Getting supplies from the source to the destination

Anonymous's picture
Anonymous
February 12, 2011 - 9:37pm
The FS ship building system uses the concept of containers.  This is perfect for drop shipping pre-fabricated buildings and structures. A few ships come to mind in SF;
  • East Indiaman
  • Jump tug
  • Explorer-class heavy scout
  • Shadow's Corsair Container ship.
  • Eagle transporter (this ship would be moved via the jump tug for in-system use)
  • Ag ship
I'm sure we could make more ships - really all they need is ion engines, a small crew and a spine to attach containers. (I'm amazed how many ships we have available in the SFman)

Some supplies would be shipped. If there were resources in-system, the colony fleet would include ships/shuttles/transports/mining platforms to dig and refine material for the colony.


Comments:

jedion357's picture
jedion357
February 15, 2011 - 9:45pm
I think that any largish expedition would include an ag ship and an mining ship. Ag ship for food and the mining ship for resources and mining of comets for ice to refuel the ion engines.
I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers!

Deryn_Rys's picture
Deryn_Rys
February 15, 2011 - 11:09pm
I was remembering something I read about a proposal for the manned Mars mission, in which the first ship sent to the planet was supposed to land on the planet ant the crew of the ship were supposed to take it apart on world to build their initial habitat, and when the next window of opportunity arrived they would expect another ship that would be carrying additional supplies.

though with the advent of void travel and such resupply wouldn't be too much of an issue I do like the idea of the colony ship as a special class ship that is modular in design that could be landed on a planet and disassembled to provide the necessary components to starting a colony. I mean the life support is there, the powerplant, crew quarters, a medical bay, vacuum suits, sensory equipment, communications gear, and even defensive weapons. If the ship also had hydroponics equipment that would help out too. Hell such a ship would cut down on costs as well.
"Hey guys I wonder what this does"-Famous last words
"Hey guys, I think it's friendly." -Famous last words
"You go on ahead, I'll catch up." -Famous last words
"Did you here that?" -Famous last words

iggy's picture
iggy
February 15, 2011 - 11:29pm
Or the first ship drops said structures as permanent drop ships and the hull serves as the start of a space station.  If the expedition had to scrub then the station/ship hull could be their escape craft too.
-iggy

jedion357's picture
jedion357
February 17, 2011 - 8:42pm
discussion of drop ship components reminds me of the human faction building in Star Craft- they could take off and hover and be moved to other places on the map.
I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers!

Ellzii's picture
Ellzii
February 17, 2011 - 9:31pm
Most of the buildings move in Starcraft II as well for the humans. Actually a moveable building is not a bad idea especially if you resources are spread out over a distance.

-LZ

William's picture
William
February 28, 2011 - 4:50am
I have been pushing around the idea of an Arcology type ship from SimCity2000. A self sustaining ship that could land and provide all the essentials for a colony to start out and then spread out on the planet for more resources and space. The ship could act as the hub of the colony. The ship itself would have to be huge of course. I do not think SF has got anything that big yet. The ship would have everything you would need, Agriculture, Manufacturing, living space, labs, plus all of the ship functions. It would make a big impact on the planet and it's ecosystem initially. But they could begin adaptation into the environment as they expand. I agree with Deryn_Rys that it should be it's own class of ship.

Anonymous's picture
w00t (not verified)
February 28, 2011 - 11:49am
You could build a ship of each type specified, at the destination they can be connected together to form the hub. 

iggy's picture
iggy
February 28, 2011 - 1:02pm
I like the fleet idea that w00t is hinting at.  Easier to design and manage.  It also allows for redundancy.  If one ship is lost the whole colony is not in peril.
-iggy

jedion357's picture
jedion357
February 28, 2011 - 1:43pm
I would say for SF setting (ie a low tech setting) that a ag ship, mining ship, couple of freighters and an equiv. starliner- but with most berths dedicated to Journey class storage for the bulk of the colonist.

The reason for journey class acomadations is that people in cold storage dont use consumables. The ships arrive and begin setting up and awake colonist as needed. Ag ship ensures basic food consumables for the short term till steady groundside food porduction is in gear. It also functions as a sealed environment (assuming each dome is accessed via airlock) for studying problems like microbes attacking imported crops as the scientist try to isolate a gene strain that will resist the native microbe.

Reason for the mining ship is that with an orbital Processing lab it can refine material mined from asteroids for the colony's use or mine ice from comets for fuel for itself and the ag ship (lets assume all ships except landing shuttles are ion driven).

One or more freighters will haul in bulk supplies, prefab buildings, vehicles and etc.

I'm trying to think of other ships that would be included in this fleet

Likely that a freighter would be detailed as space taxi- fetch fuel from mining ship to resupply the ag ship and bring food to the mininship.

one of the colony ships could get parked in orbit as a make shift docking station, communications relay, and weather satellite. There'd be no gravity on it but repurposing it as a station would be a big asset.
I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers!

iggy's picture
iggy
February 28, 2011 - 7:49pm
Or put two twin vessels head to head linked by a tether and spin them as a make shift station like the money spider.  Possibly the ag ship attaches to another ship that acts as the counterbalance.  Gravity may be needed for a parked ag ship.  Or the ag ship detaches its domes and tethers them out and rolls so that the domes have gravity and the center command section serves as the hub.
-iggy

jedion357's picture
jedion357
March 1, 2011 - 6:55pm
iggy wrote:
Or put two twin vessels head to head linked by a tether and spin them as a make shift station like the money spider.  Possibly the ag ship attaches to another ship that acts as the counterbalance.  Gravity may be needed for a parked ag ship.  Or the ag ship detaches its domes and tethers them out and rolls so that the domes have gravity and the center command section serves as the hub.


This is a good idea too.
I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers!

jedion357's picture
jedion357
September 4, 2011 - 1:32pm
I was watching a Nova program on "Will we ever get to Mars"

one of the problems Nasa faces is food and packaging and food that will last 5 or more years
In the Frontier a colonization plan does not face this problem as there is stasis screen technology. Food can be put in stasis and come out just as good when the screen is shut down. Fresh food could be shipped in this way too.
I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers!

Anonymous's picture
w00t (not verified)
September 17, 2011 - 4:31pm
I see any colonization attempt bringing along hunters and fishers as well as AG ships and farmers.

Ellzii's picture
Ellzii
September 21, 2011 - 11:13pm
jedion357 wrote:
I would say for SF setting (ie a low tech setting) that a ag ship, mining ship, couple of freighters and an equiv. starliner- but with most berths dedicated to Journey class storage for the bulk of the colonist.

The reason for journey class acomadations is that people in cold storage dont use consumables. The ships arrive and begin setting up and awake colonist as needed. Ag ship ensures basic food consumables for the short term till steady groundside food porduction is in gear. It also functions as a sealed environment (assuming each dome is accessed via airlock) for studying problems like microbes attacking imported crops as the scientist try to isolate a gene strain that will resist the native microbe.

yada yada


Umm jedion don't you mean Storage Class? Journey Class is like coach passenger cabins on a cruise ship. Ship the colonists like cargo. :)

-LZ

jedion357's picture
jedion357
September 22, 2011 - 3:49am
@Ellzii,yep that's what I meant. Brain fart on that mix up.
I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers!

Anonymous's picture
w00t (not verified)
September 22, 2011 - 10:41am
Actually, when jedion357 is shipped it's typically "Classless" or "No Class" Foot in mouth      Laughing

Karxan's picture
Karxan
February 2, 2012 - 11:58pm
If you go with the small fleet Jedion suggests, I would split the colonists in to two seperate ships with redundant skills sets in each ship. This way if one fails for any reason on its way you will still have a viable work base of colonizers, just maybe not as many as you originally planned. And if nothing goes wrong you some extra laborers.

Ellzii's picture
Ellzii
February 5, 2012 - 3:38pm
While I hated the movie, there was one good line in Contact. S.R. Hadden (The eccentric engineer) said, "First rule in government spending: why build one when you can have two at twice the price? Only, this one can be kept secret. Controlled by Americans, built by the Japanese subcontractors. Who, also, happen to be, recently acquired, wholly-owned subsidiaries... " Redundancy is commonplace in space missons. Because it is a PITA to get anything up there if something does go wrong. The same thought process would be put into any colonization effort put together by anyone outside of certain religious fanatics. Outside of that group everyone else has to sell survivability.

So what you get is two teams heading for the closest most viable locations on the planet. If one loses an important ship the backup colony can stretch their resources until a permanent solution is found.

-LZ

Anonymous's picture
w00t (not verified)
February 5, 2012 - 5:56pm
I think we can group "colonization" into two broad categories.

1.) Local Frontier - locations that are well within or on the edge of known frontier space. Mhag Mhar, Snowball, Volturnus come to mind. These places are days to a few weeks within reach of supply ships. 

2.) Extra-Frontier - locations outside well travelled areas where it's important for the colony to be self-reliant.