How to Control Unrest in Colonies

[Wrath (OP)]

About 3 years into my first 'serious' game, I had sent about 3 colony ships to start colonizing Mars, Venus, and Mercury.  After about 3 trips to and from the said colonies, the event tab says that unrest is growing in [planet name].  I sent them all back to Earth, and lost the colonies. 
Is there any way to control unrest in colonies?

[SpikeTheHobbitMage]

How much Infrastructure did you send?

[edit]
I suppose I should elaborate.  You must have sufficient Infrastructure to support any population you send, or they die.  At year 3, you won't have (m)any Civilian ships to do it for you automatically.  To get your civilian fleet going, you need 1 colony with 1 million people.
[/edit]

[Erik L]

Ground troops and infrastructure.

[Wrath (OP)]

How do I send infrastructure to the colony? Via mass drivers?

P. S. ) I think I am aware how to get ground units to the colony, Dropships, right?

[Starfyre]

any cargo ship can move infrastructure.

troop transport modules work just as well for moving ground units, and they're civvie components, which makes that a bit easier.

[Wrath (OP)]

To clarify, ANY cargo ship can move infrastructure, and adding a troop transport bay on a ship will allow the transportation of Ground units.

Thanks for the help guys

[joeclark77]

To get your civilian fleet going, you need 1 colony with 1 million people.

Not necessarily.  I started my colonies literally just by dropping a bit of infrastructure on Luna and Mars and Ganymede.  The civilians built passenger liners and colony ships before I had my first colony ship built.  It was slooooow going but there weren't any good minerals on those rocks so I was happy to let them build up the colonies at their own pace.

So all they really need is to see some infrastructure placed on an uninhabited world.  Note that they will not colonize these worlds at the same rate.  Luna got many more colonists than Mars which got more than Ganymede which got more than Mercury.

I'm sure that if you create a starting colony of a million people, that will enhance the trade opportunities and get them to grow their fleets faster.  I went with a conventional start, so I had lots of money to subsidize them and lots of time to wait for them to grow.

[Black]

It is not really a good idea to colonize Mercury and Venus. Colony cost is very high. That means that you will need much more infrastructure to support the population. It is much better to colonize Luna or Mars (lower colony cost so you need less infrastructure). If there are resources on Mercury and Venus it is better to use Automated Mines to get those resources.

[SpikeTheHobbitMage]

Not necessarily.  I started my colonies literally just by dropping a bit of infrastructure on Luna and Mars and Ganymede.  The civilians built passenger liners and colony ships before I had my first colony ship built.  It was slooooow going but there weren't any good minerals on those rocks so I was happy to let them build up the colonies at their own pace.

So all they really need is to see some infrastructure placed on an uninhabited world.  Note that they will not colonize these worlds at the same rate.  Luna got many more colonists than Mars which got more than Ganymede which got more than Mercury.

I'm sure that if you create a starting colony of a million people, that will enhance the trade opportunities and get them to grow their fleets faster.  I went with a conventional start, so I had lots of money to subsidize them and lots of time to wait for them to grow.

Good to know.  How much infrastructure did you send?  I suspect there may be a minimum amount to jumpstart colonizers.  The 1 million pop is what it takes to get them to start building freighters.

[Bgreman]

The 1 million pop is what it takes to get them to start building freighters.

This isn't true.  They'll build them if they have enough money to do so AND the requisite random checks are successful.

[joeclark77]

Good to know.  How much infrastructure did you send?  I suspect there may be a minimum amount to jumpstart colonizers.  The 1 million pop is what it takes to get them to start building freighters.

I sent several hundred infrastructure to Luna and Mars.  I think I sent nearly 1000 to Ganymede.  Luxury liners appeared first and colonizers shortly after.  When my civilian lines had large fleets and lots of excess capacity, I dropped ten infrastructure each on Callisto, Io, Europa, and Mercury, and all have received a few colonists.

The civilian lines already had freighters because they had established several automated mining bases on comets at this point.  This  game was a conventional start, so they had a long time to build up.

[SpikeTheHobbitMage]

This isn't true.  They'll build them if they have enough money to do so AND the requisite random checks are successful.

Just tested this.  Random is right. 
It seems I've just had bad luck the last 5 games or so.
Thanks