Houston, We Have Beltstrike !
- Thread starter captainjack23
- Start date
John Ringo made some interesting comments about asteroid mining in Claws that Catch (or possibly the earlier Manxome Foe). In main the problem that would be presented by the tendency of any material to drift off given any possible excuse – which matches up with the prevalence of drifting off and tether line involved events on the Mining Incidents table. It makes me wonder though if some sort of sheeting might not be in order to catch things. Perhaps a bubble inflated to very low pressure by, preferably, an inert gas, certainly nothing involving free oxygen. Leakage would not really be a serious problem depending on how easy it is to generate the gas. Purged CO2 from the ships recycling system perhaps?
I must admit I like this idea – find a nice rock, sample it and if it shows promise inflate a bag around it. You could mount lights on the inside or maybe the surface itself could be light emitting (where it has not been scraped to uselessness). It stops things drifting off, including people. In fact could controlled leaking or a current be used to gather debris?
Would mirrors, big mirrors be any use for smelting? This seems a very old idea but I wonder if it works? I suspect not at the distances from the primary involved for most planetoid belts unless the mirror is really, really big – which may not be a problem the raw materials are on hand and gravity is not the problem it would be for a planetside mirror array.
I am sure launch lasers or mass drivers might be useful – send a steady stream of metal balls towards where the planet is gong to be in a few years time. Slow to start but a steady supply once on line and not really dangerous with decent traffic control unless some muppet jumps in-system in front of one and there you have a different sort of scenario. I wonder what the best way to catch the world be or could they be aimed well enough to enter orbit? The slow and long term bit seems very Vilani while the slight suspect, 'let’s fire giant cannon balls at a planet' bit sounds much more Solomani in style. I just like launch lasers and big mass drivers so would go out of my way to use them in the setting.
I must admit I like this idea – find a nice rock, sample it and if it shows promise inflate a bag around it. You could mount lights on the inside or maybe the surface itself could be light emitting (where it has not been scraped to uselessness). It stops things drifting off, including people. In fact could controlled leaking or a current be used to gather debris?
Would mirrors, big mirrors be any use for smelting? This seems a very old idea but I wonder if it works? I suspect not at the distances from the primary involved for most planetoid belts unless the mirror is really, really big – which may not be a problem the raw materials are on hand and gravity is not the problem it would be for a planetside mirror array.
I am sure launch lasers or mass drivers might be useful – send a steady stream of metal balls towards where the planet is gong to be in a few years time. Slow to start but a steady supply once on line and not really dangerous with decent traffic control unless some muppet jumps in-system in front of one and there you have a different sort of scenario. I wonder what the best way to catch the world be or could they be aimed well enough to enter orbit? The slow and long term bit seems very Vilani while the slight suspect, 'let’s fire giant cannon balls at a planet' bit sounds much more Solomani in style. I just like launch lasers and big mass drivers so would go out of my way to use them in the setting.
Rikki Tikki Traveller
Cosmic Mongoose
Asteroid Netting - Sounds like something to write up for S&P or put into an Equipment Book!
With the very thin materials like you can get with solar panels, you should be able to get a net around an asteroid up to a kilometer across without too much difficulty.
Not quite sure where you get all the GAS to fill it from, then again, it only needs to be Trace to do the job...
With the very thin materials like you can get with solar panels, you should be able to get a net around an asteroid up to a kilometer across without too much difficulty.
Not quite sure where you get all the GAS to fill it from, then again, it only needs to be Trace to do the job...
Big ass lasers are an ideal I stole from Larry Niven (if you are going to steal an idea steal from the best). I used it years back when I ran Across the Bright Face. The PCs patron had the control codes for the launch lasers that could be used with orbital mirrors to slag the planets surface - including revolting cities. The patron died leaving the PCs with the, useless to them, codes and a lot of angry rebels looking for them. Memorable bits include the dust pools and one revolting domed city who drove a herd of horses, playthings of the spoiled rich, out of a cargo airlock into the vacuum on the surface of the planet to die horribly. One of my players with a blacksmith who hated horses [1] so he liked that bit.
If the mas driver was a bit closer to the main world, say on a moon, it could be taken by terrorists who threaten to bombard the surface with it. That sounds awfully familiar though, I think someone has already done it.
When I ran Serenity [2] the second scenario had them encounter a hick world and a farmers daughter with an interest in astronomy. She wanted the PCs to check out her observations, a planetoid was going to hit the colony. It turned out it was an evil corporate planet to wipe out the colonists and allow a fresh colony to exploit mineral wealth. The planetoid was steered by thrusters rigged around it. Not a lot of thrust, just enough to nudge it into the right direction. The PCs were able to shoot it out with the hostiles whom they discovered when their own efforts to use their ships thrusters to move the planetoid were countered - which was a lovely 'huh?' moment. It did leave them out of fuel on a rock heading past the planet but they savd the colony though they were rescued by an Alliance cruiser that came to investigate a destroyed ansible.
Notes
1. Pissed on, stood on, kicked, bitten... Who could blame him?
2. Did I ever mention what a dog of a system it has?
If the mas driver was a bit closer to the main world, say on a moon, it could be taken by terrorists who threaten to bombard the surface with it. That sounds awfully familiar though, I think someone has already done it.
When I ran Serenity [2] the second scenario had them encounter a hick world and a farmers daughter with an interest in astronomy. She wanted the PCs to check out her observations, a planetoid was going to hit the colony. It turned out it was an evil corporate planet to wipe out the colonists and allow a fresh colony to exploit mineral wealth. The planetoid was steered by thrusters rigged around it. Not a lot of thrust, just enough to nudge it into the right direction. The PCs were able to shoot it out with the hostiles whom they discovered when their own efforts to use their ships thrusters to move the planetoid were countered - which was a lovely 'huh?' moment. It did leave them out of fuel on a rock heading past the planet but they savd the colony though they were rescued by an Alliance cruiser that came to investigate a destroyed ansible.
Notes
1. Pissed on, stood on, kicked, bitten... Who could blame him?
2. Did I ever mention what a dog of a system it has?
I like the net/bag idea. You actually don't need to inflate it though... use memory cloth. Just apply a small electrical charge, and the thing goes spherical, and lights up the LEDs. As the old Belters say, "Tag an bag that rock."
In my last session, my party stopped off in a belt system (Starport was in the belt), and got to do a little sight seeing while refueling. They treked on over to another rock. They attached a harness to their vac suits, hooked the harness to the monofiliment zip cable, a zipped on over to another rock a couple of klicks away.
In my last session, my party stopped off in a belt system (Starport was in the belt), and got to do a little sight seeing while refueling. They treked on over to another rock. They attached a harness to their vac suits, hooked the harness to the monofiliment zip cable, a zipped on over to another rock a couple of klicks away.
GypsyComet
Emperor Mongoose
Stainless said:
Since Beltstrike is classified as an adventure, there are a lot of its elements that the "eagle-eyed" aren't going to bother with.
That said, the mining rig is slightly silly, but only slightly, and the deckplans for it are presented out of order. Fortunately, an oblique deck-stack picture is included.
They should probably have come up with a different hullform for the surveyor, since the only charm of the Scout-to-Seeker conversion is that you keep bits of the Scout. Once you've removed the Jump drive you may as well start from scratch with something a bit better suited to carrying ore. The plans presented have to hover upside down over a large intake or yard to unload ore, and that can't be a fun ten minutes of piloting while your ship plays "eggtimer" vibrating and bucking as more than half the hull worth of rocks and gravel pours out...
I must admit the film Armageddon is one of my guilty pleasures. I know it is rubbish but then they light those shuttle stacks... Amusingly as I type this I am watching Moonraker which has it's moments as well.
Come to think of it the assault on the Drax platform in Moonraker by the USMC seems to be a very rare example of an assault in microgravity conditions in a film.
Of a similar vintage to Moonraker is Star Cops (actually not, 1979 and 1987) which despite the rather cheap special effects typical of the BBC productions of the time is very interesting depiction of law enforcement in a low tech expanding and commercialised solar system.[/i]
Come to think of it the assault on the Drax platform in Moonraker by the USMC seems to be a very rare example of an assault in microgravity conditions in a film.
Of a similar vintage to Moonraker is Star Cops (actually not, 1979 and 1987) which despite the rather cheap special effects typical of the BBC productions of the time is very interesting depiction of law enforcement in a low tech expanding and commercialised solar system.[/i]
lastbesthope
Mongoose
Yeah, I caught bits of Moonraker today, but had to switch off before the Marine Assault, had some chores to do, and of course I had to fix those moisture vaporators on the south range before midday or there'd be hell to pay....
:lol:
LBH
:lol:
LBH
