While most evacuation missions at the height of the Bio-Digital Plague were hastily assembled propositions, what would a normal, properly provisioned colony expedition carry with it when leaving the Core for a new world?
Most of the colonists themselves would undoubtedly make the journey in stasis to conserve resources while the crew would awaken at predetermined intervals to check on the status of the ship. And the ship would carry supplies such as portable medical facilities, water purification and sanitation equipment, consumables (food), miniature com-sats, etc. But, what else would a colony need during initial settlement? Perhaps a small version of the Data Ark?
The Colony ships data core would most likely have a great wealth of data on colony missions / technologies that would be beneficial etc. But I believe that any Colony mission would carry multiple backup data units that could also be used as standalone computers.
Food and machines that make reprocessed foods & water sanitation machines would be a must.
Atmospheric cleaning machines - either for terra-forming or for dome management or even personal re-breathers would be important in the early years.
Medical facilities on the ship would be supplemented by portable/deployable science/medical facilities that could be transferred to the surface of a planet
I would hope for 2x small shuttles for personnel & 2x larger cargo shuttles for moving the cargo pods and for eventual retooling as mining vehicles
A good mix of genetically diverse people /or samples of different genetic material to be used to maintain the community.
I doubt that the data core on the colony ship itself would house that kind of data. The ship's core would most likely only have the necessary data to operate the ship and entertain the crew during their wake periods. But, a separate data core that was meant to be transferred to the colony post-settlement could possibly hold that kind of data.
Food to sustain the initial settlement until agriculture could be established would be a must. As would water purification and sanitation equipment as I stated above. But, atmospheric processing equipment would only be necessary if your intended destination was an inhospitable, possibly non-terrestrial planet that you intended to settle through the use of pressurized domes or terraforming.
I would think the number of personnel/cargo shuttles you would carry with you would depend on the number of people and amount of supplies carried on the colony ship. Larger colony ship = larger amounts of colonists and supplies = more personnel/cargo shuttles needed to unload the ship in a timely fashion.
Think of it more like "what would you need to bring with you to survive forever on a deserted island?" The list is more basic than you might imagine.
Very few colonization expeditions would set off equipped enough to build a large, thriving civilization in a few short years. There goal would be to become self-sufficient as soon as possible, especially considering the amount of time involved in resupply. But we're talking self-sufficient only to the point of food, water, and basic survival. Not shopping malls, hospitals, and space programs.
The ships would be designed as one-way vessels, since by the time they got back to the core, they would be obsolete and worn out by the journey there and back. Therefore, the ships would be modular in there design, so that they could be taken apart and taken down to the surface. I would imagine that most of the supplies and equipment would be in drop pods that rode down on parachutes, much like an Apollo space capsule did. Simple and effective. Then, only a couple of shuttles would be needed. (You'd have to be able to create propellant for them on the surface, though.) All that would be left would be a few FTL comm-drones to send messages back to Earth. The first one would tell the Earth they had arrived safely. The second would tell them that they had survived the first couple years and were now living in situ. And then the last one would be to either tell the Earth that they could send more immigrants their way, or that disaster had struck and they would not survive, so stay away. (Or send rescue.)
At it's roots, it's really not much different than selling everything you have and buying a covered wagon full of basic supplies to get your family moved out west. That's why I chose the name, "Frontiers Saga"
The notion of the colony ship itself being modular had occurred to me. As you said, any colony ship employed to carry colonists and their supplies to their destination would most likely become obsolete before it had even reached that destination. Let alone by the time it had returned to the Core. So, the idea of being able to disassemble the ship and recycling its pieces does make more sense. As does having the supplies loaded in drop pods.
But, I noticed that you said "very few" colonization expeditions would set off equipped enough to build a large, thriving civilization in a few short years. Does that mean there could have been such an expedition?
Yes. Yes it does.
Pre-planned expeditions would have a set list if items needed (basic packing list items that have been discussed above). They would also be noted in some sort of star chart or data base. Something as basic as "they this group went right about -------> here. That would make the colony known.
A hasty evac colony group would be different. People would not think of long term sustainability. They would think on getting the "F" away from the BDP. Panic, discord, anxiety and not thinking clearly on planning more than leaving. Those are the colonies which while unknown the point they were going or settled, would most likely NOT survive past a generation or 2. Expanding on that...so lets say 10000 people pay the basic extortion money to leave the core, of those 10000, say 55% male, 10% child, 35% female, they wont be diverse in their genetics because they would be from the same relative area. There would be latent issues such as say cancer, bad hair, or what ever you want to think of, but allergies to food, medicine etc which would impact as well.
Now these 10000 humans get dumped on a plant that resembles earth. THe ships crew goes with them and the ship is taken apart to create the colony. How many of those 10000 (plus say 250 ships crew) are use to hard work of breaking ground, building well buildings, roads, farms, water filtration, food storage and again what ever else you could think of.
Now to take on the last idea of a well equipped expedition. Only 1 colony ship would not cover it. I think it would have to be several ships..loaded to the bulkheads with advanced equipment, and have a dedicated way to create, expand on that advanced tech. They would also need the people who create those advanced tech and have the facilities to conduct research and development. IMO, I would say 1 colony ship per major area of industry each with about 25000 colonists on board as well. This would give you the diverse genetic gene pool needed to survive, having large amount of people of mixed ages in the respected fields industry (i wont even go into the screening process for the colonists, just that they are screened for whatever they need for). On top of the colony ships, you are going to need bulk freight cargo ships to carry building materials to get this advanced colony set up, not to mention all the critters that will need to be along. Cows, pigs, chickens, dogs, cats, fish, birds, rabbits, ducks, deer, and other types of livestock needed/wanted. There would also be the need for stasis of seeds, sperm/egg combo for the live stock, the ability to genetic modify crops to have them thrive in "alien" soil.....
I will let someone else who has more knowledge in power generation discuss that aspect, but that would be a massive need as well.
LOL, so true!
Now these 10000 humans get dumped on a plant that resembles earth.
(Love that typo, by the way. 😀 )
I don't think that 10 k people is too little, even if they are from the same general area. This has worked before, think stone age to early middle ages where most people never left the village they were born in, much less married someone from outside. Of course, there are issues, but with a genetically healthy group, they are negligible. (Plus, bad genes tend to be weeded out pretty quickly in a situation with only limited choice of mates.)
Of course, a larger population is of advantage, not only for genetic diversity, but also for maintaining a high level of technology. But we know of at least some planets with mono-cultural origins. Corinair seems to be exclusively Scottish. (Remember the bagpipes, their "Corinairan brogue"? Very Scottish.) Takara seems to have a Southwest-European origin (French, Spanish were mentioned by Ryk somewhere.) Somewhere in the Pentaurus Cluster, there must be a world (or system) with Russian origins - or how would Naralena have learned Russian even before meeting Vlad?
Getting seeds and livestock isn't all, either. Many plants need symbionts (like funghi or bacteria) that need to be supplied, too. Even earthworms have their use in helping to make soil more fertile. And it takes bees (butterflies, flies, hummingbirds or even bats) to pollinate many plants we know of. Those, in turn, need other organisms to stay healthy. (Once again, most at least need some bacteria in their intestines to work properly.)
That being said, what do you need cattle for if you can find dollag on your new homeworld? 😉 (Just kidding! I'm pretty sure most animals the settlers found were derived from terran livestock somehow.)
The idea that you need thousands or tens of thousands of people to avoid lack of genetic diversity is a hold over from days when our understanding of genetics was considerably less than it is today. With a little planning, a few hundred people would provide enough genetic diversity. Bring along sperm and eggs in stasis, and you could get by with as little as 50 couples.
With that in mind, it would make more sense to have a smaller group of colonists leaving more cargo space for equipment, consumables, seed banks, and livestock in stasis. (Think Noah's Ark.)
Building materials would be a waste of cargo space. Any world that would be inhabitable (not necessarily hospitable) would have resources that could be used to feed ore processors, and then feed fabricators. You could even start off with tents. (I always imagined kits where the tent is double-layered, and some sort of expanding foam is sprayed inside that cures and makes the tent rigid.) Heck, native Americans lived in tents, why couldn't colonists?
If your goal is just to survive, and not necessarily thrive and build a new, expansive civilization, you don't need as much as you might think. Food, water, shelter, some basic tools, and knowledge. And a willingness to work your ass off.
That is TOO cool!
Ryk, Very true on working your ass off. It takes a great deal to survive in the sticks. But you are right you dont need that much. As for the building materials, I was thinking more of enough to do some prefab buildings for initial housing/storage etc..then set up the processors for continued production/construction.
@olympe as for the plant vs. planet, well yeah dumping 10000 people on a plant would not work. The missing E is from a few fingers that dont work to well anymore...my bad.
Dumping 10,000 people on a planet would work(its just really impractical to transport that many at once)
You would need to land them at well dispersed locations initially so that they could survive off the land until they could set up sufficient agriculture at a home base. That or send out large groups of Hunters with advanced tech to kill not-so-local animals from the sky like deer hunters in New Zealand... ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9g1ZC24CT8g)
Its also helpful to have a large number of easliy maintained (possibly solar powered) "jeep" and "Helicopter" type vehicles for keeping the diseperate groups connected and supplies available to all
