Colonies, surface

I seem to pace around certain ideas from time to time. I think it is a process of refining ideas for me. Anyways, today I thought about colonies.

In the legionverse science fiction setting of my creation, there are two types of human settlements: established worlds and colonies. The distinction between the two is that worlds have at least 100 million inhabitants (legal minimum set by Imperial Senate) and have a representative in the Imperial Senate as a consequence. Worlds also have the right to establish and govern colonies. People are free to establish colonies, but Imperial Law requires that the colony must be associated either with a specific world or be governed by the Imperial Navy. Illegal colonies found are immediately put under authority of the Navy.

Now, considering a colony. It is a permanent but relatively new settlement built by a relatively small group of people, a few hundred adults at most in the beginning. They probably have limited supplies, tools and a limited connection to the motherworld. Therefore the equipment they do have with them is concentrated to keep the colonists alive long enough that they can build shelter and start producing food (and oxygen, if needed).

Well-prepared (and/or funded) colonists might send an advance party to build the shelters for the colonists to inhabit. They might be robots, a group of volunteer colonists with the necessary skills or hired hands. What to send depends on technology and ease of travel to the location. Robots would be favoured if using humans is risky or expensive but humans probably would be used if robots are not trusted or if they are not flexible enough in their decision-making.

Now, let us assume that the colonists have shelter and have started producing food for themselves. The next goal would be to build a technical infrastructure. Let us assume that the planet the colonists have settled has natural oxygen and water so these are not required. To speed up food production, machinery will be needed and machinery will need power. Solar power would be easily obtained, but the amount of solar energy available would be limited. Nuclear or fusion power might be too difficult to build (and fuel), fossil fuels might not be available on the planet. If hydrogen is needed for powering vehicles or generators, there must be some way to separate hydrogen from water or a source of raw hydrogen (a gas giant, perhaps?).

The colony ship might be available for the colonists, at least if the colonists or the colony backer owns the ship. In this case, the colonists might dismantle the colony ship and strip it's high technology for their own use. This would provide the early colony with a power plant, sufficient fuel for a while as well as metal from the hull to use for reinforced shelter, possibly even surface-to-orbit weaponry from the ship's turrets or a minifactory for manufacturing spare parts. The ship would give the colony a good supply of essentials for building the core of industry on the planet.

Now, let us assume that the colony has survived the first cycle around their star (let us assume that this is roughly 0.5-3 years) and have means to produce food, electricity and can repair goods and might have some rudimentary transports, harvesters etc. Now new items appear. At this point, the colonists have been isolated for quite a while, only in the company of each others. Tensions might rise and the colony risking dispersement (which might be dangerous or simply divide the resources available). This would prompt to create a way to settle disagreements peacefully, by arbiter. The settlement would probably attempt to follow the customs of their homeworld but might, especially if exiles or otherwise unhappy with the rules back home, create something of their own. This would become the basis of government and society and the early days would shape the future society.

Another question is maintaining contact to homeworld, a vital requirement. While a colony should be as self-sufficient as possible, the colony needs additional colonists and resources to grow. Also, some spare parts might not be available on the planet and getting these would require contact with homeworld or trade relations elsewhere. This requires, however, that the colony has something to trade for the goods they need. The motherworld might require food, industrial metals or something else. The preparation to provide these to the motherworld will probably be a top priority, depending on what they can easily provide and what the world can offer. The motherworld would certainly fund operations to get more resources that the colony can provide and therefore fuel the colony's rapid growth.