An Open Report to the Committee of Space Exploration, Exploitation and Expansion.
Foreword
With the division of planet space in the Zavi System we must begin to look into the methods and cost of colonising new systems. Within this report is an overview of possible methods of getting to the new systems and an analysis of how the development of a new system should begin.
Transportation
Getting to a new system is a difficult task and although we have not yet recovered the means of reaching a new system there are hints that we are close. There is also evidence that the Vazan have managed to research the theory for the most basic of Interstellar Travel. Once a method of Interstellar travel has been determined the precise design of Interstellar Ships can be determined.
The most general solution in colonising a new system is to build an all purpose Colony Ship. This ship would have the ability to Explore, transport population safely, have the ability to create habitats and also transport a vast amount of post-processed materials. This ship is very much a brute force method and has several disadvantages. Thus it is best to colonise systems which are in excess of 25 light years away; where the ability to operate completely independently is required and where a connection to the trade network is impossible or at the very least extremely expensive.
For systems closer, those in the Hydra Tuft, constructing three different ships could be preferable. In Brief an Exploring ship, a Colonising Ship and a Freight Ship.
The Exploring Ship would have the ability to explore new systems and compile information on the planets in the new system. For this reason it would be the only ship to have any form of defences allowing it time to either flee or even destroy minor threats. This Exploring Ship would be the first ship created; and would thus allow for exploration for multiple systems before the construction of the colony fleet was finished. In line with this the last attribute of this ship would be the ability to deploy basic habitats into the final choice or choices of system.
Secondly the Colony Ship would simply be a very basic Habitat Ship, allowing population to be easily transported. It should be pointed out that the single greatest expense is in the Habitat Section; needless replication of this in overusing ship designs would greatly increase the cost of colonising.
Finally the Freight Ship; a simple design of a ship being able to transport vast amounts of post-processed materials. The first basic iteration of such a design might be built without recyclers but for longer jumps recyclers will become necessary to ensure that further away systems can be reached. The advantage of this ship is that with enough ships a vast amount of material can be transported and used to develop the system once the colonists have reached it and then these ships can immediately be assigned to form a trade route.
These three ship designs offer the best flexibility for the cost of each ship. Two ships, the Explorer and Freight Ship can be used for other functions than as part of a colonisation fleet whilst the dead weight loss of a Colony Ship is reduced to a minimum.
Development
The Choice of a new system to colonise is an important one. Initial systems should be close to the Zavi system. This would minimise the number of Freight ships that would have to be assigned to the trade lane.
Initial targets for Colonisation can be put into two broad categories. The first, and least likely, is the class of planets that can be called generally Garden Worlds. Garden Worlds would have two general features, an Atmosphere and a Carbon Biosphere, they would also lack many of the more hostile features that the Universe is replete with. Although even Garden Worlds with but a few hostile features would be a rare and fortunate find. The second category is one of the most common planet types. Small rocky planets. They usually feature low gravity and either cold or hot planetary temperatures. These planets are much more common and are just as cheap to initially colonise than Garden Worlds. Due to the usual low gravity and simple planetary features usually mean they have a good mining output and a decent farm output.
There is a third category; icy cold planets. These planets, whilst easy to colonise do not provide the amount of material that a rocky planet can and also produce much less food, although the access to volatiles will ease this. Thus this third class of planets should be the secondary target for colonisation, once the initial rocky planets have been colonised the access to volatiles will ease the pressure on the farms.
So lastly in analysing these planets we can make some ballpark figures for building multiple Beta habitats and the required shipyard, mines and farms. All in all it would require somewhere in the region of the current Kation output to build up this small base for half of the current population to colonise a new system. This only produces a small colony and would thus develop slowly. This can be sped up due to the close proximity of the target system to Zavi and the excess Freights ships. These Excess Freight Ships could transport a vast amount of resources to the system every trade rotation. This would be much more efficient than using the trade route which already has to transport rarer materials such as Heavy Metals, communication reports and keeping the people in contact with each other etc.
Thank you for your time and consideration. We welcome further enquiries and more detailed reports can be provided if the committee requires them.
OOC: Ok that was for everyone's benefit and in story format, I hope you like my ideas; discuss
. Front page change over in progress from now.
