If a captain, or several were able to 'disappear' for awhile on some place either not yet opened formally, on a private reserve (per our earlier discussion) or out back of beyond that showed signs of promise hmmm, that could turn into a large adventure indeed ... and when they show back up in "civilization" again there would be quite a bit of interest in various quarters ... the preperations to disappear might be hidden if done over a long enough time but once they disappeared (I'm thinking several ships involved, one or two probably wouldn't attract too much notice but a whole belt or even a significant fraction of one? Well ... questions and speculation indeed)
--- On Mon, 5/24/10, <> wrote:
From: <>
Subject: Re: [Traveller_TNE] Hector Class Mining Vessel - New Operations
To:
Date: Monday, May 24, 2010, 8:49 PM
That brings up an interesting thought...if a belter had his soc stat increased to the point that he owned 'land' ... Maybe that would be mineral rights to an asteroid belt?
There's an adventure in there somewhere. A wild west adventure at that.
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From: Tim O'Reilly <>
Date: Mon, 24 May 2010 17:30:28 -0700 (PDT)
To: <>
Subject: Re: [Traveller_TNE] Hector Class Mining Vessel - New Operations
Points ... I thought it better from a technical viewpoint, and I liked the idea of the captain keeping his ears open for better prospects for him and his ship and crew.
Your idea of a mining company owning the rights to an entire asteroid belt has some validity, particularly if they are out in the (wilds, frontiers) indeed if they find a particularly rich region they would likely try to harvest/mine/ claim as much as possible before their success eventually and inevitably leaks out and the rush starts. (Just because they have title, at the moment, doesn't mean someone else won't try to move in on them) In more settled areas, portions of the belts might be considered imperial/crown property to be given over in some portion to a "deserving" individual or company that has curried or otherwise attracted favor.
T
--- On Mon, 5/24/10, <> wrote:
From: <>
Subject: Re: [Traveller_TNE] Hector Class Mining Vessel - New Operations
To:
Date: Monday, May 24, 2010, 5:43 PM
Thanks. My basic idea was that a mining coorporation would own the mineral rights for entire asteroid belts. They wouldn't want to absorb the risk of mining so they would just provide an ore processing plant near the area of operations and contract out the mining to individual belters. Kind of like how lumber companies contract lumber jacks for the more dangerous areas today. I figured, right or wrong it's probably how things would develop.
I liked the idea of 'shooting' asteroids back to the home world for processing, but there were just too many variables. Plus, why expend that amount of energy when, thanks to jump drives, you can place a processing plant closer to the source?
Chances are this might take on a different form when mining in the same system as the homeworld, perhaps, but I was trying for a system of mining that was a little bit more mobile.
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From: Tim O'Reilly <>
Date: Mon, 24 May 2010 15:29:05 -0700 (PDT)
To: <>
Subject: Re: [Traveller_TNE] Hector Class Mining Vessel - New Operations
very nice write up, interesting concept of operations.
T
--- On Mon, 5/24/10, Daryl Frewing <> wrote:
From: Daryl Frewing <>
Subject: [Traveller_TNE] Hector Class Mining Vessel - New Operations
To:
Date: Monday, May 24, 2010, 1:33 PM
In light of recent discussion, please replace the "Regular Operations" section with the following:
Regular Operations
Typically, the Hector does not operate in an asteroid field by itself. It does so with several other belters present and an ore processing plant near the area of operation. The area of the asteroid belt is divided into grids and each belter is assigned their own grid. It is the belters job to survey their grid and extract whatever rocks they want to be paid for, sending them to the processing plant which will track what asteroid came from which belter and add the value of the minerals extracted to the belter's account. Liquid Hydrogen is by far the most common element extracted and the amount extracted is added to a belters 'fuel card'. (This is the only element that the belters do not get paid for directly.)
Fuel is the biggest concern for the Balaam (often referred to as the Frankenstein by the crew). Fortunately, they can always refuel at the ore processor. Generally refined fuel is purchased as it takes time (and, ironically, fuel) to refine fuel; time which could be spent searching for the 'big strike'. If the Hector is ever operating on its own, then the first thing it will scan the belt for is a large source of LyHd so that it knows where to go to refuel.
If a mineral rich asteroid is discovered, the next step is to determine the mass of the asteroid, its vector, and its rotation. Once these are known the crew can calculate how risky it will be to first attach to the asteroid, and secondly alter its course towards the processor plant. Other factors, like the vector and position of other asteroids, could make retrieval either too risky or not profitable enough. The rotation of the asteroid in question is also of concern as the rock needs to be sent to the plant with a minimal rotation so its retrieval is not deemed to be a risk by the waiting ships at the plant.
Once a candidate is found, the crew then needs to calculate the fuel needed to return to the processing plant to refuel and subtract that from the remaining fuel to see how much fuel they have to work with before they need to head back. For valuable finds, crews are often willing to make multiple trips back and forth in order to see the asteroid sent on a vector towards the processing plant, but the number of trips needs to be weighed against the average find for a single trip to determine if it will be worth it.
Solo Operations
As may be obvious by now, operating without a processor plant nearby is not nearly as efficient as having one there, but it still is possible using the jump-net coated ACT. In this case, the crew needs to establish a feasible location that can serve as a refuelling point (typically a large LyHd rich asteroid with minimal rotation). If one is not found, there is no point continuing in that spot and whatever is available must be used to refuel so the ship can move to another location.
Once a 'base of operations' is established, the Hector can begin scanning for valuable ore. Because solo operations are very risky, time consuming, and costly only the most valuable of ore will be selected. Asteroids containing valuable ores will often be broken up (using a TL 9 laser) so that the lesser chunks can be discarded. The pieces of valuable ore are often set aside in a manner that does not make them stand out from the rest of the belt in case another vessel comes by with less then honourable intentions.
Once 6,000 m3 of minerals is retrieved the Hector's crew heads back to the refuelling point and breaks off a large chunk of LyHd to add to the pile of rock. They then need to do a thorough scan of the area to make sure that hostiles are no where to be seen. This is because they are about to enter the phase of the operation where they are the most vulnerable. (Fortunately, an asteroid belt is a very big place.) They then wrap the minerals (not the LyHd chunk) with the ACT, give the mass of rocks (including the LyHd piece) a 'push' in the right direction, use the LyHd to refuel (the push they gave will have used up most of their reserves) discarding any remaining chunks, attach themselves to the mobile pile of ore using the ACT, and then jump to their destination.
Because of the risks and costs involved, the Hector does not operate solo on a regular basis. However, it's captain has calculated how rich an asteroid belt would need to be in order to justify this and slowly trying to collect data about belts that are outside the area of operation of the mining company he normally contracts himself out to. He is keeping this information to himself.