As a huge city station that houses a large population, I imagined not everyone would live on the surface. I figured some of the residents, the less wealthy class, would have homes built below the surface in the planetoid rock. The better apartments among this class would ring the outermost part of the underground so they’d at least get a view of space. I imagined that’s what some of the structures and lights are in the equator around the entry hatches. It made some sense to me that the more industrial apartments would be near the transportation lines, like less-desirable real-world homes being in close proximity to railroad tracks, airport runways, or busy highways.

Again, for story reasons, I wanted the insides of the entry tunnels to be recognizable for when the crew winds up there again later. So I gave it a more memorable look, with the long horizontal bands of running lights. I also like how the prominent horizontal bands really accentuate the long tunnel feel.