Space Odyssey from Abandoned Mining Space Station

Chapter 543: Chapter 178: The Value of the Planet, The Reason for Development_2

So Chen Ming gave Bai Quan a call to reschedule the time for learning command techniques.

After all, he had already handled the important matters with the Mechanical Race and the Insect Race, leaving only routine tasks with no need for his attention.

Tomorrow, he could formally begin his study of command techniques.

However, Chen Ming wasn’t sleepy yet, so he decided to use today’s last hours.

He went ahead and compiled a report on the situation at the temporary base over the past week.

Utilizing the sensors of several cruisers stationed at the temporary base, Chen Ming could see that the Star Port was beginning to take shape.

Under the coordination of Brilliant, a group of Dusk units, at the Star Port’s capacity limit, were tirelessly accelerating the construction of the entire Star Port.

It seemed that Dusk units themselves didn’t really understand what fatigue was.

In any case, Brilliant would certainly complete the finishing touches on the Star Port within two days.

The total construction period took less than two weeks.

After all, in this temporary base of Chen Ming’s, the Star Port was the most important facility and quite basic, with almost no associated maintenance facilities.

Because Chen Ming’s spiritual energy could accomplish many things, all he needed was a place where ships could temporarily dock and a location for storing and distributing resources from the temporary base.

So under these circumstances, such a simple Star Port was constructed.

During the period of constructing the Star Port, many ships had already used the completed parts to go out and explore.

All the Star Systems within a fifty light-year radius that had the potential for habitable planets had been explored.

A considerable area remained unexplored.

There was still quite a distance to cover from the four hundred light-year radius Chen Ming initially planned to explore.

However, since the construction of the Star Port was nearing completion, it would only be a matter of days before all Dusk units were mobilized to allow the Star Port to operate at full capacity and achieve maximum exploration efficiency.

However, within the fifty light-year radius that Chen Ming had explored so far, most of the Star Systems had already been surveyed by Refraction previously.

Only when venturing further out into unexplored Star Systems was a habitable planet successfully discovered.

The quantity was small, and based on the report from the Dusk unit that examined that habitable planet, there wasn’t much of significant value.

However, Chen Ming would check it out later with the Supreme Point to confirm the Star System and planetary value.

According to the assessment criteria taught by his boss, such habitable planets could at least be assigned a Level 4 rating.

As for the value of the Star System containing the habitable planet, further investigation would be needed to make a judgment.

According to the boss, planets could generally be classified into five levels.

A Level 1 planet is entirely valueless, just an empty, barren planet out there.

Unless other valuable planets in the Star System have already been developed, and there are no others left, and there’s coincidentally a need for the sheer land on the planet, it wouldn’t be considered.

A Level 2 planet has basic development value.

As long as there’s a planet that can achieve a considerable return on investment each year and maintain at least a 50% long-term profit margin, it can be considered a Level 2 planet.

The priority for development within the Star System would be relatively low unless it’s the only Level 2 planet in the system; otherwise, the Star System itself would have little entry value.

Regarding a Level 3 planet, it must possess more exploitable veins or other planetary resources than a Level 2 planet.

For instance, the various volatiles of gas giants or soil resources, and it must have at least one high-value resource for development, like the advanced metal material White Cloud Steel.

If no advanced resources are available, unless the quantity of planetary resources is so abundant it’s easily exploitable, the planet’s level would be downgraded.

A Level 4 planet is somewhat unique.

All habitable planets are initially placed at Level 4, then adjusted up or down based on specific circumstances.

Take Rimu Star, for example, where Chen Ming once stayed; though it was a habitable planet, it was almost a frontier planet with few scattered Mechanical Race components and no truly valuable resources.

Furthermore, its asteroid belt led to frequent meteor falls, decreasing its habitability.

So as a habitable planet, its actual classification was a Level 3 planet.

Of course, within the Level 4 category, there would also be some non-habitable planets.

But for these planets to compete for this level with habitable planets, they must possess abundant non-habitable planetary resources.

They certainly won’t lack a large quantity of basic and advanced resources, and whether they have special materials that can sustain development for some time is also a key criterion for judgment.

Thus, Level 4 non-habitable planets are already very rare.

The criteria for judging a Level 5 planet are relatively the most complex.

Initially, it’s determined by whether the planet is Earth-like, its biological resource reserves, species diversity, and if the species on the planet have unique value.

Or it could be determined by whether the planet harbors a source of special-grade materials that can be intensively and sustainably developed, without being limited by planetary scale.