Colonization 101

All about a new life  01.

The creation of the UN-HHC (Human Horizons Council) which would oversee the expanse of humanity out into the galaxy in 2020 was an important step. 

The basic rules they installed were; 

1. That no one could claim exclusivity over a star system or even a planet. 

2. Direct ownership of small moons was allowed, providing a permanent-manned outpost was established. 

3. When a colony was planted on a planet, it would be granted ownership of the “logical geographic zone” it was in. With the HHC being arbiter of any bounder dispute between colonies. 

4. Native life (plant and animal) must be respected. If intelligent native life is found, ownership of the planet and the star system defaults to them. The colony must offer to withdraw.

This rule set became the prime directive of colonizing. 

 

Very quickly the first part of point 4 came under debate, as scientists argued about the vague wording. The import of Earth life forms to an alien world that already had life forms, would cause ecological contamination with unpredictable results. Almost certainly some species would be destroyed.

Prelude to Colonizing

Step 1. A scout ship visits the system and charts it. If a planet looks promising, the ship will take a closer look. The choice to land or not is up to the captain. Most will do so. What explorer does not want to be first to set foot on a new land? If the scout’s report is favorable, a more dedicated survey mission will be sent.

Step 2. The second survey mission will do a lot of data gathering. A prime aim being to discover if any life on the planet is intelligent (near to our level) A secondary goal being to identify any hazards that would make colonizing unfeasible.

Step 3. Probes will be put in orbit to monitor the planet over 1 year. They will gather data, like weather patterns, that is essential to colony placement planning.

Step 4. An outpost will be set up at the site intended for the colony. Typically a 10 person crew will be left on the planet for the next year to get first hand experience with the local environment. A scout will check in on them during this time. After a year, the team will submit a full report including ecological impact study.

Step 5. The detailed colony plan is drawn up and reviewed by the UN-HHC.

The Ranger M3 outpost establisher ships are simply too small to set up a colony. Thus a new class of ship had to be built. The Outreach M1 was the result. In very basic terms it could carry 60 passengers and 1000 tons of cargo. The ship has 4 easy drop cargo pods, each holds about 60 tons. It also has 2 top cargo pods. Then there are 4 bulk bays on the middle deck, each holding about 120 tons. It also has a few internal cargo rooms next to the 2 hanger bays.

A much larger ship then the Ranger, but still not able to move a sizable population per trip.

This being about as big as we can make an FT ship is a major consideration for colony planning.

To set up a town would require 10 Outreach ships, or many trips by fewer ships. But this is not an unreasonable base line. The ship having 0.5 LY/day hyper speed, will take 20 days to reach a star 10 LY away. With a lay over time of about 20 days and another 20 days back to earth, one mission would take 2 months. If we then allow 1 month to resupply and ready the ship for the next mission, we find that one Outreach can make 4 trips / year.

If we have a fleet of 4 ships making 4 trips / year, we can plant 960 colonists with 16,000 tons of cargo in a year. If we keep this pace up for 10 years we get a colony of nearly 10,000 people. But lets not get ahead of ourselves.

A critical factor to the colony is the matter of growing edible food on the new world. Thus some of what the outpost must do is research into farming. By the time the colony plan is finalized an agriculture sub-plan must also be filed. Some things can be shipped in regularly, but feeding several 1000 people in the long term is not sustainable. So the early cargo will include a lot of farming equipment. The aim is that a colony be independent in terms of basic survival with in 5 years.

Cargo considerations brought about the Outreach Mk2 and Mk2-6 and Mk2-62

In simple terms the M2 replaces all the middle deck passenger cabins with cargo storage bays. This adds about 500 tons to the ship’s carrying capacity, while reducing its passenger carrying to 20 people. The M2-6 takes out the hanger bays and installs 6 more cargo pods. The M2-62 replaces the hanger bays with 2 of the massive C4 pods, which are 2 story buildings, 32x52x20 ft in size. Prefabricated fully functional buildings being very useful to a new colony.

Colonization Part 2

It was decided that before people arrive in large numbers, we should build a space station and put a satellite network in place. To do this we will use the Von Braun Rotating Space Station model. This requires several trips with M2-6 cargo haulers, and the use of a M2-w Outreach as temporary habitat for the workers. (the M2-c converts a sizable amount of cargo area into a work shop).

A 6 month construction time table is expected for this stage. 

The 2 colony types for a habitable world

1. Highly Organized Garden Area City, HO-GAC. As the name implies, a lot of planning will go into this compact design, that will include controlled expansion. It will be beautiful and functional. The city will have a max pop of 100,000 a number considered “right sized” by sociologists. Of course the early stage will build infra structure for about 1000, the expected number immigrating in one year.

This model requires lots of equipment be brought in from Earth, industrial vehicles and other big machines, entire factories even. Fore every M1 Outreach full of colonists we will need several M2 cargo haulers. Planners call for a work force, of about 120, living off canned foods, for one year. They will lay out infrastructure and set up essential utilities, including processing factories to turn local resources into building material.

The HO-GAC is basically communist, in that all key resources and utilities will be communally owned. Or it will be corporate, in that everything essential is owned by the sponsoring corporation. Privet ownership of housing and businesses will be allowed once the city is stable. But there will be numerous urban planning regulations about what you can build and where it can be located. 

The HO-GAC is the model preferred by Government & Corporations who want to develop a specific industry or objective. For example; IGI metal works, aims to be the top mining & refining company on a new world. It reviews the satellite data and selects a few possible resource rich areas. Then conducts some on site investigations. Once the best location is decided on, the company funds the set up of a city. The main industry being mining & refining will require a huge infrastructure to support it. For every 1 person employed directly in metal work there are likely 4 people in jobs outside the company. 

 

2. Frontier Village & Farms, FVF. As the name implies, there will be very little planned development. A village with essential services will be located and land with resources for it allocated. Around this in an organic scattered pattern will be the homestead farms of the colonists. Utilities like power & water, will not be provided outside the village, roads may be run eventually and satellite communications will be available from day one.

This model does not require massive amounts of equipment from Earth. It has the advantage of being quick and easy. Because colonists will be conducting small scale development with local resources.

The FVF plan is ideal for people wanting to start fresh or get away from the over-crowded, over-complicated cities of Earth. It is not expected to be an easy life, as the challenges of survival will be serious, even with a well equipped emergency facility at the village. The frontier style, does not mean a total abandonment of technology, it does require a reduction.

Unlike the objective oriented city, the FVF is just whatever it becomes. After a few years of support from Earth ends, the village is expected to grow on its own in whatever direction the people want and the land allows. This can mean potential regression of technology levels as no heavy industries are intended to be established.  Another possible example comes from this plan below.

 

Not exclusive.

No world is expected to have only one model of colonization. A wide variation on the above is possible. We expect there to be a few Planned Cities and many Farm Villages. The UN-HHC does require all colony plans be approved before launch. 

It will also act as auditor, sending an occasional fact finding agent to report on all aspects of the colony. If necessary control of the colony will temporarily be taken over until the problems can be settled. It is not a popular subject to talk about, but yes the UN-EDF will have colonial marines, who train to pacify problematic colonies.