Okay. This is an outgrowth of the thread I started imagining what the Federation Governmental structure might look like.
Same basic ground rules here as there, mostly as to how I write:
1. For the purposes of debate, please, presume the UFP uses money. It may be all electronic, but it still does what money does in our world today. That's a debate in and of itself, I know, but it's an assumption that has to be made one way or the other if we don't want to go in circles.
2. Please be gentle bringing in the novels - they're useful sources of inspiration, and Sci did a good deed in using the novels to check against my writings, but not everybody has the novels. Few, I imagine, have the whole collection.
3. When I write, I tend to borrow what I can from canon, but I freely mix it with RL knowledge and some out-and-out speculation. My background for these purposes is in a lot of RPGs, Trek and non-Trek, and I write with that medium in mind - which means I go into more detail than you might want for a novel, or certainly for a TV show or movie.
Finally, []'s are margin notes, like before.
With that said:
The way I see it, the process of colonization begins years, possibly decades, before the first colonist boards a ship.
Starfleet does its surveys, yes. Colonization potential is a huge part of any Starfleet surveyomg operation, sometimes more of a priority than finding new life and new civilizations.
When a planet is initially discovered, its default status (if nobody is living there) is bureaucratically marked at Starfleet and the UFP Department of Colonial Affairs as 'closed for colonization - insufficient data'. This serves important purposes:
1. It enables more detailed surveys to be undertaken over the coming years;
2. It prevents an outright land rush;
3. It enables colonization to be directed and regulated, at least so far as UFP resources are used in colonization efforts.
Now, after a few years, a decade at most, chances are pretty good that enough data has been gathered that you can decide on next steps.
Presume that there's nothing there of military (Starfleet) interest, nothing there of scientific/archaeological interest, etc. Basically, there's nothing about this M-class planet that puts it obviously under the jurisdiction of Starfleet, the Federation Science Department, or the like.
It then has its bureaucratic status changed to 'Open to colonization applications'.
UFP colonies start out in a very disciplined manner. First, a group interested in colonizing submits an application for colonization - naming specifically the planet to be colonized, certifying that they have some minimum number of people interested in colonizing the planet, setting out the purposes for which a colonial charter is sought, etc. If your colony is supposed to be restricted in some way, you make that clear here.
The next steps take years, now. The Federation bureaucracy is glacially slow and cautious, and nowhere else is this more true than in colonization efforts.
Presume your application is approved. What happens then?
First, fundraising madness. The UFP supports dozens of colonies per year - it makes a huge point of making sure that the colonies do not rely completely upon UFP support to start, in most cases. (Special colonies, such as where the UFP wants to rush a claim to an area into place, are not looked at on this score.) Ergo, it expects the colonization group to stump up some degree of resources itself.
Second, the group (the UFP strongly suggests that it be more-or-less gender balanced, and composed for the largest part of adults - bad things have happened when this is not followed, usually) undergoes "basic colonization training" at one of many sites across the UFP. What this is is training meant to give the colonists the basic skills they will need to set up their colony with minimal outside support. At this point, a colonial governor is appointed by the UFP Colonization Department - he helps train the group, among other things, and helps them with the practical tasks of colonization, like settlement planning and so forth.
Third, the colonization group is assigned a small Starfleet escort if traveling outside Federation Space or along the borders - this occurs no later than 3 months before the colonization group embarks. Much time will be spent on mission planning by Starfleet personnel and the colonization ships' flight crews. If colonizing within the UFP, there usually isn't a Starfleet escort, but liasion is still made with Starfleet for practical matters.
Fourth: Embarkation day! The group sets out - usually with no small degree of celebration - for their new home.
Fifth: Planetfall! The group arrives at their new planet - often the journey has taken weeks, if not months. Along the way, colonists will have worked on holodecks on firming up their colonization skills and what to do in emergencies.
Planetfall is marked by the official beginning of the "Colonial Log", the Governor's official logs (for bureaucratic and historical interest alike) of matters on the colony - acting like ship's logs.
Unmanned drones are sent down first - much of the site selection and so forth will have taken place before embarkation or during the voyage, but this is the last shot to check things against reality and to make final adjustments. It's rare, but entirely possible for a colonization mission to be called off at this point, for all sorts of reasons.
After that, further unmanned vehicles are sent down - these will set up the colony's iinitial nfrastructure and so forth over a period of days. The larger vehicles will also become some of the colony's first buildings.
Sixth: Landing Day - it's rare for this to be any later than a week after Planetfall. It's the day that the populace is moved down, via shuttlecraft and transporters, to the colony site.
Before the colonists even set foot on their new planet, a good bit of work has already been done to make things habitable for them. From running basic utilities connections to setting up temporary structures, the unmanned vehicles do a fair bit to speed up the colonization process.
[Some inspiration taken here from the old (1994) PC Game Outpost by Sierra, which worked off real colonization plans from NASA.]
After colonization, things move a lot slower. Food tends not to be provided by replicators - those take antimatter reactors, which aren't the safest or easiest things to transport by ship - but rather by farming and pre-packed rations, plus resuuply vessels that arrive every few months.
Power is provided by fusion reactors - antimatter reactors don't come for a while to a colony.
Water? Automatic purification plants, built by the robots and capable of producing enough potable water for 2,000 people per day from a variety of sources.
Security is provided variously depending on the colony: In many colonies, the small size of the initial settlement enables security to be provided by volunteer militia forces and maybe the odd "colonial sheriff", appointed by the governor to handle law enforcement.
Some colonies, particularly those on the borders or outside Federation space, have their security provided by Starfleet Security personnel.
Shelter is provided by the initial buildings built by the robots, and later by buildings built by the colonists themselves with automated help.
Education for kids tends to be provided by volunteer teachers. One-room schools aren't preferred, but they can be used.
Same basic ground rules here as there, mostly as to how I write:
1. For the purposes of debate, please, presume the UFP uses money. It may be all electronic, but it still does what money does in our world today. That's a debate in and of itself, I know, but it's an assumption that has to be made one way or the other if we don't want to go in circles.
2. Please be gentle bringing in the novels - they're useful sources of inspiration, and Sci did a good deed in using the novels to check against my writings, but not everybody has the novels. Few, I imagine, have the whole collection.
3. When I write, I tend to borrow what I can from canon, but I freely mix it with RL knowledge and some out-and-out speculation. My background for these purposes is in a lot of RPGs, Trek and non-Trek, and I write with that medium in mind - which means I go into more detail than you might want for a novel, or certainly for a TV show or movie.
Finally, []'s are margin notes, like before.
With that said:
The way I see it, the process of colonization begins years, possibly decades, before the first colonist boards a ship.
Starfleet does its surveys, yes. Colonization potential is a huge part of any Starfleet surveyomg operation, sometimes more of a priority than finding new life and new civilizations.
When a planet is initially discovered, its default status (if nobody is living there) is bureaucratically marked at Starfleet and the UFP Department of Colonial Affairs as 'closed for colonization - insufficient data'. This serves important purposes:
1. It enables more detailed surveys to be undertaken over the coming years;
2. It prevents an outright land rush;
3. It enables colonization to be directed and regulated, at least so far as UFP resources are used in colonization efforts.
Now, after a few years, a decade at most, chances are pretty good that enough data has been gathered that you can decide on next steps.
Presume that there's nothing there of military (Starfleet) interest, nothing there of scientific/archaeological interest, etc. Basically, there's nothing about this M-class planet that puts it obviously under the jurisdiction of Starfleet, the Federation Science Department, or the like.
It then has its bureaucratic status changed to 'Open to colonization applications'.
UFP colonies start out in a very disciplined manner. First, a group interested in colonizing submits an application for colonization - naming specifically the planet to be colonized, certifying that they have some minimum number of people interested in colonizing the planet, setting out the purposes for which a colonial charter is sought, etc. If your colony is supposed to be restricted in some way, you make that clear here.
The next steps take years, now. The Federation bureaucracy is glacially slow and cautious, and nowhere else is this more true than in colonization efforts.
Presume your application is approved. What happens then?
First, fundraising madness. The UFP supports dozens of colonies per year - it makes a huge point of making sure that the colonies do not rely completely upon UFP support to start, in most cases. (Special colonies, such as where the UFP wants to rush a claim to an area into place, are not looked at on this score.) Ergo, it expects the colonization group to stump up some degree of resources itself.
Second, the group (the UFP strongly suggests that it be more-or-less gender balanced, and composed for the largest part of adults - bad things have happened when this is not followed, usually) undergoes "basic colonization training" at one of many sites across the UFP. What this is is training meant to give the colonists the basic skills they will need to set up their colony with minimal outside support. At this point, a colonial governor is appointed by the UFP Colonization Department - he helps train the group, among other things, and helps them with the practical tasks of colonization, like settlement planning and so forth.
Third, the colonization group is assigned a small Starfleet escort if traveling outside Federation Space or along the borders - this occurs no later than 3 months before the colonization group embarks. Much time will be spent on mission planning by Starfleet personnel and the colonization ships' flight crews. If colonizing within the UFP, there usually isn't a Starfleet escort, but liasion is still made with Starfleet for practical matters.
Fourth: Embarkation day! The group sets out - usually with no small degree of celebration - for their new home.
Fifth: Planetfall! The group arrives at their new planet - often the journey has taken weeks, if not months. Along the way, colonists will have worked on holodecks on firming up their colonization skills and what to do in emergencies.
Planetfall is marked by the official beginning of the "Colonial Log", the Governor's official logs (for bureaucratic and historical interest alike) of matters on the colony - acting like ship's logs.
Unmanned drones are sent down first - much of the site selection and so forth will have taken place before embarkation or during the voyage, but this is the last shot to check things against reality and to make final adjustments. It's rare, but entirely possible for a colonization mission to be called off at this point, for all sorts of reasons.
After that, further unmanned vehicles are sent down - these will set up the colony's iinitial nfrastructure and so forth over a period of days. The larger vehicles will also become some of the colony's first buildings.
Sixth: Landing Day - it's rare for this to be any later than a week after Planetfall. It's the day that the populace is moved down, via shuttlecraft and transporters, to the colony site.
Before the colonists even set foot on their new planet, a good bit of work has already been done to make things habitable for them. From running basic utilities connections to setting up temporary structures, the unmanned vehicles do a fair bit to speed up the colonization process.
[Some inspiration taken here from the old (1994) PC Game Outpost by Sierra, which worked off real colonization plans from NASA.]
After colonization, things move a lot slower. Food tends not to be provided by replicators - those take antimatter reactors, which aren't the safest or easiest things to transport by ship - but rather by farming and pre-packed rations, plus resuuply vessels that arrive every few months.
Power is provided by fusion reactors - antimatter reactors don't come for a while to a colony.
Water? Automatic purification plants, built by the robots and capable of producing enough potable water for 2,000 people per day from a variety of sources.
Security is provided variously depending on the colony: In many colonies, the small size of the initial settlement enables security to be provided by volunteer militia forces and maybe the odd "colonial sheriff", appointed by the governor to handle law enforcement.
Some colonies, particularly those on the borders or outside Federation space, have their security provided by Starfleet Security personnel.
Shelter is provided by the initial buildings built by the robots, and later by buildings built by the colonists themselves with automated help.
Education for kids tends to be provided by volunteer teachers. One-room schools aren't preferred, but they can be used.
