I think the ship crashing idea was to add that extra layer of shock and awe to the story line. Test how the drugs would react to a large-scale traumatic event like a giant ship crashing into a planet. But it is logical if we're going to put all this time into making a ship that it should continue to be used in later threads. There is another option that there is simply more than one "Purgatory", now that might be a little far fetched but it's just a thought. That idea might be blown to pieces when I find out that the Purgatory is going to be this massive ship where it would be just a huge drain on resources to make more than one. I was just thinking how it would mess with the participants heads if another patch of participants were dropped off, the original Purgatory being gone somehow, while the participants are being transported on a ship that they had just worked so hard to crash.
..... what if......
The Purgatory isn't even real..... (Joke)