Category:Class 0 planets

Class 0 is the lowest technological level used for the classification of planets. These worlds are extremely rare, and their inhabitants are generally looked down on by people whose worlds have a more developed infrastructure.

These worlds are often referred to as 'Colonies', presumably based on the historical assumption that a world would only have such an insignificant infrastructure when the first settlers had recently arrived. However, the last new world to gain human occupation was Auric I back in 1296, and there are still a small number of class 0 planets on the charts. However, in recent years colonists has come to be an offensive term for people with no understanding of technology, so this word is no longer found on any official documents.

These worlds have little or no global transport, power or communications infrastructure. In most cases, they have less than a dozen artificial satellites. Communication with the rest of the universe is mostly by hardcopy letters or store-and-forward networks, as the limited economy of such worlds cannot support the cost of a full time interspace relay or ansible satellite. These planets are also notable for the lack of a downline (or, in most cases, any kind of permenant spaceport).

Ecclesiastical legislation currently guarantees a temple ship visit to such cut-off worlds at least once every 21 or 28 days, depending on the number of churches per unit of population. The reasoning for this is that it is unhealthy for the human race as a whole if any person is denied proper access to a priest. If churches on the planet are too overcrowded, the temple's priests can take confession to ease the strain.

A Class 0 world can be promoted to class 1 upon the installation of a permenant ansible to enable off-world communication. In theory, orbital habitats with downlines also indicate a higher level of technology, but these may or may not make a world elligable for a higher tech-level classification depending on the region.

Some scattered worlds are also classified as Class 0, whether or not they have an ansible. In these cases, the distinction is whether or not space flight is required to travel between parts of a planet. Upon the installation of lines connecting all rocks in a world, the planet will be reclassified as either class R or class 3.