[Spaceships] Interstellar Colony Ships

[Langy]

The Conestoga-class ramship was designed to take Humanity to the stars in order to avoid an intersteller invasion catching all of Humanity in one attack. Designed with advanced alien fusion drives, the Conestoga can propell a ship all the way to Chara, 27 light years away, in approximately 150 years. For a closer destination, like Alpha Centauri, the trip would take less than 60 years.

The Conestoga by itself is not a colony ship. She is a massive interstellar transport ship, designed to transport an entire 10,000 person colony to the surface of an alien world. As a happy side-effect of her development, she can also be used to transport a 10,000-man invasion army across interstellar distances along with 80,000 tons of warships. Due to her construction during wartime, she is relatively heavily armed for her stated purpose.

After dropping off its colonists, their space-born industry, and the colonies themselves the Conestogas are designed to return home in order to reuse their incredibly expensive thirty billion dollar ramscoops. After taking out the cost of the ramscoops, the cost of an entire 10,000 person colony rarely even exceeds twenty billion dollars, including the price of terraforming.

Conestoga-class Interstellar Ramship - TL 12, SM+13
dST/HP: 500
Hnd/SR: -7 / 5
HT: 13
Move: 0.005G / 2,250mps
LWt.: 300,000 tons
Load: 56,500 tons [1]
Occ: 0 [2]
dDR: 50
Cost: $39.1 Billion

Front
[1-2] Small Upper Stage (SM+11)
[3-4] Small Upper Stage (SM+11)
[5-a] SM+12 Weapon Battery - Secondary (5 3GJ Laser Turrets, 5 300MJ Rapid Fire Laser Turrets)
[5-b] SM+12 Fusion Reactor, Derated-1 (1PP, 3,000 years) [3]
[5-c] SM+12 Cargo Hold (5,000 tons)
[6] Ramscoop

Center
[1] Nanocomposite Armor (Spread)
[2-6] Hangar Bay (1,000 tons/minute, 10,000 tons each)
[Core] Habitat (8,000 hibernation chambers)

Rear
[1] Fusion Rocket Engine (0.005G Acceleration, 450mps Delta-V per tank)
[2-6] Fuel Tank (15,000 tons of Hydrogen)
[Core-a] SM+12 Habitat (2,000 Hibernation Chambers, 500 tons of Steerage Cargo)
SM+12 Control Room (Complexity: 11, Comm/Sensor: 12, Stations: 20)
SM+12 Fusion Reactor (2PP) [3]

SHIP OPTIONS: Spread dDR, Total Automation

NOTES: [1] Load Includes: 1,000 ton of Crew & Passengers, 15,000 ton of Cargo, 500 ton of Steerage Cargo, 50,000 ton Hangar Bay Capacity
[2] Plus 10,000 in Hibernation Chambers
[3] Together, the two reactors produce 1PP sized for an SM+13 craft. Drop cost by $1B if you determine the ramscoop can be turned on with just 1 SM-1 power point and convert the second reactor into 10,000 tons of cargo.






The Freefall-class Drop Colony is most certainly not a space ship. In fact, though they are constructed to the same standards as starships and space stations, the Freefalls aren't even space stations - they are entire cities, designed to be planted on potentially inhospitable planets and thrive. Each Freefall colony is designed to hold 3,000 people on planetfall and to be easily expanded both through local industry (in the form of integral minifacs) and the orbital industry building miniature, 1,000-ton Meteor Colony Modules and de-orbiting them.

The Freefall-class uses parachutes, retro-rockets, and a number of other systems to ensure a safe landing, after which its 3,000 colonists travel down from orbit to begin their new life on a new planet. It is typical for two Freefall colonies to be planted on each colony world, with a total of 6,000 planet-bound settlers, while the remaining 4,000 people in the colony operate from orbit.

The primary job of new colonists is to begin terraforming of their new planet and to expand the original colony - a Freefall Colony is not designed to hold an entire colony indefinitely! As a colony grows, it is expected that the original Freefall be extensively modified, especially in regards to the living quarters. The Bunkrooms and Cabins are placed to make connection between them easy, but compared to normal planet-side quarters they are very tight. Cabins should be able to accomodate one couple (sharing a bed) with one or two children in the second bedroom, but this will place great strain on the life support systems if a planet is particularly inhospitable and the rooms themselves are quite small.

Approximately half of the colonists have specific jobs to perform for the colony. The other half are supposed to work towards terraforming, surface exploration, and increasing the colony population.


Freefall-class Drop Colony - TL 10, SM+11
dST/HP: 200
Hnd/SR: -
HT: 13
Move: 0
LWt.: 30,000 tons
Load: 1,704 tons [1]
Occ: 3,040 [2]
dDR: 20
Cost: $1.215 Billion

Front
[1] Armor - Nanocomposite (Spread)
[2-5] Habitat (200 Cabins Each)
[6] Hangar Bay (200 tons/min, 1,000 ton capacity)
[Core] Control Room (Complexity 10 Computer, Comm/Sensor: 11, Stations: 15)

Center
[1-5] Habitat (200 Cabins Each)
[6-Core] Open Space (10 Areas, 0.5 Acres Each)

Rear
[1-5] Habitat (200 Cabins Each)
[6] Soft Landing System

Habitat Modules
Front
1 200-person Ops Center: Colony administration, police department, etc. 200 staff members.
1 40-person Jail: Uses Ops Center staff
1 100-bed Hospital: 10 permanent staff members
25 Nurseries: Care for up to 500 children under 5 years of age. 50 Staff members.
25 Classrooms: Educate up to 500 children/adults at a time. 100 staff members; two shifts of 50 staff members at a time
1 Mini-Nanofac: Up to $100,000 per hour, 400 workers; two shifts of 200 workers each
4 Large Labs: Physics, Biology, Chemistry, Geology. 80 scientists.
100 Establishments: Bars, restaraunts, shops, gyms, etc. Up to 2,000 patrons, 200 staff.

Center
250 Cabins: 2 people per cabin
250 Bunkrooms: 4 people per bunkroom

Rear
250 Cabins: 2 people per cabin
250 Bunkrooms: 4 people per bunkroom


SHIP OPTIONS: Spread dDR, Total Life Support

NOTES: [1] Load Includes: 304 ton of Crew & Passengers, 400 ton of Steerage Cargo
[2] Crew Requirement: 15 Control Stations, 54 Workspaces (3 per system), 1040 Medical/Office/Passenger Care/Entertainment

[Agemegos]

Originally Posted by Langy

The Conestoga-class ramship was designed to take Humanity to the stars in order to avoid an intersteller invasion catching all of Humanity in one attack. Designed with advanced alien fusion drives, the Conestoga can propell a ship all the way to Chara, 27 light years away, in approximately 150 years. For a closer destination, like Alpha Centauri, the trip would take less than 60 years.

<snip>

After dropping off its colonists, their space-born industry, and the colonies themselves the Conestogas are designed to return home in order to reuse their incredibly expensive thirty billion dollar ramscoops. After taking out the cost of the ramscoops, the cost of an entire 10,000 person colony rarely even exceeds twenty billion dollars, including the price of terraforming.

Sorry, but that is bad economics. The ramscoops are not available for re-use until they get back to Earth 120–300 years. And even at a discount rate of 2.5% (which is low) the net present value of a ramscoop to be delivered in 120 years is 0.00061% of its price at that time. The re-usable quality of the ram-scoop does not significantly offset the cost of the project. The entire cost of the ship has to be amortised by its first journey.

In the case of the 120-year round trip to Alpha Centauri, at a low discount rate, neglecting overhaul costs and the risk of technological obsolescence, the NPV of the returned ramscoop is about 5% of its price.

Or to look at this another way, the cost of the colony venture includes not only the drop colony and any cargo, but also 300 years' rent, insurance, and depreciation on the ramscoop.

[Langy]

Yeah, I know - it's not particularly worth it to send it back. Then again, the ramscoop's useless to the colony afterwards and is just sitting there. They might be able to dismantle it for some raw materials, but with forty thousand tons of mining and industrial ships for ten thousand people there's not much point to that, either. So they send them back in the hopes they can be reused instead of completely wasted.

I had hoped the ramship would be able to travel rather faster than it currently can, maybe making Alpha Centauri in twenty years instead of sixty, but that would require it to have about ten times as much thrust. After a forty-year round trip, that $30B ramscoop would be worth significantly more than 5% of its original purchase price.

I'm considering forgetting returning the ramscoop and just making them cost ten percent of their current purchase price. I don't like the idea that the ramscoop costs more than the entire rest of the colony by itself.

[Agemegos]

Originally Posted by Langy

I'm considering forgetting returning the ramscoop and just making them cost ten percent of their current purchase price. I don't like the idea that the ramscoop costs more than the entire rest of the colony by itself.

I have a similar issue with my design for an exploration shuttle. Adding an air intake and compressor so that the fusion rocket can be used in air-breathing "ram-rocket" mode triples the cost of the entire shuttle. This despite that fact that a jet engine would need a similar air intake and compressor and the whole thing doesn't cost anything like so much.

I'm tempted toward house-ruling.

[joelbf]

Originally Posted by Langy

Yeah, I know - it's not particularly worth it to send it back. Then again, the ramscoop's useless to the colony afterwards and is just sitting there. They might be able to dismantle it for some raw materials, but with forty thousand tons of mining and industrial ships for ten thousand people there's not much point to that, either. So they send them back in the hopes they can be reused instead of completely wasted.

My guess is that you could find a lot of uses for the materials and electronics that make up the ramscoop. From an in-game point of view you can probably design a ramscoop that is especially suited to being reused in a colony setting.

BTW Is there anything special about your spread armor option or do you just divide by 1+ extra thirds covered?

[ed_209a]

After 1 century or more, would the technology even be relevant?

It would be like King Louis XIV of France sending a fleet of galleons to somewhere 150 years away (yeah I know, bear with me), then sending them back, because we might need them in 2009.

I agree that the raw materials would be more useful to the colony, Especially if it is designed from the outset to breakdown into stuff useful to the colony.

[David Johnston2]

Originally Posted by ed_209a

After 1 century or more, would the technology even be relevant?

It would be like King Louis XIV of France sending a fleet of galleons to somewhere 150 years away (yeah I know, bear with me), then sending them back, because we might need them in 2009.

I agree that the raw materials would be more useful to the colony, Especially if it is designed from the outset to breakdown into stuff useful to the colony.

STL interstellar civilisations need to adopt a very leisurely pace of change anyway. So it would be more like the Roman Republic sending off a bunch of galleys after the Punic Wars, and the Empire getting them back around the birth of Christ.

[Langy]

My guess is that you could find a lot of uses for the materials and electronics that make up the ramscoop. From an in-game point of view you can probably design a ramscoop that is especially suited to being reused in a colony setting.

With the huge orbital industry already in place, I'm pretty sure the electronics and materials making up the ramscoop would be pretty much worthless. They might make processing the raw materials go a little faster, but nanofactories can produce stuff extremely quickly from actual raw materials.

The actual components of a ramscoop don't sound like they'd be of much use in a colonial setting - it's primarily a gigantic electromagnet, if I understand it properly. Not particularly useful, though they may be able to adapt it into fusion reactors or something. It'd probably be easier to just make brand-new reactors from raw material, though, unless the scoop is made from some near-unobtanium.

In any case, ignore the idea of sending the ramscoop home. I'm just going to rule it's 1/10 the price of the one in Spaceships 1 and leave it at that. That's $27 billion knocked off the price tag right there, which makes these colony ships a lot more affordable.

[nick012000]

How does it decelerate? The ramscoop only works above 1,800 mps, and it only has 2,250 mps of delta-V. Once it accellerates to ramscoop speed, it'll be unable to decelerate down to orbital speeds at the destination and left flying off into the ether at 1,350 mps.

[Diomedes]

Originally Posted by nick012000

How does it decelerate? The ramscoop only works above 1,800 mps, and it only has 2,250 mps of delta-V. Once it accellerates to ramscoop speed, it'll be unable to decelerate down to orbital speeds at the destination and left flying off into the ether at 1,350 mps.

Proably by using the technique in the designer's notes: Between 1800 and 375 mips, a ramscoop can be used as a magsail brake.