Launch before 1490

While discussing coastline protection, the subject of early spaceship launch came up.
Here is a configuration that makes the Alpha Centauri trip in 20 years:
23 SS Structural
9 SS Modules (3 each Habitation, Life Support, Solar Panel)
8 SS Components (2 each Fuel and Propulsion)

This ship can be launched before 1490, but there are times when its launch will not win the game. For you trivia buffs: when is that?

I don't actually KNOW the answer, but I've often wondered what happens if you launch in AD 1. The 20-year turn idea doesn't work so well around the meridian, since zero hadn't been invented yet (40 BC, 20 BC, AD 1, AD 21, etc.).

I suppose if you launch on that one particular turn, you need a 19-year spaceship?

Good call Urtica dioica, I totally forgot about AD 1.

I believe there are two turns (outside of year 1 AD which I don't know about) where a 20-year spaceship will fail... 1745, and 1735. That's because at 1750 turns start to go in 2 year increments instead of 5. So with either 5 or 15 years prior to 1750, keep adding 2 and you'll get (7, 9, 11, 13, 15,) 17, 19, then 21, etc. So 20 gets missed.

1735 and 1745 is the answer I was looking for.

How early can the best and luckiest players get a spaceship ready?

Urtica dioica said:

I don't actually KNOW the answer, but I've often wondered what happens if you launch in AD 1. The 20-year turn idea doesn't work so well around the meridian, since zero hadn't been invented yet (40 BC, 20 BC, AD 1, AD 21, etc.).

I suppose if you launch on that one particular turn, you need a 19-year spaceship?

Click to expand...

How would you even have the tech to do the space race by 1 AD without cheating?

The best I can manage is having automobile by that date.

10 internets for anyone who can get a 40,000-colonist ship with 1 less structural component than the one attached. This is a 21-year-ship, so you might be able to launch it in 20 BC (and only 20 BC). I finished it in 200 AD, so I wasn't able to test that out. The build order is important to determining where the structural components move. When building multiple parts in one turn the city list (F1) shows which order the builds occur. This one was

I believe that if a single structure is able to be eliminated somewhere, the result is a 20.9-year ship