Estrella-class sleeper ship. During the 2100s, well after identifying a large number of habitable exoplanets and extrasolar moons in the vicinity of Earth, fleets of sleeper ships were built in orbit around Jupiter and Saturn. Each fleet destined for a different star. A fleet consists of 12 ships that only differ in their payload. 4 carry 250 colonists and several thousand frozen embryos, as well as habitation modules and green houses, 4 carry additional supplies, habitats and greenhouses, and the other 4 carry each a beam emitter station and ISRU units that will mine silicon to produce solar pannels for the beam emitter stations.
Once built, the ships tanks are filled with Helium 3 and Deuterium mined from the atmosphere of Saturn and Jupiter.
The ships use a two-stage nuclear fusion pulsed detonation engine setup, operating at 250 pulses per second, combined with a magnetic sail that captures particle beams fired by particle cannons in a low solar orbit. The first stage accellerates the ship to 15% of the speed of light, with help of particle beam emitters placed in a low solar orbit, and is then jettisoned, followed by a burn to divert away from any stars in the forseeable future. The second stage then ignites, accelerating the ship to 20% of the speed of light on its own. The acceleration phase takes 5 years.
Several years before arriving, the magnetic sail is reactivated, acting as interstellar parachuts, slowing the ship down to 0.5% the speed of light, the second stage engine is then used for the final decelleration and orbital adjustments once in the target system.
A fusion reactor consuming 30-50 tons of deuterium and helium 3 on the trip, depending on distance, keeps the ships powered for the journey. A single sleeper ship is enough to establish a barebones colony enough to keep its population alive.
Estrella-class sleeper ship. During the 2100s, well after identifying a large number of habitable exoplanets and extrasolar moons in the vicinity of Earth, fleets of sleeper ships were built in orbit around Jupiter and Saturn. Each fleet destined for a different star. A fleet consists of 12 ships that only differ in their payload. 4 carry 250 colonists and several thousand frozen embryos, as well as habitation modules and green houses, 4 carry additional supplies, habitats and greenhouses, and the other 4 carry each a beam emitter station and ISRU units that will mine silicon to produce solar pannels for the beam emitter stations.
Once built, the ships tanks are filled with Helium 3 and Deuterium mined from the atmosphere of Saturn and Jupiter.
The ships use a two-stage nuclear fusion pulsed detonation engine setup, operating at 250 pulses per second, combined with a magnetic sail that captures particle beams fired by particle cannons in a low solar orbit. The first stage accellerates the ship to 15% of the speed of light, with help of particle beam emitters placed in a low solar orbit, and is then jettisoned, followed by a burn to divert away from any stars in the forseeable future. The second stage then ignites, accelerating the ship to 20% of the speed of light on its own. The acceleration phase takes 5 years.
Several years before arriving, the magnetic sail is reactivated, acting as interstellar parachuts, slowing the ship down to 0.5% the speed of light, the second stage engine is then used for the final decelleration and orbital adjustments once in the target system.
A fusion reactor consuming 30-50 tons of deuterium and helium 3 on the trip, depending on distance, keeps the ships powered for the journey. A single sleeper ship is enough to establish a barebones colony enough to keep its population alive.
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