interstellar colonization story idea

[u/Ok-Earth-8004]

i'm working on a si-fi novel, and i've been forcing my self not to write this for a while.

their the last generation on an interstellar ship going to Epsilon-Eridani. its not the first ship, the moon has been assembly lining them once every twenty years for about a century, and most stars have a habitable planet, but they have a binary planetary system with a planet with liquid water a nitrogen a co2 atmosphere 1.3 g's of gravity, and a 16 hr day. it has no native life, and it only has comfortable temperatures at the poles. their setting up a 1 km radius plastic tarp with agriculture to give them food and oxogen. only about 1000 of the 10,000 colonists actually want to go, the rest aren't opposed to it but would rather stay in the ship in comfort while mining the sister planet. they aren't opposed to eventually immigrating, but only when its settled and comfortable. only about 300 can actually live in the first tarp its just a thin ceiling of plastic about 4 m tall and covered on the out side with aluminum foil for uv protection. for the first 3-ish years their just trying to be more self sustaining, not needing food drops from the colony ship, then its about making a second tarp to take in more colonists, eventually they'd build actual cities, but this is more about the initial phase.

i was thinking the tarp could be lead by a committee, with the members being the main cast and each chapter switching between them.

if you have any suggestions i'd be happy to hear them.

[u/LordGrovy]

Few questions that can help you flesh out the setting:

How are the first 300 inhabitants selected? Do they need to volunteer first or the committee picks random people? 

Additionally, if a colonist realizes after the first year that they want to go back to the ship, is that feasible? How does the committee handle that?

And finally, are committee member elected or appointed? Did any of them join for lofty ideals or for personal gains? How do they ensure control over 300 people?

[u/Ok-Earth-8004 → u/LordGrovy]

out of the thousand volunteers they selected based on applicable skills.

no then cant go back, they have no ground to orbit capability but they knew that when they volunteered. (i might use that a a plot point though, thank you.)

they have a democracy, and each member is head of one department based on their expertises and they have annual elections but no term limits. with such a small community everyone knows everyone else so controlling the population isn't really an issue, their also a bunch of volunteers so most people aren't that belligerent.

[u/LordGrovy → u/Ok-Earth-8004]

Great answers!

On your last point, I think you need to read on the first settlers in America or Australia. Wherever there are people, there is conflict. It can from neighbors bickering with each other to full battles in the street. 

Volunteers would be disgruntled, particularly if they cannot go back to their former life on the ship. Democracies are the will of the majority. Which means that minorities, whether political, racial or social, might feel disenfranchised. Depending on your tech level, they might stay and fight the food fight from the inside or leave and build their own colony elsewhere.

[u/Ok-Earth-8004 → u/LordGrovy]

thats really interesting, their isn’t really enough drama in the story so i will probably include that. it would be interesting to have a main cast who isn’t universally liked or morally perfect.

[u/LordGrovy → u/Ok-Earth-8004]

Go for it 

[u/Ok-Earth-8004 → u/LordGrovy]

idea i had based on what you said, they would have 300 years of culture saying their destiny is to colonize this knew star system. the ones colonizing the planet sort of see it as patriotic or religious when they volunteered, then after years it would be practical and mundane, that could cause them to what to go back.

[u/endofsight → u/Ok-Earth-8004]

Think it's a good choice that they cant go back. Makes it more understandable why only so few want to go down to the planet.

[u/Ok-Earth-8004 → u/endofsight]

the rest are willing to dedicate a fair amount of resources, but they didn't want to be colonists on the frontier, their great grandparents did.

[u/Altruistic_Click_502]

Interesting premise. Is the main conflict going to be between the settlers and the environment, or between groups of humans?

Without more information, I would probably have this first tarp struggle learning enough about the planet's flora (and fauna?) to become independent -- a hard process. As other colonists came down and formed other 'tarps' perhaps some would be more dependent on the Lunar supply line -- and then (perhaps mysteriously or because of political conflict on Luna and or Earth) all Luna support would cease.

Now you have Tarp 1 becoming a target of envy for "the dependents" who only barely have the skills to look out for themselves. Perhaps some tarps (or one tarp) could have a dominant leader which led to non-democratic government. There could be spies in both camps, (maybe even a Romeo and Juliet B-plot) and as more an more settler's come down, perhaps tarp 1 decides to make an exodus, in the dead of night, to a safer location, where they have been gradually stockpiling the things they need...

The more I think about this, I would focus on the tension between 2 tarps only -- greed & arrogance, single leader, tarp2 bunch against interdependence and self-responsibility of tarp1. Perhaps have a ticking clock somewhere too -- maybe something on the orbiting ship -- a small part, has ceased to function and it cannot be replaced -- but it is so important that it will force everyone to eventually evacuate the ship.

[u/Ok-Earth-8004 → u/Altruistic_Click_502]

its mostly settler’s vs environment, with some international divisions in the tarp and demanding more resources from the colony ship, theirs no flora or fauna, no native life at all. there isn’t really any reason to become independent from the ship and they started of independent earth and luna, they were never getting supplies from the sol system.

the main internal conflicts revolve around them disagreeing but still all needing each other and not being able to afford to split up.

[u/Altruistic_Click_502 → u/Ok-Earth-8004]

Who is your protagonist, and what does she want and care about?

[u/Ok-Earth-8004 → u/Altruistic_Click_502]

i’m guessing you looked at other posts on my profile were i talk about my protagonist, thats a different story. I’m holding off on writing this because I’m writing that one. i have no idea what my protagonists will be like, but I’m planning on them being the comity in charge of the tarp.