Can we get the stats on those missiles? I've been thinking of doing the same.
Sure. Keep in mind it's a conventional start, so my tech is pretty low. The buoys all have one size five engine (for maximum fuel efficiency) that was turned down to 50% power, and 3 MSP of sensor/reactor/fuel. I tried to balance the numbers so they'd have ~10 billion km worth of fuel.
Missile Size: 8 MSP (0.4 HS) Warhead: 0 Armour: 0 Manoeuvre Rating: 10
Speed: 3700 km/s Engine Endurance: 705.8 hours Range: 9,401.5m km
Active Sensor Strength: 1.28 Sensitivity Modifier: 80%
Resolution: 60 Maximum Range vs 3000 ton object (or larger): 790,000 km
Cost Per Missile: 2.423
Chance to Hit: 1k km/s 37% 3k km/s 10% 5k km/s 7.4% 10k km/s 3.7%
Materials Required: 0.768x Boronide 1.28x Uridium 0.375x Gallicite Fuel x655
Missile Size: 8 MSP (0.4 HS) Warhead: 0 Armour: 0 Manoeuvre Rating: 10
Speed: 3700 km/s Engine Endurance: 743.5 hours Range: 9,903.9m km
Geo Sensor Strength: 0.027 Maximum points: 20.0754
Cost Per Missile: 1.0662
Chance to Hit: 1k km/s 37% 3k km/s 10% 5k km/s 7.4% 10k km/s 3.7%
Materials Required: 0.0162x Boronide 0.675x Uridium 0.375x Gallicite Fuel x690
In addition to potentially waiting a month for the drone to arrive, they'll take a
long time to actually perform a survey (in fact I haven't actually completed one yet, but it hasn't been too long), but it's probably sufficient for first-wave scouting.
Here's the ship I'm using to launch them
Journey class Exploration Ship 5,400 tons 109 Crew 548.4 BP TCS 108 TH 360 EM 0
3333 km/s JR 3-50 Armour 1-27 Shields 0-0 Sensors 32/1/1/0 Damage Control Rating 3 PPV 2.64
Maint Life 2.51 Years MSP 190 AFR 77% IFR 1.1% 1YR 42 5YR 628 Max Repair 100 MSP
Intended Deployment Time: 12 months Spare Berths 0
Magazine 80
J5400 (E6) Jump Drive Max Ship Size 5400 tons Distance 50k km Squadron Size 3
1000-Ton Efficient Ion Drive (2) Power 180 Fuel Use 27.28% Signature 180 Exp 7%
Fuel Capacity 1,000,000 Litres Range 122.2 billion km (424 days at full power)
Standard Buoy Launcher (1) Missile Size 8 Rate of Fire 2400
Drone Control v1 (1) Range 64.4m km Resolution 500
ASB-Lookout-1 (4) Speed: 3,700 km/s End: 29.4d Range: 9401.5m km WH: 0 Size: 8 TH: 12 / 7 / 3
GSB-Prospector-1 (6) Speed: 3,700 km/s End: 31d Range: 9903.9m km WH: 0 Size: 8 TH: 12 / 7 / 3
TH4-32 (1) Sensitivity 32 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 32m km
Gravitational Survey Sensors (1) 1 Survey Points Per Hour
Missile to hit chances are vs targets moving at 3000 km/s, 5000 km/s and 10,000 km/s
This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes
You might have better results with larger sensors and fuel storage, though keeping the total ship tonnage low was one of my priorities.