Hereโs some Due Diligence for those of you with 
.
Assumptions:
- Pioneer only production
- Pioneers only have access to basic consumables
- Basic consumables are purchased from the MM
- No experts
Consumables Costing:
COL (H): Located on Umbra, COLs can produce 9.05 units of H per day, giving a per unit consumables cost of
(7.845 * 50) / 9.05 = 43.35
COL (HE3): Located on KI-448b, COLs can produce 3.48 units of HE3 per day, giving a per unit consumables cost of
(7.845 * 50) / 3.48 = 112.72
REF (FF): Located on Umbra, REFs can produce
(6h36m / 24h) * (60/80) * (79.4%) * 100 = ~400
units of FF per day, giving a per unit consumables cost of
(7.845 * 60) / 400 = 1.18
Inputs Consumables Costing:
REF (FF): Requires 2 units of HE3 and 4 units of H per 100 FF. This gives an input consumables costing of
((2*112.72) + (4*43.35)) / 100 + 1.18 = 3.99
for a total consumables costing of
3.99 + 1.18 = 5.17
per unit of FF.
Facility Ratios:
If a REF can do 4 cycles per day, then its daily consumption of inputs is 16 units of H and 8 units of HE3. This means that per REF on Umbra we require:
16 / 9.05 = 1.77 COL on Umbra
8 / 3.48 = 2.3 COL on KI-448b
Shipping Costs
Lets assume 6k delivery cost to a CX for FF, and 10k delivery cost to Umbra for HE3. This gives us 16k shipping costs throughout the chain.
This yields the following unit costs for shipping:
HE3: 10,000 / 500 = 20
FF (HE3 input component): (20 * 2) / 100 = 0.4
FF (to market): 6,000 / (500 / 0.05) = 0.6
Total Costing
We thus have a total production cost per FF of
5.17 + 0.4 + 0.6 = 6.17
Profit Distribution Weighting
The HE3 planet is gaseous and therefore requires AEF - for which we currently have no market price. Thus, Iโll give them a higher weighting
COL (HE3): 1.8
COL (H): 1
REF (FF): 1
SUM: 3.8
Modified by total facilities
COL (HE3): 1.8 * 2.3 = 4.14
COL (H): 1 * 1.77 = 1.77
REF (FF): 1 * 1 = 1
SUM: 6.91
Profit Range
If we sell at MM sell:
23.99 - 6.17 = 17.82
If we sell to MM:
9 - 6.17 = 2.83
For 400 units of production, this gives as a profit range of
1,132 to 7,128
Profit Distribution Per Facility
Lower bound:
COL (HE3): ((1,132 / 6.91) * 4.14 ) / 2.3 = 294
COL (H): ((1,132 / 6.91) * 1.77 ) / 1.77 = 163
REF (FF): ((1,132 / 6.91) * 1 ) / 1 = 163
Upper Bound:
COL (HE3): ((7,128 / 6.91) * 4.14 ) / 2.3 = 1,856
COL (H): ((7,128 / 6.91) * 1.77 ) / 1.77 = 1,031
REF (FF): ((7,128 / 6.91) * 1 ) / 1 = 1,031
Result
The listed profits must also cover the facility construction cost.
This solution can not be implemented until AEF can be produced, which will require POL.
This setup could provide a sustainable way of providing FF to the galaxy prior to the introduction of large quantities of INS.
The daily profits that could be gained from this solution are quite reasonable.
There is a risk associated with this scheme, particularly for the COL operators. Once INS is more readily available, other planets with greater concentrations of H and HE3 will be settled. This could cause COLs set up for this operation to be obsolete.
This solution is far more practical than any solution involving TS.
Cheaper consumables and using experts will only increase the profit margins.