Tag archives for Colony
What would we take to settle new Colonies?
I've written about motivations for sending new colonies on starships to settle earth like planets on other star systems. Astronomers have found thousands of these, so assuming that we don't wipe ourselves out before we develop the technology, one day we'll land on planets lit by another star. Technology for New Colonies First some assumptions. Planets we settle are in the Goldilocks zone and have breathable atmosphere. We can travel faster than light (either Einstein was wrong, or there's some alternative dimension or something) There are people with both money and motive to start new colonies With that, what technology do we take with us to start new colonies? Bear in mind that a lot of common tech is constrained by its history and the pre-existing infrastructure. On the new colonies there won't be any infrastructure, so there's more freedom…
Five Reasons for Establishing a Colony
In looking through my notes from previous story and game design ideas I came across some notes about the reasons why a colony might be set up. This was primarily for a set of scenarios for science fiction games. A group of us have been playing games set in Jim Wallman's Universe around the Full Moon each month since 1996. That said, they are based on actual historical reasons why people left the UK to live elsewhere. Not always to establish a colony on an uncertain and dangerous frontier. 1. Religious/Ascetic Freedom This covers people leaving to avoid discrimination as well as those that might want to live in a place where the temptations and 'polluitng influences' of modern life are not present. Examples of this include Amish and similar sects that avoid advanced technology (although quite why they'd get in a spaceship…
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Economics of New Colonies
I often play in Jim Wallman's hard SF games set in the universe he's created. I've been thinking about how new colonies get set up and the sort of funding they need. There is a lot of infrastructure required to build a viable colony on a new system. Firstly you need to survey it to find a good spot with a reasonable confluence of resources, mining sites, farming space, fresh water, building land and a suitable area for your drop zone and spaceport. Once you've done that some cheap housing, utilities, early resource processing plants and factories for essentials have to be built. Once you get to that point you might just start exporting valuable things, although you'll still need to import lots of essentials, not to mention more people. I reckon that it is a minimum of two years…