Game Date: October 25, 2034, 6:00 AM
To being with, it is important to note that the Venus deposits may be even larger or more numerous than first reported. A five-person geological team may be formed(members of all four branches can be included) to survey the planet on the ground. This takes a lot longer than the ship-board sensors but is the only way to be certain that all of the deposits have been found. Their survey, if one is conducted, will
not result in a reduction -- the geological sensors may not have found everything, but they don't 'overestimate'.
As the
ST Valencia is ready at the P&A Group Commercial Shipyard, a team could be formed and immediately sent to Venus if such is desired.
MINERAL SITUATION
Earth:
Venus's known military deposits as of the survey just completed by the
GEV Marc Aaronson:
mt = millions of tons
Duranium: 14.83mt(0.5 accessibility)
Neutronium: 13.63mt(0.1)
Boronide: 21.72mt(1.0)
Vendarite: 29.67mt(0.1)
Sorium: 1.938mt(0.1)
Uridium: 8.794mt(0.5)
Corundium: 2.289mt(0.1)
By comparison, this is on the Apollos asteroid:
Corbomite: 431(1) -- not millions or thousands, just four hundred thirty-one tons
Tritanium: 324(1)
COLONIZATION
In Aurora, there are three main factors to consider in colonization: gravity, temperature, and atmospheric pressure. If a body does not have gravity within a (quite wide) acceptable range, it cannot be colonized period. Venus is about as close as you can get at 91% of earth's gravity, no problem at all. Temperature-wise, Venus is 462 degrees celcius, with the Earth at 14 degrees. This is a huge issue, not completely insurmountable. Atmospheric pressure is 100 times that on earth -- also an issue but not as big of one as temperature in this case.
The equipment required to survive in conditions less suitable than earth is known in game terms as
infrastructure. Every habitable body has a colony cost(earth's is 0) -- each point of colony cost means one infrastructure is required to support a million people. Each infrastructure costs 2 duranium to produce, plus you then need to get it there(build the ships, fuel, etc.).
Venus's colony cost is 25, i.e. 25 units of infrastructure per million colonists.
Other potential habitable bodies in the solar system:
Luna(colony cost 2.0) -- already found to be barren of minerals
Mars(2.0)
Mercury(16.21)
Io/Europa/Ganymede/Callisto(5.75) -- moons of Jupiter, a much farther journey but a doable one
Titan(7.0) -- largest moon of Saturn
Terraforming is possible, it would require research at this point, then either a small colony to set up terraforming facilities or terraforming ships, each of which have their own costs. It also requires a
lot of time, so it is not a short-term solution.
Automated mines(requiring no people to operate them) are also possible, but this would anger(in rp, not game terms) a ton of people who are upset about rising unemployment. Politically disastrous, but possible.
Immediate colonization is not possible until Cryogenic Transport is researched(a new ship would then need to be designed and built, and a freighter would be needed to move infrastructure etc. there as well). CT research is currently slated to be done in July of 2037, or a little under three years from now.
I'll be happy to answer any questions as mentioned, but for now I see a number of possibilities:
1. Do you want a geology team formed to go to Venus? If yes, should they take the best leaders available(highest geological bonus skill, higher means faster surveying) or should those currently assigned to other work remain in their current jobs?
2. You may wish to accelerate/obsess about some branch of research, such as terraforming technology or cyro transport to get things moving faster. Another possibility, though IMO remote at this point, would be to prioritize Jump Point Theory research(gets us down the track to grav sensors which are needed to detect jump points to other star systems and interstellar exploration).
3. You could choose to punt and do nothing while more of the solar system is surveyed. Even if 'do nothing' isn't the choice, you may wish to give orders along the lines of 'survey habitable worlds ASAP', form X number of geology teams, build X number more Essex-class survey vessels and/or Lexington-class shuttle transports, etc.
SPACE awaits your orders and/or clarifications on this briefing. You are now on the clock, 48 hours to choose.
Edit: we can design ships that go further if necessary, but the current range of the Marc Aaronson being 6.2 billion km, that means getting to Pluto is about the outer range of it's capability(it would be a year and a half there and a year and a half back). The timeframe for colonizing the outer system is therefore pretty large at current engine tech.