System Information

The System Information window (F9)

This is the place to go when you are looking for a suitable world to colonize. See the article on Terraforming for information about what makes a world habitable. The short version for humans:

Gravity between 0. and 1.9 g.
Oxygen between 0.1 and 0.3 atm.
Temperature between -10 and +38°C
Max. Pressure 4 atm
No toxic gases

See Species on how to create genetically modified sub-species with different environmental tolerances.

General System Info: what the name implies.
Environmental Tolerances: the limits of what your particular species can bear. The more a particular system body differs, the higher the colony cost..
Stars: how many, how far from the central star.

System Bodies

Systems can have up to four stars. Each star's orbital bodies are listed separately. In C#, you click the star's name at the top left. In VB6, you select the star's tab.

This window is very wide, and cannot fit on your screen. Scroll the window horizontally to see more. (C# also has Wide View, which helps somewhat.) You can also filter the list down to only the bodies you care about, with the options at the top.

Columns will appear in slightly different orders - this is the C# order.

Name
(Nameless Column): Survey status. Letter codes vary by version.
- In C#, "[U]nsurveyed", empty for surveyed but nothing found, or "[M]inerals present".
- In VB6, empty for unsurveyed bodies, "[S]urveyed from orbit, nothing found", or "[M]inerals present".
Body Type: see types of system body.
Colony cost: how much Infrastructure is required per 10,000 colonists of the selected species. "LG" means low-gravity infrastructure is needed instead. Calculated from the factors below.
Population: The body's current population.
Terrain (C# only): The planet's current terrain.
Hydro, Atmospehere, Pressure, Temp: Terraforming stats.
Gravity: Affects colony cost. Cannot be changed.
Distance: Current distance from the star. in km.
Diameter: The body's physical diameter, in km. Affects gravity, with mass/density.
Tidal Lock: A tidally locked body has a lower colony cost due to extreme temperature, but also lower population capacity.
Max Pop: The maximum population (in millions) the body can have. (Ark Module/Orbital Habitat Module populations do not count against this limit).
Perihelion, Aphelion, Eccentric, Inclination (C# only): The body's orbital characteristics. Shortest and longest distance from the star during its orbit, how far from circular the orbit is (0=circle, 1=line), and how far from the flat plane of the system it is (note: inclination has not been implemented as a game mechanic).
Orbital period: How long it takes to orbit the star.
Tectonics, Mag Field: How active the planet's core and magnetic field are (cannot be modified, only affects base terrain type).
GH Factor, AGH Factor, Albedo: Temperature multipliers - atmospheric warming, atmospheric cooling, and reflectiveness of the surface. See Terraforming.
Day: How long a day is.
Mass, Density: Used for gravity calculations. No other game effect.
Esc Velocity, Axial Tilt: No game effect.
Base Temp: Temperature before GH/AGH/Albedo effects, from the star's brightness and distance.
Radiation Level, Atmospheric Dust: the leftovers of nuclear war (remember that all missile warheads are nukes). The dust is atmospheric dust that blots out the sun and reduces temperature. Background radiation is reduced by 100 per year. Dust is reduced by 250 per year.
LG Time: The time (in years) to stabilize the planet's Lagrange Point.

Jump points

Distances between discovered jump points and where they lead to. The distances are used to display distances between systems in the Galactic Map, if this option is selected.

Minerals present

List of minerals and accessibilities.

Colony Cost

Detailed breakdown of the body's colony cost.

Terraforming info

What the current atmosphere does to the planet's temperature.

Colony Cost over Time (C# only)

Details how the colony cost will change over time, as the planet moves around its orbit. Only relevant for bodies with eccentric orbits where temperature is the limiting factor on colony cost (e.g., Mercury or Pluto). Shows the next orbit, with twelve snapshots each for intervals of weeks, months, quarters, years, 5-year periods, 25-year periods, and 100-year periods.

Interface commands

Rename System: Type a name
Select Name: Pick from a list
Rename Body: Type a name
Rename Sys All/Rename Body All: As above, but affects alien names for it too.
Create colony: Marks a body as your colony. (It will be empty until you move things there.)
Ban Body: Banning a body will prevent that system (or body?) from being used as a destination in automated orders. Useful for preventing civilian ships from dropping colonists where you don't want them. You'll have to ban it before any population arrives, though, or the colonists will keep coming.
All System View: Shows colonies in all systems, not just one single system.
Restrict JP: Limit the selected jump point to military traffic only
Wide View: Widen the window to see more data

Spacemaster Interface Commands

Full Grav Survey: Survey all jump point survey locations in the system
No Grav Survey: Delete all data from previously completed grav-surveys.
Full Geo Survey: As above, for geological survey of bodies.
No Geo Survey: As above
Regen JP: Change the actual jump points of the system, by re-running the random generation again. Deletes existing jump points.
Regen Min: As above, for minerals. Will not affect colonized bodies.
Name Sol Bodies: Sets all bodies in the Sol system to their real-world names. Useful if you generate a non-human race into Sol (since they'll all get generic Sol III-type names instead)
Delete System - Completely deletes the system from existence, along with everything in it and all jump points to/from it.