Contact ship

During the time of the Second Exodus, and the Old United Earth Alliance thousands of Colony Arks left Earth to destinations all across the Upward Sector (and a few to the Spinward Sector). These Colony Arks were equipped with the bare necessities to start a colony, and relied on often incomplete survey data of the target world. So the Colonists Affairs Bureau sent out Contact ships 1, 5, 10 and 50 years later to check on the colonies progress and see if they needed any help. Some colonies had a no Contact clause from the start and were never visited by Contact ships,others missed their intended target and ended up somewhere else, where the Contact ships never looked and some Colonies and some Arks did not make it and the Contact ship arrived to sometimes find the remains or nothing at all.

After the Union was founded and the Colony Affairs Bureau became the Union Colonist Affairs Bureau a new effort was made to find the Colonies that have not been found, not visited during the first attempts or had a no contact Clause (In case of a No Contact clause, a survey from Obit would be attempted and help only offered if it looked like they needed it). According to CAB of the 320,133 Arks that left Earth during the Second Exodus ( Of the almost 12 Billion humans on Earth during the time of the Ascent 10 Billion left . While the early Arks held only 500-600 colonists, the later models hauled 30,000 colonists and more to their new destinations.

This table shows how the things stood in 2220.

The new Union Government decided to take the now available GalNet Radio technology to the existing known Colonies that were not Union Members or prior to that United Earth members, seek out the No contact Colonies and attempt to determine the fate of the ones missing, lost or unknown. (Operation Home Beacon) Operation Home Beacon managed to find,account for and determine their fate 19,925 leaving 6,000 unaccounted or not contacted.

Contact Ships were not specific designed ships but every Science Corps Explorer, Union Fleet Asset that could be spare for the Mission.