Colonising strange planets (starting with this one)

I've been thinking on how to design social housing for my offworld colony.
We'd need to do practice runs here first, of course, like the dudes that went to Mars and back without leaving their living room simulator. Every plan needs a test.
So we could build the first version here.
( Read more... )

So the first thing we'd need is to set up a lot of accessible housing for people with disabilities.

If you're thinking that the Enterprise lacked many people with disabilities (unless you count the superpowered blind guy), well, that's a far higher tech level than we currently have available. Their shields protected them from almost everything, and their meds could repair even major radiation damage. We are somewhat short of that standard.

Any major offworld expedition is going to spend a long, long time getting there, through dangers untold and hardships unnumbered. ( Read more... )

A proper colony isn't just people being looked after and people doing the looking after, it would have all the parts and pieces of a functioning community. In my happy dreams as well as a cafe we'd have the airponics and chickens to supply that cafe. Or hydroponics or whatever actually works. Dirt gardening is traditional and most people know how it works, but higher tech can make higher yields for the same energy and water. Building in growing areas to the colony is a good investment. Areas on different levels so wheel people can help with the food too.

A machine repairs place that can fix or even build wheelchairs and other assistive tech sounds good too. Not that I personally would have a clue where to start. But that seems to be steady business, a need that's not going away.

Not all the flats would be for people with disabilities. Their carers and the cook and the farmers and the tech people could all live there too. That would be proper colony style, everyone in one place working together.

You'd also need family sized places and places for kids to play, because a sustainable colony needs to grow the next set of farmer - carer - techs too. Not just make a stack of bedsits and warehouse people in them.

Starting with the people with disabilities and working out until everyone gets what they need you get a little economy going. Granted, probably based on government benefits right now, but if the people who brought you to the planet needed looking after for the rest of their lives, it would be a sign of an already failed colony if they didn't get what they needed. Plus many people with disabilities can and do work, though it's harder to get hired in the first place. Most places don't start out designing accessbility in, so there's avoidable barriers. Having a whole little community set up this way though, some people with disabilities would also be carers, or farmers, or techs, or just do something on the internet that brings in money, I don't know. (Not being one of those can work people. I just study.) Oh, and study is another thing everyone could do, there's study for all levels of ability, it's more fun than staring at the walls. We'd need to bring teachers and make sure we had access to books. (Hence being near the Library. Or University. And not just because they're my favourite places in the world.) Plus there should be somewhere to do dancing. I like my dancing lessons. Though that does loop back to the soundproofing and social spaces items.

So, okay, design a community, get some social housing built, make it epic with this being the first step to colonisation.

Probably needs a few more details before going asking for funding...