Don't forget that you only need to send *one* armored ship through the FWP -- a repair ship. Let it accompany a horde of normal colony ships, and it'll repair the damage (albeit slowly; may take multiple turns depending on repair ship
ony ship ratio. So you could send more than one if desired).
Also, the SM tree gives you Monolith Facilities. *Very* expensive to build, but worth it in a long game because they're so much more space efficient. And when combined with value improvement plants and (1) resource converter, so much the better...
------------------
-- The thing that goes bump in the night