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M, FB, Plus, 7, 7Gin, D7, F

Illustrated by Takuya Io

Caption: From small-scale ships that are remodelled transport ships to large-scale fleets, there are many Emigrant Ships that start trips from the Earth seeking a planet where humans can reside. And, starting with planet Eden, new worlds for mankind continue being discovered to this day.

Emigrant Ships
The arks that carry the burden of the Mankind Seeding Project
It's said that all the kinds of animals on the Earth were put on Noah's Ark. The emigrant ships that travel seeking a new world to bequeath the seed of the human race can also be called the arks of the Galactic Age of Exploration. To survive, Noah made the Ark after a revelation of God. Mankind, who is also doing it to survive, make the ships with spaceship shipbuilding technology that was obtained using an inheritance from aliens. Thus, mankind came to use the arks as interstellar emigrant ships in order to continue the human seed.
Emigrant Ships are constructed as one world so that human beings can live within it. Moreover, they aren't only residential space; the circulation of such things as each resource for the continuation of a prolonged voyage is indispensable in the ships. However, as a perfect circulation is still difficult, other than mining resources on such things as planets along the route, goods are replenished from such things as transactions with other fleets and the use of interstellar transport businesses. Otherwise, the Emigrant Ships continue sailing until a new world is discovered. The bio-plant of the Island Cluster class, a system that is constructed with the circulatory system continuing successively through several Environment Ships, has achieved the minimum level of replenishment needed for sailing above all other Emigrant Ships. On the other hand, the residential environment seeks the stability of life on Earth. For instance, the blue sky and sunset screen projections that were implemented in the SDF-1 Macross were considerably effective in the mental care of the onboard residents. And this was developed further in the New Macross class, which in addition to the projection of the sky, was even able to reproduce weather. Also, there are also recreational facilities and so on among the facilities, and with the exception of the crew, they are set free as sight-seeing areas according to the Emigrant Fleet, and there are many cases where those areas are used to acquire foreign currency from other fleets.
Even though the residential space of the early emigrants was certainly forcibly crammed into the spur-of-the-moment Emigrant Ships, since close to half a century of space emigration history has passed at the present time, the livability of Emigrant Ships has improved rapidly. In a way, it's like having moved into an average upscale condominium from a four-and-a-half tatami apartment*. Even though there are imaginary fears, can the emigrants who have become accustomed to this convenience, become pioneers when the Emigrant Ship finally reaches a savage new world?

* Translator's Note: 6.89 square metres/74.2 square feet. "A product of Japanese modernity that can incorporate everything anyone needs to live in a claustrophobic sort of efficiency. But in its simplest form, it is also a box." Courtesy: Anime-Planet.

Related Matter: The Ships that Accompany a Fleet
The fleet composition of the early Emigrant Ships, which were both city and combat vessels, were mainly escort vessels, such as carriers and destroyers. Afterwards, after the Emigrant Ships had become ships with huge numbers of emigrants, a genuine fleet form that distributed the urban functions between several core ships became mainstream. Basically, the flagship, which enriched the urban functions, and the core ships that accompany the flagship, which specialize in each type of facility, such as manufacturing and experimentation, are organized as an emigrant fleet by the escort fleet. Those companion ships are tied by a traffic network in the void of space, and they navigate together as a team.

Caption: The New Macross Class fleet that divides the facilities necessary for the city between several accompanying vessels, functions altogether as one Emigrant Ship.

Caption: The Environment Ships that use a bio-plant have a circulation function that is mutually connected between them and recycles various materials.

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The Vicissitudes of Emigrant Ships
It can be said that the SDF-1 Macross was the model Emigrant Ship, as it achieved a 1 year voyage in space with more than 50,000 civilians aboard. Actually, before the departure of the Super Long Range Emigrant Fleets, where the Megaroad class was used as the main axis, SDF-1 isomorph ships (the SDFN series) were mass produced, and they departed earlier as survey Emigrant Ships and had the operational achievements of acquiring valuable information, such as routes for the later Emigrant Fleets. Even though the tens-of-thousands person-scale Megaroad Class were used after this as a hurriedly built emigrant ship, close to 20 years have passed since the First Super Long Range Emigrant Fleet. There has been alternating generations of genuine Emigrant Ships that have drastically improved livability to the maximum one-million person-scale New Macross Class. The emigrant ships that have become flagships have become genuine city ships, and the heavily used functions, such as factories and agriculture, have been distributed between specialized accompanying ships, so that the entire fleet has come to function as one Emigrant Ship. And now, after close to half a century of space emigration history has passed, the ten-million person-scale 5th generation gigantic Emigrant Ships, which cover the cycle of materials within the fleet with a bio-plant, have embarked.
In addition, various enterprises often sponsor the Emigrant Ships, and in addition to the purpose of seeking a new world, Emigrant Ships have come to a situation of the entwining of the speculations of business with galactic trail-blazing.

Caption: The super long-range emigrants broke into a genuine era with the completion of the New Macross Class design, which made a clear distinction from the Megaroad class.

The Size Of Each Era's Main Emigrant Ship
Macross Class (immediately following the First Interstellar War)
Overall length: about 1,220 m
Standard Resident Number: about 10,000 people

Megaroad Class (around 2012)
Overall length: about 1,600 m
Standard Resident Number: tens of thousands of people.

New Macross Class (around 2030)
Overall length: about 7,770 m
Standard Resident Number: about 350,000 people.

Island Cluster Class (around 2040)
Overall length: about 15,000 m
Standard Resident Number: about 5,000,000 people.

The Initial Emigrant Ships
The Macross Class and Megaroad Class were city ships in addition to combat ships. Basically they are spaceships that weren't constructed as emigrant ships in the design stage, and have been remodelled only so that it is possible to reside within them for a long time. Even though it seems that the reason that the design of a real emigrant ship was difficult was because there wasn't any long-term voyaging know-how, in that era, the Unified Forces had the crisis of not knowing when the Zentraadi Forces would return and destroy mankind. Therefore, the urgent departures of emigrant ships that insured the continuance of the human race was a pressing need. It's said that at this time the 12 Macross Class ships were sent out with 3,000 civilians in military employment and about 7,000 civilians selected for each ship. Thereafter, the New Macross Class, departed based on the safe route information that the Macross Class had accumulated. Together with the fold navigation abilities of the New Macross Class, they overtook the Macross Class that had sailed earlier. Those crews had respect for the founding space emigrants, as they had lived in a severe environment, and they were embraced by the New Macross Class.

Caption: The Macross Class was built as an intermediary for the development and operation of emigrant ships at the dawning of an era, and they departed as emergency emigrant ships.

Caption: The Megaroad class is the Macross class reorganized as an emigrant ship. On and after 2012, 1 or 2 ships departed every year.

The New Macross Class And The Emigrant Ships After It
The New Macross Class was constructed as a genuine emigrant ship from the long-duration voyaging know-how that was accumulated by the operation of the Macross Class and Megaroad Class. Thereafter, the entire fleet functions as one emigrant ship with the accompanying ships specializing in such things as each function and facility of the emigrant ship. Moreover, an Attack Carrier is connected with the City Ship, which functions as the flagship, and it is able to operate separately as a genuine combat vessel. The fifth generation Island Cluster Class, which is a closed-system City Ship that completes the minimum replenishment needs with a circulatory system that makes use of a bio-plant, contains various facilities, such as factories, within the lower part of the City Ship. On the other hand, such emigrant ships as the Macross Galaxy are airtight chemical plants, and the designs of the emigrant ships varied according to the fleet.

Caption: An Attack Carrier with a transformation function has been connected to the City Ships since the New Macross Class. Pictured is the Battle 7, which is connected to the Macross 7.

Caption: Several Environment Ships are connected to each other, establishing a circulatory system that recycles materials within the fleet. Corpses are no exception, and they are dissolved in a solution and become a resource for the fleet.

The Main Sections of the Island Cluster Class
A combat section
B protective shell
C above-ground section
D underground residential, manufacturing industry and so on sections

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© Aaron Sketchley