Establish a Federation Colony (hypothetical fun)

[FaxModem1]

Re-posted from a similar thread I did on SD.net:

Congratulations, after a lengthy application process, your grant proposal has been approved by the Federation's Department of Colonial Affairs. Your potential colony will be transported to a suitable class M planet by the USS Bonchune and 2 Antares class freighters.

For this voyage, you will have access to the guest quarters and 2 cargo bays of the Bonchune(same size and dimensions as the Enterprise-D's cargo bays), as well as the cargo capacity of the two freighters.(For reference, Kasidy Yates's ship, the Xhosa, is one of the ships).

And we'll place this in 2379, two weeks after Nemesis. located in Badlands frontier space, now that the Cardassians are incapable of holding their borders, which went to the DMZ, the UFP is swooping in and in a colonization rush of the sectors there.

The Federation will supply you with what you request on your form(within reason), but there is limited space available.

Starfleet requires you to pack a long range communications device in case of emergency.

It will be two years before your world receives another resupply of material and personnel.

Keep in mind that the UFP's Department of Colonial Affairs has plenty of applications, this world has been slotted to you. And there's nothing on it so far about trying to recreate Risa, Scotland, Luddite Irish, traditional homes for Native Americans, etc, so class M to take all for yourselves is what you get.

Minor note, if you state that you're building a specific cultural colony(random example, a colony of Ancient China, with appropriate climate and wildlife), or if you have a valid reason why an Earth like world won't suit your needs, the Department of Colonial Affairs will try to cater to your needs, but it will more than likely mean that you will either be on a more suitable world that is still in the DMZ, somewhere else in the frontier, or failing that, move you to the bottom of the queue and encourage you to seek private funding elsewhere.

IE, wait another few months or years while a colony of Vulcan artists, Bolian farmers, or Trill mountain climbers take your spot in line. In which case, your colonists will probably move on to another project, as they know you're not a good bet for a Colonial governor.

To be fair, if you want to make a theme park planet, put in the request for environmental control technology and supplies, if you have the room.

What kind of colony do you design? How many people will you bring? What do you pack? Where on an Earth like planet do you plan to settle?

Additionally, that is scenario 1.

Scenario 2: Due to high demand, everything else is the same, but the FDCA is combining your group with other petitioners, and you have to agree with the packing decisions of the other posters in this thread on what kind of colony, what to pack, where to settle, etc.

Discuss and have fun.

[PerrySimm]

It should be possible to support 3000 colonists on the starship (though this many will spill out of the guest rooms and into the cargo bays as well). The people will not need to fit a theme, though there are basic requirements for minimum numbers of key services, such as engineers, agricultural and resource extraction experts, and security forces.

The ~3 million metric tons of cargo on the freighters should be essential industrial machinery and supplies. Replicators, fusion reactors, antimatter converters, transporters, and so on.

Starfleet may not plan to come back for two years, but that's a long time to be isolated from the rest of the galaxy. It will be vital to set up a spaceport and drydock as soon as possible. Until that time, two small shuttles with the range to make it to Bajor or Cardassia will need to be the colonial trade fleet.

[Darth Wedgius]

With TNG tech you can likely get by on a long-range radio, a computer with a big database, a replicator, and a fusion generator to power it. But you're probably going to want to bring a couple hundred people along, and counting on there not being an anomaly would be poor planning. Because there'll be an anomaly or an invader or a disease. That's what colonists are there for, after all.

The first thing to decide on might be scale. From what I've read, as few as 25 couples can be genetically viable as long as you can carefully control who breeds with whom for a long, long time. With TNG medicine to fix genes you can probably do that with even fewer by replacing defective recessive genes in the gametes, or even one male with the right cloning equipment, but lets say the colonists want to do their breeding the old fashioned, inefficient, and sweaty way, despite all the conveniences of modern reproductive technology. So say a couple hundred colonists, with more expected in the indefinite future.

Three replicators, and big, industrial replicators at that, along with fusion generators to place them, three computers with a lot of data (encyclopedic data on all kinds of technical areas), cables, and some floaty anti-gravy thingies to position them. And the first thing we replicate are spare replicator and fusion generator parts, and some smaller replicators.

Seeds for some staple crops, with rice and legumes included for protein. We don't want to depend on replicators for our food forever. In Trek you can usually eat alien fruits from halfway across the quadrant as long as you name them after an Earth food, like Plutonian chocolate or Alterrian apples, but you need to find out which plants / animals you can eat, and how to grow them as crops, and even then, a lot of the crops we grow now are the end result of many centuries of selective breeding. We can expect native Nova Colonia corn to look more like something you'd pick out of your dogs fur than something you'd eat on the cob. And replicators can't replicate living things, and seeds are alive, even if they're a bit lazy about it.

Some combat rations to tide you over while getting your replicators set up. Also some phasers, tricorders (science and medical), and first aid kits.

Tents... maybe. Shelter can be more important than food or water under the right conditions, but we can replicate tent parts, and we only have so much cargo space. We could make primitive, temporary log houses using phasers and anti-gravity-floaty-thingies, but I think the first thing we'd make would be a stockade fence. Surveys may have missed some animal life forms that could find you tasty, or your replicators.

You might get away with bringing a couple big phaser cannon instead, if you can be choosy enough to settle somewhere with hills you can dig sturdy caves in. That'll save wasting valuable cargo space on temporary shelters, and a being under a hill makes for a pretty good fence. Depending on how the replicators work (do they eat pure energy or do they draw from bulk matter stores?) you might need to dig up iron, aluminum, molybdenum, tantalum, platinum, or any of those weird metals ending in -ium.

And that's it. Well, I'm sure I missed something. Somethings. Lots. But I think that's most of it. Make a fence, set up replicators somewhat widely spaced from each other, build, dig, or unfold houses and some kind of primitive hospital, replicate a couple drones with sensors to better survey the local area, be fruitful and multiply.

[Ordo]

The Crystalline Entity: Aaah breakfast!

[Wargriffin]

I'd like to find the guys who designed the colony from 'identity crisis'

I mean whoever built that colony deserves an award... 5 years of NO upkeep and the lights are still on and its still standing despite the planet having violent constant windstorms!

[cilantro]

It should be possible to support 3000 colonists on the starship (though this many will spill out of the guest rooms and into the cargo bays as well). The people will not need to fit a theme, though there are basic requirements for minimum numbers of key services, such as engineers, agricultural and resource extraction experts, and security forces.

The ~3 million metric tons of cargo on the freighters should be essential industrial machinery and supplies. Replicators, fusion reactors, antimatter converters, transporters, and so on.

Starfleet may not plan to come back for two years, but that's a long time to be isolated from the rest of the galaxy. It will be vital to set up a spaceport and drydock as soon as possible. Until that time, two small shuttles with the range to make it to Bajor or Cardassia will need to be the colonial trade fleet.

Well, with technology like replicators resources like food could be more easily obtain. Also, isn't some medical items/resources also able to get replicators as well?

[PerrySimm]

Well, with technology like replicators resources like food could be more easily obtain. Also, isn't some medical items/resources also able to get replicators as well?

Yes, replicators make it a lot easier to be self-sufficient.

The shuttles are needed to move people and some other things that can't be replicated. Plus there's the safety aspect. Shuttles can still work even if communications fail.

[cilantro]

Well, with technology like replicators resources like food could be more easily obtain. Also, isn't some medical items/resources also able to get replicators as well?

Yes, replicators make it a lot easier to be self-sufficient.

The shuttles are needed to move people and some other things that can't be replicated. Plus there's the safety aspect. Shuttles can still work even if communications fail.

I for one would have an escape plan. Maybe once my people have arrived at the new colony planet, we need to establish some protocol calls first. Like every non essential crew member stays aboard the ship until we have built a spaceport, communications center (which is design to be a communications between Starfleet and the nearest friendliest aliens- which would be the Bajorans), defensiveness, dwelling for civilians, etc.... I would also send a survey team down to survey the land and see what kind of resources the planet has and to see if the planet has any hostile aliens on it first before sending all of my crew. Crops can be set up and ready to grow but replicators will be a major assets in our future (and what do they run on excatly- jell packs of some sort right?).

[Antiboyscout]

Replicators really make it so you can turn even the most barren lifeless planet into something livable.
If power is the only concern then Desert, arid, and Tidally locked planets can be made worthwhile by covering them in solar and wind farms.
If you can just replicate a glass of water then who cares. It would make that Lithium crystal mining planet in TOS (Mudd's Women) a lot more bearable.

That's what I'd do. Create a small trade outpost (think James Town) to mine lithium crystals. Mining equipment, (I think laser drills exist in star trek) enough building material to start a borehole, A small habitation pre-fab for around 150-200 people, Replicators obviously, and All the solar panels and wind turbines you can fit in the leftover space.
Do you get to keep the freighters, or do you have to acquire new ones later by other means?

[FaxModem1]

Replicators really make it so you can turn even the most barren lifeless planet into something livable.
If power is the only concern then Desert, arid, and Tidally locked planets can be made worthwhile by covering them in solar and wind farms.
If you can just replicate a glass of water then who cares. It would make that Lithium crystal mining planet in TOS (Mudd's Women) a lot more bearable.

That's what I'd do. Create a small trade outpost (think James Town) to mine lithium crystals. Mining equipment, (I think laser drills exist in star trek) enough building material to start a borehole, A small habitation pre-fab for around 150-200 people, Replicators obviously, and All the solar panels and wind turbines you can fit in the leftover space.
Do you get to keep the freighters, or do you have to acquire new ones later by other means?

Freighters are just commissioned for the one-time delivery of your supplies and initial set-up from the DCA. If your colony becomes thriving, you could commission deliveries from freighters ahead of the DCA's supply run.