Pre-contact Terran sublight colonization ships.

[cptbutton]

How many sublight generation or sleeper colonization ships did Terra launch before contact with Ziru Sirka?

I see four:
-2468 3I (2047 AD) - EU - "Europa" to Alpha Centauri
-2471 3I (2050 AD) - ESA - Three ships to the Islands sector of Reft.

Were there any others?

Were any launched after contact?

[thrash]

For what it's worth the Islands Clusters ships could manage ~0.25c (1 pc / 13 years); warship counters in Imperium and Dark Nebula have the same performance. In the 270 years from Europa to the end of the Interstellar Wars (c. 2317), STL ships could only have ranged a bit more than 20 parsecs from Terra. Thus the 60+ "Terran Settlements Outside the Confederation" on the map inside the cover of AM6: Solomani must all be FTL in some form or other.

That said, the Islands Clusters were able to construct six (I think it was) additional generation ships with their limited resources, so it would not have been impossible for smaller Terran nations or other groups.

[cptbutton]

Originally Posted by thrash

For what it's worth the Islands Clusters ships could manage ~0.25c (1 pc / 13 years); warship counters in Imperium and Dark Nebula have the same performance. In the 270 years from Europa to the end of the Interstellar Wars (c. 2317), STL ships could only have ranged a bit more than 20 parsecs from Terra. Thus the 60+ "Terran Settlements Outside the Confederation" on the map inside the cover of AM6: Solomani must all be FTL in some form or other.

That said, the Islands Clusters were able to construct six (I think it was) additional generation ships with their limited resources, so it would not have been impossible for smaller Terran nations or other groups.

People elsewhere pointed out that "Colony Six" - Goertel (Trojan Reach 1221) is another case, which also implies a fifth ship.

[malloyd]

I remember one in the Marches too, somewhere in that almost rift trailing of the Sword Worlds, though that might have been just our campaign.

[The Colonel]

I dimly remember an ancient White Dwarf article covering sub-light ships in the Traveller universe... google (or bing or something) tells me it was WD32 if anyone goes back that far.

[thrash]

Originally Posted by malloyd

I remember one in the Marches too, somewhere in that almost rift trailing of the Sword Worlds, though that might have been just our campaign.

Victoria/Lanth was settled by sublight colonization ships c. AD 3070 (JTAS #2, p. 26). Unless their performance vast exceeded any others we've seen in canon (0.69c vs. 0.25c), however, the date means they could not have been launched directly from Terra.

[thrash]

Apologies to all: sublight travel in the Imperium and Dark Nebula wargames is at 0.8-0.9c (1 pc / 4 years), not 0.25c. (The latter figure is approximately correct for the Islands Clusters colony ships, however.)

Thus, sublight ships could have reached as much as 67.5 pc by the end of the Interstellar Wars, depending on just when the reactionless drives were invented. Any of the colonies on the AM6 map in Magyar, Alpha Crucis, Canopus, Aldebaran, or Neworld sectors would likely be within this range.

Similarly, Victoria/Lanth was in range of sublight ships launched from Terra, as long as they left by c. AD 2220.