Colony ship

Colony ships are a type of human spacecraft that date back to the Golden Age. These vessels were designed to transport colonists and equipment required for planetary colonization from Earth to the destination world.

History
During the Collapse, humanity was forced to defend them against its foes. Hundreds of years later, colony ships can still be seen in Old Russia. One ship, in particular, found in the center of the Cosmodrome, acts as the lair for the House of Devils. The interior can be breached in a story mission in The Taken King.

Specifications
Colony ships featured a trilateral symmetric design, with three sets of engine nozzles protruding at an angle from the midpoint of the fuselage, and three shuttle craft attached on the lower half above a fourth, central set of engine nozzles. The shuttles were responsible for transporting the colonists and supplies from the orbiting ship down to the surface of the destination world. In between the shuttles were three mounts that held up to thirty cargo containers each; in addition to carrying vital supplies for the colonization expedition, the containers would double as temporary surface shelters until permanent structures could be built. While awaiting launch, colony ships stood vertically and were supported by three large struts that possibly served as landing gear.

The upper half of the ship consisted of three spherical fuel tanks. The fuel they contained would provide enough thrust to launch the colony ship into space and boost it to traveling speed. Once empty, the tanks would be converted into habitable spaces for the ship's passengers for the duration of the journey.

List of colony ships

 * Exodus Blue (Crucible map)
 * Exodus Red
 * Unidentified Cosmodrome colony ship

Trivia

 * According to Rob Adams, Bungie's Lead World Artist for Destiny, the colony ship prominently displayed at the center of the Cosmodrome actually contains hundreds of mummified colonists who perished when the ship failed to launch. The reason the ship did not launch was that its fuel lines, located in The Blast, ruptured and exploded during the chaos of the Collapse, preventing the ship from fueling properly.
 * Bungie originally intended the colony ships to contain machines called SMILE (Suspended Mobility Interplanetary Length Expedition) Pods, which would have held individual colonists in suspended animation. SMILE Pods with mummified occupants would have been scattered across The Blast in the Cosmodrome as debris from a destroyed colony ship.
 * A few SMILE pods remain inside of The Devils' Spire. One of these pods is scannable; Ghost will tell the player that he had attempted to awaken the hero sleeping within the pod, but said individual claimed that he'd seen enough wars already. This might be a possible reference to Halo's Master Chief, whom is first introduced being awoken from a similar stasis pod.
 * Early in Destiny's development, colony ships were originally designed as single, enlarged space shuttles.

List of appearances

 * Destiny