Izistan
24-01-2007, 22:30
[Just something I needed to do. And yeah, it is a tad incoherent, but eh. If you get the William Barker reference, you are cool. Title suggested by The Northern Expanse, even though I've never watched B5...]
Some asteroids look like potatoes, some more so then other. Like this one, stuck in the Arjuna belt. But its not as interesting as compared to the object spiraling down around it. The steady push of the MPD thrusters had kept three hundred tonnes of composite fiber, ceramic, and diamondoid material on its decaying orbit around 8743 Sadlermiut. The carbonaceous rock at been picked by telescopic and spectrograph survey some years before, after all, a 3x5 kilometer asteroid shaped roughly like a potato, and stuck smack dab in the middle of the Arjuna belt by one of those crazy fractural events? This was far too tempting of a opportunity to exploit it for science! That and the Aerospace Forces expanding need for in-space materials and fuel. And since no body really wanted to put all their faith in a lunar core tap…The near earth asteroids were the last best hope for fueling (and building) orbital combatants. APOC’s spatial dominance in the Earth-Moon-Lagrange area was essential after all… And they couldn’t very well give that particular advantage away to the Sazy’s, or Gholgoth now could they?
So here it was, three hundred tonnes of robotic exploration cum exploitation machinery. Granted, not all of its mass was dedicated to processing and what not, merely one hundred and forty five tonnes; the rest was occupied by a two megawatt nuclear reactor, various scientific gizmo's, xenon tanks, reaction control systems, and the magnetoplasmadynamic thrusters that had pushed the probe out to meet its target. Was it at least pretty to look at? Not really. The robot was roughly shaped like a dumbbell, sensors and “factory” at one end, reactor and thruster at the other, xenon tanks and shadow shield in between. At least it was named, William Barker emblazoned on the side of the xenon tanks in big red letters (in Comic Sans to be precise).
With a burp of compressed gases, cables of synthetic spider silk and pitons sped towards the surface and embedded themselves within the dusty crust. If this was in an atmosphere, the air would be filled with the whine of the winches as Barker towed itself down to the surface. With a bump and a flare of dust thrown from the surface, Barker landed.
Why waste any more time with formalities? The teeth of excavation machinery dug in and drew regolith into the waiting jaws of the factory. Flash heated to boil out volatiles, ground in centrifugal grinders, separated magnetically, the material was separated into various useful materials and the factories internal stores began to fill. Now methane and carbon dioxide boiled out of the regolith were shunted to some compact chemical reactors and were converted to various forms. But we aren’t here to learn about ethane and other complex hydro-carbons; we’ve come for the end result: plastics. This stuff could be regarded as close to a high strength Mylar, though it was semi-translucent with a golden tinge. Barker was churning out what looked like a giant conical tent, all the better to catch regolith thrown up by simple robotic diggers of course!
Around the same time, something like a grown up 3D printer went to work, churning out some circuit boards, small electric motors, and solar cells. Now small waldo's either welded or glued the parts together, and voila! One small rover with a dirt throwing attachment, just the sort of thing that was needed to toss regolith into the “tent”. After all, this was just the processing site, why cover it in all that nasty dust? And so the real exploitation of the rock began...
Some asteroids look like potatoes, some more so then other. Like this one, stuck in the Arjuna belt. But its not as interesting as compared to the object spiraling down around it. The steady push of the MPD thrusters had kept three hundred tonnes of composite fiber, ceramic, and diamondoid material on its decaying orbit around 8743 Sadlermiut. The carbonaceous rock at been picked by telescopic and spectrograph survey some years before, after all, a 3x5 kilometer asteroid shaped roughly like a potato, and stuck smack dab in the middle of the Arjuna belt by one of those crazy fractural events? This was far too tempting of a opportunity to exploit it for science! That and the Aerospace Forces expanding need for in-space materials and fuel. And since no body really wanted to put all their faith in a lunar core tap…The near earth asteroids were the last best hope for fueling (and building) orbital combatants. APOC’s spatial dominance in the Earth-Moon-Lagrange area was essential after all… And they couldn’t very well give that particular advantage away to the Sazy’s, or Gholgoth now could they?
So here it was, three hundred tonnes of robotic exploration cum exploitation machinery. Granted, not all of its mass was dedicated to processing and what not, merely one hundred and forty five tonnes; the rest was occupied by a two megawatt nuclear reactor, various scientific gizmo's, xenon tanks, reaction control systems, and the magnetoplasmadynamic thrusters that had pushed the probe out to meet its target. Was it at least pretty to look at? Not really. The robot was roughly shaped like a dumbbell, sensors and “factory” at one end, reactor and thruster at the other, xenon tanks and shadow shield in between. At least it was named, William Barker emblazoned on the side of the xenon tanks in big red letters (in Comic Sans to be precise).
With a burp of compressed gases, cables of synthetic spider silk and pitons sped towards the surface and embedded themselves within the dusty crust. If this was in an atmosphere, the air would be filled with the whine of the winches as Barker towed itself down to the surface. With a bump and a flare of dust thrown from the surface, Barker landed.
Why waste any more time with formalities? The teeth of excavation machinery dug in and drew regolith into the waiting jaws of the factory. Flash heated to boil out volatiles, ground in centrifugal grinders, separated magnetically, the material was separated into various useful materials and the factories internal stores began to fill. Now methane and carbon dioxide boiled out of the regolith were shunted to some compact chemical reactors and were converted to various forms. But we aren’t here to learn about ethane and other complex hydro-carbons; we’ve come for the end result: plastics. This stuff could be regarded as close to a high strength Mylar, though it was semi-translucent with a golden tinge. Barker was churning out what looked like a giant conical tent, all the better to catch regolith thrown up by simple robotic diggers of course!
Around the same time, something like a grown up 3D printer went to work, churning out some circuit boards, small electric motors, and solar cells. Now small waldo's either welded or glued the parts together, and voila! One small rover with a dirt throwing attachment, just the sort of thing that was needed to toss regolith into the “tent”. After all, this was just the processing site, why cover it in all that nasty dust? And so the real exploitation of the rock began...