I hate to say this, but mining, as a profession at least, has never been
shown any love in travellers. As in, how to use sensors to locate Ore,
determining Ore quality, Quantity of Ore, difficulty of extraction and how
in Handwavium hell does a laser mine anyway besides makin a hole in whatever
your trying to dig out anyway? For example, Chemistry would be invaluable
in determiniing ore quality, Geology would be useful in finding likely spots
to find Ore, and how big a Lode is found. Sensors use also, neutrino sensors
for radiactives and densitometers for Heavy Metals. (on a side note, how
useful are lower tech sensors at finding ore? thermal sensors might be
useful if the ore deposits are close to the surface and have measurable
thermal variances from surrounding terrain. Active sensors such as
millimetric radar can penetrate surface layers of 'earth', but to what
depth?)
The only way I have figured, in my limited technical knowledge, that a
mining laser could be useful in zero gravity, is if it works purely in a
thermal function, melting materials at a known temperature, allowing heat
expansion to separate elements over time (and at a considerable distance! to
avoid contact with molten materials) Then wait for the materials to cool
before collecting and storing in the ore bay.
At Tech 13 this is easy to do as lasers are tuneable if I remember the
charts correctly. so they are still useable as full powered weapons. but at
tech 12 and less, how is a dedicated mining laser going to perform as an
actual weapon at the ranges that combat occurs in?
On the flipside, how the mining profession can be used as a plot motivator
for artifact retrieval needs far less going over but would still be of great
use to some gearheads.
On Sat, Dec 5, 2009 at 4:41 AM, Roger Malmstein <
> wrote:
>
>
> I am about to put the finishing touches on Traveller Beam Factory. And I
> would like to get suggestions for mining laser variants. How to design and
> how to use. Ranges, effects and so on.
>
> --
> Roger Malmstein
> www.travellerfreeport.com
>
> *From:* Richard Perks <>
> *Sent:* Saturday, December 05, 2009 10:18 AM
> *To:*
> *Subject:* Re: [Traveller_TNE] Mining
>
>
>
> DEDly
>
> There s the classic 5ktn mining platform in beltstrike and a 180tn
> prospector in one of the old FASA high passage mags. I have seen a couple of
> mining vehicles (about the size of an ATV and armed with a mining laser).
> One of the high passage mags has a mining robot (again grav and armed with a
> laser carbine.)
>
> I will check and see if there is anything on mining rates
>
>
>
>
--
"Here at Ortillery Command we have at our disposal one hundred megawatt
laser beams, mach 20 titanium rods and guided thermonuclear bombs. Some
people say we think that we're God. We're not God. We just borrowed his
SMITE button for our fire control system"