What might cause a civilization to be unable to colonize a large moon but live in space stations around it instead?

In my world a moon is reached and colonised but only in space stations for a long time. They gain the ability to reach the surface and then story happens. It needs to be something that can be bypassed so the main characters can get down to it. Some important things to know are:

• it is similar to Titan (in composition, with more earth like conditions, water, oxygen etc)
• it is about half the size of Earth
• it is on the cold edge of the habitable zone
• the gas giant its orbiting is similar to Saturn
• it must have conditions where (non extremophile) life can live
• I do not want anything to be able to get down: no probes, robots, etc

What could cause a civilization to be unable to land (physically) on a moon's surface but build many space stations around it?

posted almost 4 years ago

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