On 23 March 2010 12:43, <> wrote:
> On 23 Mar 2010 at 12:09, Michael Jenkins wrote:
> > On 23 March 2010 02:47, Antony <<>>
> wrote:
> >
> > I was just wondering whether mining and exploration vessels owned by
> > registered corporations/mining groups etc. Would be allowed to use
> > nuclear warheads in mining operations? These would not be the TNE
> > standard nuclear detonation types but conventional nuclear warheads
> > either emplaced or fired using a missile into a small asteroid for
> > example.
> >
> > KE missiles or a ships laser I think could also be used to hit an
> > asteroid then the ships sensors could read off the "rocks"
> > composition. NASA did something similar when they impacted a probe on
> > a small asteroid.
> >
> > Incidentally if someone wants to metricate it GURPS Vehicle expansion
> > 2 has a couple of possible ore processors in the Fuel Transfer and
> > Processing section.
> >
> > Antony
>
> > Wouldn't that disperse the rubble released from the asteroid?
> >
> > I think a method that cut manageable pieces that could be drawn into
> > a mining scoop for processing would be the desired method. In the
> > Traveller milieu, I see gravitic tech as the best way to draw in the
> > ore.
>
> Tractor beams are something like TL16. So they aren't going to be
> used.
>
Tractor beams, yes, but on the other hand we do have ship's gravity.
If you could create ship's gravity in a chamber open at one end (similar to
a room missing either the roof or a wall, then any mining ejecta in the room
will fall "down" and can be collected, no tractor beam necessary.
This would be the mining scoop, which you'd position practically right on
the mining face of the asteroid.
Or if your ship was bigger than the asteroid, just grapple the rock into
your hold, and process it there.
Or have grapples on your ship to hold a larger asteroid still relative to
the ship while you carved chunks off it and grapple-fed them into your ore
processor.
--
Regards,
Michael Jenkins
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