The exploration project has settled on a total of 5 outposts in space over the past 5 years:
- Alpha-base
- Beta-Base in the Kepler-47 System
- Mining Outpost on PSO J318.5-22
- Outpost on K2-18b
- Spacestation at RXJ1856.5-3754
Now it has been decided to extend the strategy of establishing individual bases according to opportunity (wormholes, lucky discoveries in old observation data, etc.) to include a longer-term component:
The new strategy is to send out multi-year expeditions to map a connected area and search for promising sites. The aim is to create larger clusters of outposts in order to generate synergies and possibly even to establish permanent independent sites. The far scattered and not coherent outposts are dependent on a central supply from home and can hardly profit from the other missions and their abilities or complement each other in their research. The transport of the raw materials is also organized “star-like” towards Earth with point-to-point transports between the outposts and the home system. By systematically exploring, mapping and characterizing a coherent space area, it is hoped to be able to select the respective locations in a more planned manner.
These multi-year expeditions are to be carried out with a new class of spacecraft, the Long-Distance (LD) class. The Long-Distance class is again divided into 2 subcategories, the Normal-Range and Extended Range. The Normal-Range is used for expeditions between 1-3 years, the Extended-Range allows even 5-6 year expeditions.
The Long Distance Class
The Long Distance class are large space ships, which are to fly however only with a small crew, max 11 astronauts, in order to keep the loads of the life support system as small as possible. There will be 1 captain (m/f) and max 10 other crew members, consist mainly of scientists of different disciplines. The LD class is characterized by large jump engines, which allow to bridge the distances between star systems within a few weeks.
Bezeichnung: LD-YYYY-<NR o. XR>
| Item | Meaning |
| LD | Long-Distance – Starship class |
| YYYY | Year in which the construction started |
| NR | Normal Range – Version for 1-3 yearsMission duration |
| XR | eXtended Range – version for 5-6 years mission duration |
LD-2307-XR
The LD-2307-XR was the first ship to be built in the Earth orbit shipyard. The first test flights in the solar system have already taken place and so far the new class of spacecraft has been able to meet our expectations:
