BEHIND COLONIZATION

A colony system/world must be concordant with the following criterion:

The system, or planetary orbit must not coincide with a harmful, or poorly understood phenomena. Also no individual colony world is to be established in proximity to such a phenomenon.

Planetary orbits must not coincide with known threat regions, such as asteroid belts or cometary swarms, where the risk of catastrophic surface bombardment is shown to be unacceptable.

The system/world must not receive life endangering radiation, from any system, or near system phenomena, such as large scale changes in stellar structure, powerful radiation emissions, from exotic phenomena, or from radiation belts or flux tubes as found around Jovians.

Eccentricities of orbit do not result in wide scale changes in insolation, or generate chaotic coupling with other significant in system bodies which lead to large variations in orbit. (Maximum eccentricities around mainline stars are to be less than 0.1, though around brighter stars a greater degree of variation is allowed as long as they do not result in massive and harmful changes in environment, including atmospheric composition.)

The sun must be proven to be stable, and invariable. The star has to have been monitored for at least sixty years (accurate pre-federation records are accepted), and have at least five years of structural research study, to authenticate stellar invariance.

Solar weather is preferably calm, and unenergetic. However this criterion is dependent on the magnetospheric protection of colony worlds. (Colony worlds with a strong magnetosphere at non-critical distances are able to a great amount of energetic solar weather, however planets with weaker fields can take much less assault. Decisions on suitability rest upon amount of ground-received radiation, which must be lower than accepted background levels.)

Central stars must also be able to support life for a further 50 million years before significant changes in spectral class make effects on established environments). This criterion is widely regarded as highly variable, and a more commonly the ruling is changed to over a period of 50 million years the solar contributed global temperature must not change by more than 5’K, which is an averaged reading to account for minor solar weather cycles.

Binary systems must be shown to be stable, and that the planetary orbits must remain stable and no subject to variations. The total received insolation of both suns must be able to support a constant and balanced environment, (though mild seasonal changes are allowed [tolerances of a change less than 10’K from purely solar sources, not from planetary tilt]).

Satellite systems around planets must not cause excessive tidal strain that would encourage significant tectonic stress events (resulting in earthquakes etc.), or leading to inevitable satellite disintegration and surface bombardment.

Satellites should also generate tides, which do not change the area of exposed land by more than 10% per cycle (though acceptations are made for water predominant worlds such as Atlantis)

Tides should not significantly change pressure loading on continents and lead to powerful violent effects such as earthquakes.

If satellites posses strong magnetic fields, their effects on the planet must be studied. The main concern is the surface exposure to elevated levels of radiation, above an accepted background level.

If the colonized world is in orbit around a Jovian, its orbit must not subject to the intense radiation belts of its parent planet, unless the planet has sufficient shielding, which remains stable through each transit.

If the colonized world is in orbit around a Jovian, its orbit must not perturb any ring systems which cause either increased surface bombardment, which leads to significant impact events or energy transfer to atmosphere that sets off climatic changes.

If the colonized world is in orbit around a Jovian, the satellite must be proven to have a stable non-degrading orbit, with at least 50 million years before unacceptable changes in orbital conditions, or other satellites changing in their orbital paths, which threaten stability.

 Further interpretation of these criterion:

Details considering long term stability. The common base used is a period of fifty million years, which enables if civilization collapse, or natural catastrophe not only recovery of colonizing races, but also of planetary ecology. This time is judged sufficient for evacuation of planet, and or preservation of ecology by storage. With enhanced technological powers, colonization is permitted on worlds, which are predicted to have unacceptable change in conditions within the 50 million year limit if this threat is eliminated by technological processes prior to colonization, or extends the threat period beyond 50 million years.