[Space/Spaceships] Getting the velocity/Delta V I want with the tech I want

[RyanW]

Originally Posted by Anthony

There are essentially no minerals that are hard enough to find that a several hundred AU journey is a sensible option, and very very few consumer goods where trading blueprints for local manufacture doesn't make more sense. Foodstuff over a 4 year journey will usually do poorly, unless it's something that normally gets aged, and even then only the stuff that's $5,000/bottle is worth sending. The only materials I can really see being worth transporting are genetic materials.

Yep. "Foodstuff" will be transported, if at all, in the form of seedstock. If you cannot produce food (and other necessities) on a planet, you probably won't see any settlers on a planet. Personnel, possibly, but not settlers.

As has been pointed out in various places, if the first settlers on Mars chose to build their houses out of gold bricks, shipping would still be the largest expense.