Update: Asteroid Miner Progress and Mining Drone

 

earlier vversion above. 

1. I cannot be tracked or wheeled since it assumes gravity, and it has to be able to grip the terrain. 
2. Its not a Boring vehicle its like a mobile Drill bit and Vacuum, it will have an umbilical to transfer material from one place to another. It can transfer material from one Mining drone to another. -part of the use is Cutting up an asteroid. 
3. How do you pick up the Powdery Asteroids if there is no Air? Well, I think it's critical that we have a clear intake, and it mechanically moves the materials into its intake and umbilical. 
   

• New Module: Mining Laser. Its funny cause we have Lasers in our manufacturing plant (Fiber Laser), and we've been playing around with the Creality Laser module (just a 5W laser, we learned we needed a 40-100W to create PCBS) and h Tech Ingredients special on lasers
• New module: ORe Processor. like the Fuel processor but for materials and processes at 1DT/hour. Similar stats in Dtons and space. 

• As always this will be a Power Point file that will allow people to edit it, for further customization, imagining - Seth Skarkowsky - buying our stuff and making his tweaks  and since its CC-BY-SA he can easily go into a  lot of detail and not get in trouble. 

Its Great, not perfect, but that doesnt stop it from being Great

 When I tweak a system typically I do the following:  

1) lessen the steps - I map out the flow chart and try to clarify the goals of each step and see if I can achieve it with less steps.  If the process was written in paragraph form I break it down to bullet form steps to make it more discrete per step. If the steps are SPREAD OUT through the material I consolidate it ALL and give page references to all relevant mechanics. 

Example is the Variant Rules which reduced the number of Modifiers through Logical Groupings. Applying Bounded Accuracy and Process Based (Inputs, Controls, Outputs) approach to Rolls. 

2) reduce the number of options but make it more flexible - less text and option to study - use broader language or use technical categories OR increase the number of Options but consolidate them in a table or Break the Option down in to Logical Groups so that its easier to remember. 

Example. In my Variant Rules of CE I had to increase the Options because of Superiority in Firepower, Strategic Advantage or Position, Numbers required Options that Divided resources and the opposing force's resources until the smaller side has the advantage of Mobility or Decisiveness. 

3) illustrate or create diagrams and examples of how it works at both the player level (what they need to start the process, the inputs and results) and gm level (who will improvise or plan this).  

Typically I put this in Designers Notes - SO you have  a bunch of mechanics - what was the design intent, how simple or elaborate was it supposed to be. How can we scale it down to essentials how do we elaborate on it for variety. 

4) benchmark against expectations. 

Like I discovered the dimensions of the missile in Ce and MGT2E is similar to the patriot missile at 3m long x 0.4m diameter with an endurance of a 3mins at 2-3G but has an endurance of 1hour and accel of 10G.

Or the small Modular reactor (SMR) is 300dtons producing 50Mw against a nuclear sub which provides 300MW. That there is diminishing efficiency as the 300dton SMR gets smaller. Comparing it to a Radio-isotope Thermoelectric Generator (RTG used in many probes and satelites) of 470W at about 1/30 a dton or 0.5 a m^3. 

Getting the Saturn V Apolo, Shuttle , Falcon Heavy, TianHe Programs Performance as a baseline for the TL8+ performance. This is because I want to help people run a 2050 Campaign where they are the growing number of Professional International Astronaughts that will be taking on the building of the first Permanent Commercial Space stations and Infrastructure - like in the Novel of Daniel Suarez Delta-V. Running games where PCs have to roll to succeed in using millions worth of Capital and high stakes projects. 

Play Testing with Nicco and the guys the material, comparing the System as Written and the problems that comes up. Designing material to make the GMs prep small and making every investment of time. I see something that can be done and take action. Reminds me of Seth Skarkowskys reviews - its like its a Great Material, it has these problems, but these problems doesnt stop the material from being GREAT! Traveller has Great material, it not perfect, but being imperfect doesnt stop it from being Great. 

We acknowledge the imperfection and act on it. It doesnt diminish the work and love that went into the work.  

A shuttle sketch

Used GURPS vehicles and ISW to sketch out the ideas. This is something I wanted to know when I decided that I'll keep reaction mass. and Change how travel works. To make this decision work I needed to know what kind of shuttle can ships hold. this 5dton or 70cubic meter TL9 20m shuttle seems to kinda make it. 

Handwave Log

1. Fusion Rockets that do not Perform as Good as baseline Traveller M-Drives. GURPS ISW kinda got it at 50 tons of thrust per 1 ton of Mdrive. In GURPS Vehicles the TL10 fusion rocket is about 40 tons of thrust per 1 ton of rocket engine. 
2. This means A space ship stays in space and cannot enter Gravity wells they do not have enough delta V to escape from. Which means
1. Space Stations - which because of the Expanse (Audio books) I've gotten equipped to run. 
2. Gravity Well Infra of mass drivers, space elevators, and sky hooks will dressing of many worlds. 
3. A lot of moving Reaction Mass as part of essential business. A lot of TL9 - Children of the Dead-Earth Ships. If I hand wave the need for reaction mass - all these types of ships and radiators disappear from the setting. 
4. All ships need a Taxi'ng vehicle that moves them from space to plannet. Ideally a small enough vehicle that mass drivers and sky hooks can hurl. 
3. Jump Drives double as a Warp Drive. just handwaving that the Jump Drive allows ship to x10 their Accel. 
4. I haven't figured out Radiators and Heat Management. 

A quick Sketch of a Shuttle. 

		Mass	Cost	Consumption (cubic meter/hr)
Streamlining	Streamlining 5	1.35	5	0.01665581515
Frame Grade	Standard	1	1
Frame Str	Light	0.5	0.5
Frame TL	TL9	0.675	2.5
		METRIC	VOLUME	TONS	COST
Hull	1	5.00		1.21	$246,813.43
Seats	8		1.71	0.40	$4,000.00
Passengers		5.00		0.50
Cargo	14		1.00	4.00
Fuel Tank	1		0.07	1.00
Thrust (Tons)	TL9 Fusion Rocket	220.00	0.99	11.02	$1,102,268.60
Cockpit			1	4	$1,000,000.00
Sensors
Life Support
Power Plant
LMass			4.78	22.13	$2,353,082.03
EMass

FUEL (cubic meter)	Ship Mass	Accel	Duration (hours)	Km/s
1	22.13	9.939317944	60.04	1074.15

2m x 1m x 1.5m ... I blocked off the space the passenger would need. 

The engine should have an air scoop for atmospheric flight. But uses internal tanks for space. 

Orthographic Top view

Orthographic Front

Schelling Points - Space combat - Same as a real life project at work or a bid, except for the lethality

In COADE or some of these space combat mechanics (Non-Dog-Fight Mechanics) can be simplified as ONE shelling point.  The GM works back from that shelling point. There are limited kinds of Schelling Point - most often its Range of Intercept (the GM prepares the problem statement and Iterates the most important point and assumptions and uncertainties).

The GM says the Schelling point/Event Horizon is 30 hours away. This Schelling Point can thousands of KM away or Millions or Hundreds, it all works out as the GM working back from the Schelling point and detailing it. the GM explains the problem and the options based on initial rolls. You can say or make Initiative, not an Initiative Roll but an Information Roll - Who has the better Awareness and Grasp of the Situations to SETS THE PACE. Who acts and will react.  

 

The SCALE of time is interesting. It begins with the largest Unit, where everyone takes a turn, then scales down. The GM can set it at 1 man day, everyone gets a Manday turn. Then he proceeds to resolve what has happened in that Manday - sometimes the PCs Live or Die in what happens in that Manday and may not feel it until the schelling point. 

The GM asks them their Actions - what Posture/Preparation or Actions they will take - and then asks them to roll. The Adversary adapts or implements their plan. NO PLAN survives initial contact.

The GM resolves the consequences of the actions, failures, success, and successes of the adversary. He can simplify BUILDING into the PC's difficulty roll or making a Contested Roll. He shows and doesnt tell. He resolves everyone's concerns on a time budget and then proceeds to summarize the total effect with drama and tension (meaning he raises more uncertainties; take the players question and answer it by referencing what remains to be known or is this enough). 

Now 6 hours remain, and the GM asks them their actions for those 6 hours. The Players/Crew then adjust and adapt to the situation. They plan their actions for these 6 hours. The GM repeats the same process and updates the crew the consequences and results of their actions, building the tension with Key Questions. Were you fast enough to escape, can you maneuver, who survived, who is crippled, etc... 

Reviewing relative Velocity and realize I'll simplify Angular Relative Velocity by checking if they are Perpendicular or Parallel vs Same or Opposite directions. 

https://www.khanacademy.org/science/in-in-class11th-physics/in-in-class11th-physics-motion-in-a-straight-line/in-in-relative/v/calculating-relative-velocity-class-11-india-physics-khan-academy 

Dog fights is the Space Combat we know - but this reminds me of the Tension filled Week of a BID or a Project - where we perform a lot of long actions to get to a Schelling point which determines if we make or lose money. 

GURPS SpaceShips: Getting into a TL9 Doctrine

So it can't go interstellar, and I admit it was painful at first to conceptualize a doctrine without reactionless drives BUT Iearned to love it after some inspiration... and it is in ICE ships!

Yes, convert your fuel into an ENTIRE HULL! I'm sure someone else has thought of this because its so damn simple a leap. In GURPS Spaceships you can make an ICE ship by making an entire vessel typically at the least SM+15 (700m x 160m x 160m) to SM+17 (1.5km x 300m x 300m) tanks and a hull of ICE! The way it works is that you have a Skeleton Ship (acts as a Spine and a rear module), one that is 1-2 sizes below this ship providing Thermo Nuclear Rockets to push the ship with relatively Low Accel. The Ice hull is held together with cables and material, with "Spiders" roughly SM+6 to SM+8 in size. These spiders dancing around provide repairs and maintenance around the ice hull to keep it intact and shoot at Small Debris that will damage the hull. The spiders provide manuver drives as well to allow for course adjustments.
In the rear is the Spin Gravity habitats for occupants and tech which still need some gravity.

These Ice Ships are the fuel but move the ice to cycle around the Star System. If you cycle between Mars and Earth (typically 1AU distance) and Ice ship will take 2 years to do the rounds... but if you have several Ice Ships you will have an Ice ship arriving pretty often, feeding the Economy with Reaction Fuel from Gas Giants. Travel within the system is hitching a ride on these ice ships. There is a bit of a steam punk feel to these Ice ships as they can be compared to Zeppelins with dangerous reaction matter all around the living compartments.  

Basically to get the right amount of velocity (mps) to get anywhere in GURPS spaceships you need a ton of fuel... like an F*ton of fuel. While nuclear pulse is how we get there in the beginning to have an entire economy set up for continuous travel without using Reactionless drives look towards a larger energy source.

The same technology for space elevator, is used to suck up gasses from gas giants for processing (but gasses are easier to transport I'm guessing). So its pretty much converting these gasses into TNR fuel. Stations send the ICE where they can orbit and be guarded. Where tugboats move them towards Shipywards to equip the skeleton into the ICE hull. Gov't makes forcasts on the amount needed and what is cost efficient for the economy and they build as needed to spur the economy.

The Freighters have a path and schedule (ex Venus to Earth, then Earth to Mars, and mars to some major Rock on the belt, then Rock to Jupiter). They accelerate and decelerate to make their schedule and stops along Space Stations (slowing enough for Shuttles to match Velocities to unload/upload passengers or special cargo). Against pirates, warships follow a similar logistics system with ice being moved around along with them. Some Warships are very small relative to the ICE ships and are launched from the Ice ship to match velocities and create an Ice ship. Tethered sensor spin around the Ice ship to provide better resolution.

Still travel is slow, and there will be a particular Industry that is meant of Taking Care of Property and Assets while the owner is Away. Since they can be away in 5 years easily, its not your typical Financial Entity. They have to be really really stable.

Despite TL10 technology, TL9 is still the cheapest way to colonize a system because of the industrial base is easier to build. Its actually TL10 but its TL9 is effectivity, the same way a 747 is TL7 but with TL8 upgrades. TL10 is having a more self sufficient and portable TL9 for colonizing.

In my writing I tried to make a time line for developments of technology and how it changed the industry again and again. Thanks to the table and indexing tools in libreoffice lolz.

Gas Exaction Technology. 

Gas Extraction allows for Gas Giants to be skimmed safely with a advance super strong materials to extend a "hose" long and far enough to draw gasses. The technology is not just great for getting gas but also for terraforming! Guess where we are getting the initial gas??? Venus lolz.

imagine extracting the gass and letting some of it liquefy and crystallize. Set it down a path where the Ice is now a Ring around Venus. Design the ring to shade venus and you have a two fold method of cooling it while fueling your economy lolz. First stop is Venus to Earth Ice freighters.

Oh no Venus is running out of its super dense atmosphere, begin seeding with biotech meant to trap X chemicals into a solid harvest-able form lolz. In the end Venus has two wide band rings that shade some of it from the sun while providing skimmable fuel for travelling reaction drive ships. Eventually the rings will be sustained, until there is a way to balance the energy Venus is absorbing from the sun while making mostly habitable.

Gravity in TL9

Because of BioTech you don't need gravity in a ship, although without gravity micro debris can accelerate into dangerous velocities... but then again Biosuits are standard. No gravity means dirt can really go everywhere, so gravity (even just microgravity) is there to keep things in order and to buffer against acceleration.  

My Review of GURPS Spaceships

It deserves its glowing review and ratings. It simplifies a lot of work when creating ships in GURPS. I have one big problem tho, its that you have to still build doctrine from scratch.... and thats a contestable failing if there was one. That being said, its a great book, but you have a lot of work ahead of you if you want to have Ship combat, encounters, and Naval centric adventures in the future. 

So in a simulationist point of view, its simplified - I agree with the cost benefit of simplification in order to get some ships down and the Game ON!. Unfortunately you will need to have some form of doctrine to build in order to give guidance and internal rationale to methods and decisions. Best Practices has to be developed so that real creativity and problem solving can occur, and that's the real fun for me.

Otherwise, if there is no Doctrine its a Narrative Game (as someone who like and plays narrative mechanic games) and I'm not looking for that flavor of fun and I'm not as "Gaming High" as I am in problem solving fun. 

Why don't I just throw away my setting premises and just adopt the ships in the Series?

This is the first thing that comes to my mind when I look at all the ships (from just the Table of Contents of the Gurps Spaceship Series). F*CK my setting premises and just adopt the ships and just make a doctrine out of that... then they should have made such a book in the GURPS Spaceship series and doctrine happens WHILE building sample ships. I'm sure their making it, I'll just wait for that but while thats on its way I'll work on my own given my own premises. 

We start with simple assumptions and move on to complicated ones. Like a Gardener Writer, you let Interesting elements you want into the premises and you tie them together when they grow to a particular direction. Its hard being an Architect of an entire doctrine, especially when you want to start playing ASAP. Its not like a novel which can be planned in years lolz. 

Building Doctrine - the Analyst Compulsion

I'm a fan of Honorverse and love the doctrine element of the story. You can simplify the battles as Honor kicks everyone's ass, but then you can look at what it took for the Manticore and Havenite Navy to get where they are and the costs they paid. Simple is great, its better when applied where it counts and the focus in the elements that matter to the audience. 

Then again how many RPGamers have the same "turn ons" lolz? First thing about doctrine is that its really just for the GM who happens to get a big hadron in such things. Honestly I know of only one other person I know who likes this kind of stuff, and he's playing slots are full (and so are mine) I'm most likely trying to please myself lolz (there is a term for this). Hate it when reality and perspectives ruins an pedantic argument lolz. 

Still, I'm a big boy and I like the Doctrine and I'm unashamed of that. So with my self justification, on with some points about it particularly in GURPS Spaceships. 

• OMG the assumptions. The design switches really make GURPS Spaceships - GURPS. the options are dizzying and really aim to please those with a hadron for Sci-fi. if your a Sci-fi author wanna be you would love this (and I'm a BIG Wannabe). So get them all down. 
• Be Patient. There is a lot of ships to build and many sample combats to run! 
• The method I'm using is working on the basic premise that SM+8 1000tons is a 200dton free trader. I did some research on Liberty ships and Economics so I'm just going to use some economic assumptions that will have my professors pestering in my head. A note 1945 USD is 10x the value presently. a Liberty Ship is $20M currently. It fits SM+10 but has lower density as 85% of it is cargo hold at 14,000 longtons/cu m or 1,000dton ship with 10,000 longton capacity or  700dtons cargo. Using the economic implication of City Stats for System Economies. Using WW2 economies with some assumptions regarding Common Good Spending (particularly in Interstellar Trade and Industry; basically the Imperial Economy heavily subsidizes it and makes it its primary commodity, taking the liabilities of its subsidized cost - its basically entrepreneurship instead of WAR as channel for political will and aligning economies. Kinda my thesis as to why I think the space program is good for the world economy). I can just hear my wife shouting out NERD!
• So you got your research material and you have made about 12 ships in the course of 16 hours lolz. Funny, without doctrine you don't know what is important and what is expected or practiced. So in the first bunch of ships you make and as you learn the system you are going to be studying how to make things work, or a good BS excuse why things work the way they are. Still these are all happening in your head and you have no one to talk to about it to air the ideas to see if forgot some rule or failed to see an assumption (since your myopic). Then hopefully you know how I feel and why I want to talk to other gamer in Hangouts and send me a msg and take my offer to talk about this kind of crap that will test your spouses's or players patience lolz. 
• After talking to someone or getting to talk to someone Be ready for a lot of Notes to digest and after writing it all down and having your Final IDEA let it sit for a MONTH before getting back to it to add some perspective. If you don't find yourself kicking your own ass with what you wrote then proceed to make a ton more ships until the next WALL hits you and everything looks like crap and you wasted your time... then Call me again and lets figure out some BS reason why we can make it work LOLz. Otherwise revise with the clearer and objective voice you have after you gained some space from your work and have someone critique it lolz. 
• After you accomplish basic logistics and economics, basic commercial level threats and the broad brush strokes of Naval (with a few Naval Engagement Demos under your belt) then you have achieved a King of the Nerds award which you have to Claim after submitting your final thesis and had it peer reviewed (by fellow Nerds of your Peers). There will be a ceremony in onAir, with a couple of Puppets with Sesame street rip-off voices handing the virtual award. Be sure to invite the spouse for the false praise and heaps of sarcasm. Tell your spawn that Daddy did something great and there will be icecream and chocolates. 

Well hope this helps, if anything it just made me really depressed and should put adequate alchohol or some recently legalized herb in my to buy list or better yet spend some more quality time with the spawn.