...here is a list of some of the things that happen during a construction cycle (jump to the next paragraph when you get bored :))

1) Population Growth takes place
2) Each population is checked to see if sufficient workers exist to man its factories, shipyards, etc, If there are too few then the planet's industry works at a lower capacity
3) Orbital Motion takes place
4) Lifepods are checked to see if they run out of air
5) Comets move
6) Transfers of Foreign Aid take place
7) Wealth is calculated and added to the wealth balance for each Empire
8 ) Each population calculates its trade goods production and supply and demand are set for civilian trade.
9) Ships are checked for system failures. If failures occur, the affected ships will resolve the problem automatically if they have sufficient maintenance supplies.
10) Maintenance is calculated for ground forces.
11) If some form of disaster scenario is in play, such as the Sun gradually heating up, then planetary environments in the affected system are updated.
12) Mining production for both player-owned and civilian-owned mines and asteroid mining ships. There are eleven different 'minerals' in Aurora and they are required as the raw materials for virtually everything you can build
13) Fuel production for harvesters in orbit of gas giants
14) Terraforming updated
15) Fuel is refined at populations with fuel refineries and sufficient Sorium.
16) Shipyard Activity takes place. This isn't shipbuilding but rather modification of shipyards. Increasing their size, adding new slipways or retooling to build a different ship
17) Ship Construction
18) Training of new Ground Forces
19) Construction of new installations, such as factories, shipyards, research facilities and about two dozen other facilities
20) Ordnance Production (building new missiles, sensor buoys, recon drones, mines, etc)
21) Fighter Production (small spacecraft < 500 tons are built in factories rather than in shipyards)
22) Research
23) Survey of planets by geosurvey satellites. Geosurvey by ships takes place during normal movement
24) Civilian Shipping Lines may build new ships if they have sufficient wealth. Rarely, new Shipping Lines may be formed
25) Civilian Mining Colonies may be setup. You can tax these or buy their minerals.
26) Crew Training takes place
27) Mass Drivers (usually on mining colonies) create new mineral packets and fling them toward their targets (usually populated worlds in the same system). Important safety tip! If you tell one population to send minerals by mass driver to another, make sure the receiving population has a mass driver too to catch it. Otherwise, the planet gets bombarded with unfortunate results for both industry and civilians.
28) Political Status of each planet in your Empire is checked. Those that have been conquered will move through several stages over time before they are eventually fully integrated into your Empire. This can take a number of years, depending on a number of factors including their species characteristics, the strength of the occupation forces and just how much damage you caused capturing the planet in the first place. It's hard to see your occupier in a good light when the planet is still in a nuclear winter and all the cows have two heads.
'Loyal' populations can suffer from unrest due to a number of factors, including radiation (due to alien bombardment), insufficient military protection, minority status (of their species within the Empire), etc. This can be quelled with sufficient ground forces. Garrison battalions are ideal as they are relatively cheap but effective in this role.
29) Ruin Recovery: Xenology teams try to decipher ancient alien languages and symbology from ruins. Engineer Regiments try to recover alien installations from ruins where the Xeno teams have completed their work.
30) Geology teams search planets for mineral deposits that may have been missed by an orbital survey
31) Espionage Teams try to gain intelligence data from rival Empires.
32) Radiation effects are reduced slightly
33) Ground units recover readiness and morale. Readiness is recovered far more quickly if Replacement Battalions are available.
34) Ground combat units loaded in combat drop modules potentially suffer loss of morale if they are held there too long.
35) Ground Combat (Boarding combat takes place during regular movement/combat phase)
36) Communication attempts with alien Empires. Diplomatic Rating are updated or those Empires with which comms have been established and the status of treaties is reviewed
37) Commanders are checked for health problems and training accidents
38) Commanders potentially gain experience
39) If automated assignments are being used, the program review existing assignments and assigns new officers as appropriate.
40) Warnings are generated for any ships that are low on fuel
41) The Danger Status of systems is gradually reduced over time. This is used by civilian shipping lines to decide whether it is safe to operate in a given system.
42) Industrial Reactivation is checked. Sectors of industry on a particular world (Ordnance Production, Shipyards, etc.) can be shut down in the case on a manpower shortage. Reactivation of a sector takes six months

Grunt0331 (or should I say Jarhead0331? ),
Aurora is on my radar after reading your endorsement. I rather like the war room graphics. Does the DL come with a detailed manual? It sounds like a rather complex game compared to most 4X space offerings.