History Main / ColonyShip

* The backstory of ''Literature/DragonridersOfPern'' involves these, which brought humans, livestock, crops, and dolphins to Pern. However, by the time of the books most people have forgotten this and the planet is in MedievalStasis. Which is [[SpaceAmish by design]].

** The Starship ''Vanguard'' from ''Literature/OrphansOfTheSky'' was built as an interstellar colony ship of the generation ship type. Unfortunately there was [[TheMutiny a mutiny aboard]] causing the ship's command structure and internal society to break down, after which the people on board regressed to barbarism to the point where they no longer even knew they were on a spaceship, thinking "the Ship" is simply the Universe, and the Universe is the Ship.
** In ''Literature/FarmerInTheSky'' the ''Mayflower'' is an interplanetary vessel, not a starship, and is neither a generation ship nor a sleeper ship. As was the case with ''Mayflower'''s historical namesake the colonists merely spend a moderately long time aboard (a couple of months, but not years, let alone decades or centuries) travelling to their destination on Ganymede, the largest moon of Jupiter, where they intend to build new homes and new lives for themselves.

* The [=SpaceX=] ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zqE-ultsWt0 Starship]]'' is being designed to serve as this for colonizing Mars.

* The [=SpaceX=] ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zqE-ultsWt0 BFR]]'' is being designed to serve as this for colonizing Mars.

Unlike [[BoldExplorer exploration]] or [[TheBattlestar military]] vessels, a Colony Ship is intended for just one purpose: to carry everyone and everything needed to start a self-sufficient colony. That includes people, animals, food, tools, seeds, and in spacefaring settings, the machinery necessary to {{terraform}} an alien world ([[AllPlanetsAreEarthLike or not]]). Particularly large expeditions may require a fleet of these ships; others will be entirely self-contained in one vessel.

* The Starship ''Vanguard'' from Creator/RobertAHeinlein's novel ''Literature/OrphansOfTheSky'' was built as an interstellar colony ship of the generation ship type. Unfortunately there was [[TheMutiny a mutiny aboard]] causing the ship's command structure and internal society to break down, after which the people on board regressed to barbarism to the point where they no longer even knew they were on a spaceship, thinking "the Ship" is simply the Universe, and the Universe is the Ship.
* In ''Literature/FarmerInTheSky'' the ''Mayflower'' is an interplanetary vessel, not a starship, and is neither a generation ship nor a sleeper ship. As was the case with ''Mayflower'''s historical namesake the colonists merely spend a moderately long time aboard (a couple of months, but not years, let alone decades or centuries) travelling to their destination on Ganymede, the largest moon of Jupiter, where they intend to build new homes and new lives for themselves.

* ''VideoGame/{{Xenogears}}'' opens with a cinematic involving a Colony Ship being taken over by a hostile AI. This seems like a BigLippedAlligatorMoment disconnected from the rest of the story until much later in the game.

* Several colony ships were built and launched after the Nanodisaster in ''WebOriginal/OrionsArm'', many of them grown with cheap Nano. After the colonists to Epsilon Indi suffered CryonicsFailure and only six survived no further attempts at colonization would rely on a single giant ship. Now a fleet of relativistic seed ships is usually deployed first, followed by construction of a beamrider station to bring more colonists in, and finally a [[PortalNetwork wormhole terminus]] is carried by subrelativistic ship.

* The [[SpaceStation Space Colony ARK]] from a handful of ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog'' titles is apparently a [[GenerationShip long-term habitable structure]], but has remained inactive for the majority of the time we see it, staying in orbit over the planet.

* The goldonders in Harry Martinson's ''Literature/{{Aniara}}''

* One book in the ''Literature/JediApprentice'' series (in a crossover with ''Literature/JediQuest'') has Obi-Wan and Anakin investigate one of these, called the ''[=BioCruiser=]'', which recruits people from environmentally devastated planets. It's actually part of an elaborate scheme to rob them all.

* Another Heinlein example, in ''Literature/FarmerInTheSky'' the ''Mayflower'' is an interplanetary vessel, not a starship, and is neither a generation ship nor a sleeper ship. As was the case with ''Mayflower'''s historical namesake the colonists merely spend a moderately long time aboard (a couple of months, but not years, let alone decades or centuries) travelling to their destination on Ganymede, the largest moon of Jupiter, where they intend to build new homes and new lives for themselves.

* The Mothership in the first ''VideoGame/{{Homeworld}}'' game was originally designed as a colony ship to reclaim the newly rediscovered Hiigaran homeworld, hence the onboard factories and cryo-trays. But after their current homeworld is destroyed by the Taiidan, it is used to produce warships.

* ''VideoGame/{{Xenogears}}'' opens with a cinematic involving a ColonyShip being taken over by a hostile AI. This seems like a BigLippedAlligatorMoment disconnected from the rest of the story until much later in the game.

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* ''TabletopGame/{{Starfinder}}'' the ''Idari'' was a pre-Drift GenerationShip intended to evacuate the kasathas from their original doomed homeworld to Akiton. When it turned out Akiton was already inhabited they decided to remain on the ''Idari'' while also joining the Pact Worlds.

* In ''VideoGame/{{Stellaris}}'', colony ships are the most expensive starship you can build at the game's start, and the upkeep cost for just one of them [[EarlyGameHell will put a strain on an early-game economy.]] They take a year to put together, and it takes even longer for one to establish a colony once you reach a new world, but eventually your colonists will disassemble the vessel for use as the colony's basic capital, until it grows large enough to require a proper planetary administration. The Prosperity Tradition line also includes an option that enables "private colony ships" which are built with [[EnergyEconomy energy credits]] rather than minerals like other starships but the species and ethics of the colonists are random rather than controlled by the player.

* In the ''Literature/RevelationSpaceSeries'', the lighthuggers - [[MileLongShip multi-kilometer long]] {{Sleeper Starship}}s - are sometimes contracted to explore new systems while carrying tens to hundreds of thousands of colonists in cryosleep, along with Von Neumann machinery to set up a base of operations. It's not clear how the crews are paid for their services with the lack of a universal currency, but preferential trading rights with the new colony are implied. In ''Galactic North'', the captain of a colonizing lighthugger has NeuralImplanting to think of the colonists as her own children till her mission is complete, causing her to chase a SpacePirate past the [[TheMilkyWayIsTheOnlyWay end of space]] [[DistantFinale and time]] to recover them.

* After the events of Chaos Day in ''ComicBook/JudgeDredd'' [[NoCelebritiesWereHarmed
Not!Richard Branson]] puts together a ship for a number of Mega City One's richest citizens to leave the city and head off into space. Unfortunately for those on board, the Dark Judges get on board and slaughter most of the people on board before they get anywhere near a new world to colonise.

* The mission of the ''Deepwater Black'' from the 90s Sci-Fi Channel series ''Mission Genesis'' was to repopulate the Earth with clones developed from her on-board gene bank. There are multiple Deepwaters.

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* The Titan Project from Creator/DonBluth's ''WesternAnimation/TitanAE'' created a huge, globular spacecraft capable of converting cosmic debris and ice crystals into a class M planet. The Titan craft also carries the complete genomes of all known species on Earth. The plan was to create and terraform Earthlike worlds throughout the galaxy, seed them with Terran flora and fauna, then colonize the new worlds. The first planet created by the Titan was dubbed Planet Bob by Cale Tucker, the LovableRogue son of the Titan's creator.
* The last of humanity conduct a ''WesternAnimation/BattleForTerra'' when Earth's colony ship arrives at the inhabited planet. The WellIntentionedExtremist General Hemmer resorts to HostileTerraforming because the colony ship is becoming nonviable.
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* ''Film/PitchBlack'': The ''Hunter-Gratzner'' is a merchant ship that, among other things, transports settlers to distant worlds.

* ''Literature/TimeEnoughForLove''. In the BackStory of the chapter "The Tale of the Adopted Daughter", Lazarus Long uses his ship to take several shiploads of colonists to the planet New Beginnings, along with all of the equipment and supplies they'll need to set up a new colony.

* In the ''Literature/RevelationSpaceSeries'', the lighthuggers - [[MileLongShip multi-kilometer long]] {{Sleeper Starship}}s - are sometimes contracted to explore new systems while carrying tens to hundreds of thousands of colonists in cryosleep, along with Von Neumann machinery to set up a base of operations. It's not clear how the crews are paid for their services with the lack of a universal currency, but preferential trading rights with the new colony are implied. In ''Galactic North'', the captain of a colonizing lighthugger has NeuralImplanting to think of the colonists as her own children til her mission is complete, causing her to chase a SpacePirate past the [[TheMilkyWayIsTheOnlyWay end of space]] [[DistantFinale and time]] to recover them.

** The ''Nauvoo'' was built by the Church of Latter-Day Saints as a GenerationShip, but the OPA commandeered it first in an attempt to ram Protomolecule-infested Eros into the sun, and later refitted it into a warship, and then again converted it into a space station in the Ring hub sytem.

* Several colony ships were built and launched after the Nanodisaster in ''WebOriginal/OrionsArm'', many of them grown with cheap nano. After the colonists to Epsilon Indi suffered CryonicsFailure and only six survived no further attempts at colonization would rely on a single giant ship. Now a fleet of relativistic seed ships is usually deployed first, followed by construction of a beamrider station to bring more colonists in, and finally a [[PortalNetwork wormhole terminus]] is carried by subrelativistic ship.

* ''VideoGame/XenobladeChroniclesX'': Seen in its opening cinematic, in which the people of Earth are caught in the crossfire between two warring alien races, which leaves them no choice but to escape the conflict and [[EarthShatteringKaboom the planet's ensuing destruction]] aboard large interplanetary vessels called "Arks", [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5L8OZswWXkw each intended to colonize a new planet.]]
* ''Xenoblade''[='s=] spiritual predecessor, ''VideoGame/{{Xenogears}}'' opens with a cinematic involving a ColonyShip being taken over by a hostile AI. This seems like a BigLippedAlligatorMoment disconnected from the rest of the story until much later in the game.