referred to as the Ark being up in space as a whole. This does not include separate stations of the spaceship as seen in Season Two.

Notes and Trivia

 * The name is a literal interpretation of the bible story 'Noah's Ark' ; a refuge place for the survivors of a species after an apocalypse.
 * The Ark is the birthplace of the Sky People.
 * In the novels, the space station is called The Colony.
 * In We Are Grounders (Part 2), the Closed Captioning also lists Aero (possible alternative spelling for "Arrow"), Orchid, and Flint Stations.