Hohmann logistics

On topic of handcart fatalities, one major factor was supply en-route. Not much to eat in the Great American Desert, some of which desert is straight-up sand. Travelers could purchase buffalo-meat from friendly Lamanites / Indians. Enterprising white men had set up forts and trade-posts. And above all, the people at the final destination could ship some supplies right to the caravans. So: let's look at space voyages. If you think Nebraska sand hills are bad . . .

What the handcarts teach is that provisions require trade-offs.

Take the Hohmann. Hohmann means: minimising delta-v. This minimises the propellant. Most interplanetary supply-runs will be Hohmann. I figure quite a few humans will be tagging along, on account supply-runs have, like, supplies. Humans who want such amenities of home as, say, gravity will be on spacecraft on the scale of space stations. I don't believe that hibernation will be the answer here and even that will require an impressively-stocked med-bay. The smallest of these moving colonies will need such mass as requires Hohmann.

I don't know the equation for the propellant / rations sweet spot, given Hohmann baseline X days (146 Earth/Venus). I assume there is one. Likewise I haven't calculated a size-limit on the spaceships, for orbital injection at an Earth-/Venus-sized planet. Again I assume there is one (although this can be ameliorated by disassembly and piecemeal decel).

From planets A to B or vice-versa (by convention A is the inner one) I foresee a main Hohmann caravan, which sets out underpopulated with humans. Over the next few weeks people blast off from planet A to join the moving caravan - needing more propellant, less rations [and shielding]. They endure the variable-G and the radiation until their shuttles dock with their space-liners. The voyage continues in relative comfort. The liners might take 146 days; the humans in them might only be in them for a hundred. Shuttles take advantage of whatever tethers there be: Venus has L2.

Hard limit for joining is Conjunction obviously.

Also headed to the caravan: rations, and additional propellant. We'll consider emergencies later.