Space Colony: Planet Identification

Planet identification and exploration is the first step towards colonization. One has to know that there is someplace to colonize and what kind of planet it is before they can move in.

I have a few different theories as to how these planets would be identified but for the purposes of an story-line that I'm working on now, I'll use what I'm calling a "Scout Theory".

Scouts are genetically enhanced humans that were engineered to for deep-space exploration. Their bodies suffered and became weaker but as they would be dwelling almost in complete zero gravity, but their minds were expanded both in size and in function. Sort of like a living computer, the Scouts were sent deep into space to find habitable worlds to help the people of earth who had over grown the planet's ability to support their numbers.

Over thirty years of exploration in the countless systems, the Scout program identified nearly two-dozen planetoids in twenty systems that would support human life. The Scout List organized the identified planets in terms of ease of access, habitability, and proximity to valuable resources. The first seven on the list were seized by the largest of the world's governments and mega corporations. Four of the planets at the bottom of the list were considered too costly to colonize as there were too many navigation hazards to reach and not enough resources within the system to make it a sound economic investment.

The program dictated that when a planet was identified, the Scouts would launch several marker satellites that would provide a beacon to the fleets of ships that would arrive to take possession of the planet. These satellites also scan the planet for climate and some topography which is sent back towards Earth. A number of auxillery satellites were deployed which would pick up the signals of the planetary beacons and relay them to Earth as no one satellite would be able to send a signal strong enough by itself.

The Scout Program controlled all access to the relay satellites and restricted access to any of the data from the project. Only once they were certain to gain and maintain control over the planets they wished, did they start selling off the locations to the remaining planets. Corporations bought them quickly and then resold the planet's information out to the people of earth. Everyone wanted their own, small square of a new world; a chance to start over.

Most of the people who had the money to afford to leave the Earth weren't the kind of people to grab a patch of dirt and make it their own, however, so many of the new worlds would be colonized in waves. The first to leave would be thousands of workers who would build the first cities.

*Story Element*

One of the last of the four that were identified within a dangerous class of nebula that could not be measured in the short time that the Scouts passed it. Through their genetically enhanced minds, they were able to navigate the hazards of the nebula and find the last planet on the list.

As this planet was considered inaccessible by commercial ships, it was not considered for colonization. In a remarkable display of business ethics, the Scout Project didn't reveal the location of the last planet.

Eventually, the location of the Last planet was stolen from the computers of the Scout Program and a secret colonization was born.