Interstellar exploration does not begin when you arrive another star.

It begins, we decide to slow down.

Welcome to Science and Futurism with Isaac Arthur.

Today we're continuing our Fleet Unity series, as one of humanity's first interstellar colonization fleets

nears the end of its journey from Taucedy, the first star system

settled after leaving Earth, to 82G Iridani. These fleets take a very different approach

to colonization than the classic single destination colony arc. Instead of traveling to one

world and stopping, they are designed to settle an entire star system, resupply, and then move on again.

Part of the crew remains behind to build a permanent civilization in that system.

The rest continue onward, beginning another multi-decade journey, along the way they rebuild,

using raw materials harvested from the system they just settled to

replenish equipment, expand habitats, and grow their population in transit.

We explored this model in our previous episode, Fleet Unity, humanity's first interest

of our armada.

What began as a single ship, Yerdy, used its time in Tauce to build itself larger and stuff its hole

full of raw materials, then spent the next 80 years constructing dozens of additional vessels

during the voyage to 82 G Irdani. By the time it arrived, it was no longer a single ship,

but an entire Gardner fleet, one that stops to seat a system, then continues on.

In this episode, we'll be joining the very first ships to arrive, a Van Garrood Squadron, set ahead of the main fleet to establish a beachhead.

This series started way back in 2016 with a single ship traveling to settle one of Saturn's

mini moons, and has worked its way out into the galaxy.

It used a fictional interstellar expedition with somewhat mutable cannon as a framework to explore the real science and engineering of Star Flight, colonization, and large-scale space infrastructure.

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