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Old 12-04-2019, 06:31 PM   #5
thrash
 
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Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: traveller
Default Re: Space Mining: Ore Availability and Yield

GURPS Transhuman Space: Deep Beyond discusses asteroid mining (pp. 34-36), but doesn't have any tables.

Classic Traveller offers the Beltstrike module boxed set, which expands on the JTAS article. It has a fairly detailed prospecting procedure, based on somewhat dated (i.e., pre-Grand Tack model) stellar system physics. The asteroid types are still as Anthony says. The discoverable resources are different than the JTAS article: radioactives*, dense metals, crystals, and artifacts.

For what it's worth, I tried to write up belters for GURPS Traveller. I couldn't make the economics of independent prospectors and miners work without some kind of "space diamonds" or unobtanium.



*Radioactives are mostly not, in fact, good asteroidal resources. They are concentrated by the geological processes that occur on planetary surfaces.
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