Been reading this in reverse order and it's a great idea... I've still got the Noyutakondo sourcebook and as soon as I read that thread I knew what was being talked about. Very cool idea.
It occures to me that while I'm not going to participate an interesting idea might be to build a ship that once it got to it's destination converted all of it's fuel tank space to refining space and crew quarters this way a very small crew could fly the ship to its destination and then take all of the sundry supplies in the cargo hold and expand into the tankage and such. The ship wouldn't require much in the way of manouver drives once it gets to it's final destination and realistically wouldn't require much when manouvering away from it's origin point as the large engines mean less reducable bulk... Unless one of the engines could be converted into something else at the destination point.
Really I'd kind of envision this as something along the lines of the drill rig from "The Abyss" slow and ugly, possibly towed to a new location via modular cutters but capable.
----- Original Message -----
From: DED
> Many years ago, there used to be design contests on this ml and
> the original TNE ml at Silent Tower. I was wondering if there
> was any interest in having one about mining vessels. If there
> is, I'll come up with a list of specifications and post them to
> the list (and summarily welcome comments/suggestions from the
> list). If there isn't, then I'll just slink away and we can all
> forget I said anything. :)
>
> \_/
> DED
>