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I had an idea for a mining beam that generates very little heat (if at all, or is not affected by heat) and mines at a rather slow rate. I can't think of the numbers off the top of my head, so someone else better at doing all that number stuff, and balance would have to do that for me.
The mining beam would not heat much because it doesn't have to heat the 'roid as much to get what it wanted vaporized. The beam could not specialize in a certain type of ore, because it does not have enough time in transit to separate the ores from one another before it got to the ship.
The beam would have a very short range, like 5 or 10 meters, so you would literally need to be on the roid to mine.
The entire heat creates inefficency thing confuses the idea, as something at this range actually should heat up an area very quickly, heating the roid faster, and get ore faster. I'm trying to work it into our current mining system.
I just had the idea, and an inkling of how the system would work. I don't have a full grasp of the world of Sci-Fi, nor am I a Sci-Fi writer. If I had either capability, I could explain this in a wonderful manner.
The main idea was a mining beam that started out slowly, and remained at an even pace through the roid (which lends to the not affected by heat, or the heat makes it mine easier, as it's just pulverizing the rock, and picking up the ores, and when the rock is softer, it's easier to do idea). A slow, gentle mining beam that doesn't damage the 'environment'.
It would be wonderful if other people added what they thought to this. This could be an interesting addition to our current mining structure (which I believe needs to be redone), as we basically toss out hot 'roids.
The mining beam would not heat much because it doesn't have to heat the 'roid as much to get what it wanted vaporized. The beam could not specialize in a certain type of ore, because it does not have enough time in transit to separate the ores from one another before it got to the ship.
The beam would have a very short range, like 5 or 10 meters, so you would literally need to be on the roid to mine.
The entire heat creates inefficency thing confuses the idea, as something at this range actually should heat up an area very quickly, heating the roid faster, and get ore faster. I'm trying to work it into our current mining system.
I just had the idea, and an inkling of how the system would work. I don't have a full grasp of the world of Sci-Fi, nor am I a Sci-Fi writer. If I had either capability, I could explain this in a wonderful manner.
The main idea was a mining beam that started out slowly, and remained at an even pace through the roid (which lends to the not affected by heat, or the heat makes it mine easier, as it's just pulverizing the rock, and picking up the ores, and when the rock is softer, it's easier to do idea). A slow, gentle mining beam that doesn't damage the 'environment'.
It would be wonderful if other people added what they thought to this. This could be an interesting addition to our current mining structure (which I believe needs to be redone), as we basically toss out hot 'roids.
Well, laser mining is neat, but what happened to old fashioned mining? A real physical drill wouldn't necessarily heat anything up, and of course would extract the different types of ore all at the same rate.
I'm not sure what universe you're in SMM, but in the one I'm in, mining with a drill bit is done by applying more friction to the rock than the rock can withstand, thus fracturing and pulverizing it. This generates MASSIVE amounts of heat, hence the water cooling of most rock drills.
Actual physical contact with the roid, a sort of "strip mining" it, would be awesome, but it should generate a whole heap of heat.
On the "Laser Drill Mining Beams" topic, I'd very much like to see that. Really slow beams that did almost no heat at all. It would be great for mining in the background while chatting, and add Real Value to prospecting for a really good rock that holds a lot of the mineral you want.
In stead of calling it a laser (or "Lazer", if you like) beam, it could be some sort of frequency modulator.
Set it to the right frequency, to match the mineral you want, and that mineral (only that mineral!) will slowly come dancing out of the asteroid.
Upside: Very little heat and can target a specific ore
Downside: Very very slow
Usable for: Background mining, gathering high volumes of a specific ore for a specific task (think "crafting"...)
[Stamp of Approval]
Actual physical contact with the roid, a sort of "strip mining" it, would be awesome, but it should generate a whole heap of heat.
On the "Laser Drill Mining Beams" topic, I'd very much like to see that. Really slow beams that did almost no heat at all. It would be great for mining in the background while chatting, and add Real Value to prospecting for a really good rock that holds a lot of the mineral you want.
In stead of calling it a laser (or "Lazer", if you like) beam, it could be some sort of frequency modulator.
Set it to the right frequency, to match the mineral you want, and that mineral (only that mineral!) will slowly come dancing out of the asteroid.
Upside: Very little heat and can target a specific ore
Downside: Very very slow
Usable for: Background mining, gathering high volumes of a specific ore for a specific task (think "crafting"...)
[Stamp of Approval]
Zounds interesting.
Ah, everyone dreams about AFK money making
You know, in the VO universe I live in, we already have laser mining.
Yez, Zcuba, but he'z zuggezting a different twizt to it.
Read the thread.
[edit] I had missed an S in there.
[edit again] Dangit! They keep escaping me!
Read the thread.
[edit] I had missed an S in there.
[edit again] Dangit! They keep escaping me!
LASER: Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation
You've still got an s to take care of.
Fixed.
How about we get back on topic?
How about we get back on topic?
You missed a few more S's in there.
Please?
Other than afk mining, I don't understand the value of this.
If you only know one small Apecine rock, and it also has a bunch of carbonic, then it's going to be a pain to gather 72cu of Ape...
...unless you have this device!
...unless you have this device!
With this device, it's like mining with a much slower basic mining beam! (Psst, it'd be a much slower pain to gather rare ores, fun!)
I'm with Whistler.
I'm with Whistler.
I'm with Whistler. Lasers basically just pummel it with light. That's uhh, pure heat. Secondly, that would just explode the roid. It's not mining. I think the current mining beams would be more like the "gravatic" engines, and more like tractor beam that sucks up ores, which could be specially designed to target certain density materials i.e. certain ores.
The only thing that would be more accurate is sending a team of miners onto the roid. or a robot.
But in part, whistler is wrong. There are certain condition under which laser beams can act as tractor beams. It only works on certain materials and usually microscopic sized. The only way lasers would work with mining this is if we had incredibly good scanning, and be able to track millions of tiny lasers.
The only thing that would be more accurate is sending a team of miners onto the roid. or a robot.
But in part, whistler is wrong. There are certain condition under which laser beams can act as tractor beams. It only works on certain materials and usually microscopic sized. The only way lasers would work with mining this is if we had incredibly good scanning, and be able to track millions of tiny lasers.
The principle of the mining beam:
The laser beam fulfills three essential tasks: extraction, transport and classfication of minerals. First of all it vaporizes the minerals on the surface of the asteroids where they form a charged plasma gas. Secondly, the laser beam itself is shaped as a cylindrical beam. By pulsating the laser amplitude, a rotating magnetic field is induced on the cylindrical surface. This acts as a 'screw' shaped magnet on the plasma particles, that get sucked up inside the cylindrical laser tube. Due to the different mass/charge ration of the atoms, the particle beam is diffused, like a ray of light through a prism. This enables the miner to sort and accumulate the different minerals. Obviously, a lot of the vaporized minerals actually fall outside the beam and are thus wasted, but the benefits and ease of use of the miner outweights this waste for most practical purposes.
The laser beam fulfills three essential tasks: extraction, transport and classfication of minerals. First of all it vaporizes the minerals on the surface of the asteroids where they form a charged plasma gas. Secondly, the laser beam itself is shaped as a cylindrical beam. By pulsating the laser amplitude, a rotating magnetic field is induced on the cylindrical surface. This acts as a 'screw' shaped magnet on the plasma particles, that get sucked up inside the cylindrical laser tube. Due to the different mass/charge ration of the atoms, the particle beam is diffused, like a ray of light through a prism. This enables the miner to sort and accumulate the different minerals. Obviously, a lot of the vaporized minerals actually fall outside the beam and are thus wasted, but the benefits and ease of use of the miner outweights this waste for most practical purposes.
But is there a use other than for afk mining? I understand about the Apecine, but if this thing is slow, then we're still talking about afk mining.
I don't want to get bogged down in the science of this, but I'm the son of a physicist who specializes in lasers. I know a bit about this.
Lasers can be used, in a very limited fashion, to push, rotate, and "pull" small objects. We're talking about photons here - there's no magnetism going on. It's all about using more than one laser and setting up interference waves. That causes the photons to move in directions different than the original beams. The objects to be moved have to be small enough to be influenced by photons - which have high velocity but low mass. It's not actually clear to me that any actual "pulling" is done - it looks more like there's pushing in the direction opposite the beam.
I don't want to get bogged down in the science of this, but I'm the son of a physicist who specializes in lasers. I know a bit about this.
Lasers can be used, in a very limited fashion, to push, rotate, and "pull" small objects. We're talking about photons here - there's no magnetism going on. It's all about using more than one laser and setting up interference waves. That causes the photons to move in directions different than the original beams. The objects to be moved have to be small enough to be influenced by photons - which have high velocity but low mass. It's not actually clear to me that any actual "pulling" is done - it looks more like there's pushing in the direction opposite the beam.
a physical drill bit would be neat.
Would generate a lot of heat, but wouldn't be influenced much by said heat as long as you could keep the bit cool....
Would generate a lot of heat, but wouldn't be influenced much by said heat as long as you could keep the bit cool....
I built a primitive one of these
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optical_tweezers
And that's how they pull.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optical_tweezers
And that's how they pull.