Futuristic Mining Setting ideas

[Anthony]

I assume "power armor supersoldier" implies a cinematic campaign. If you're being realistic, the scenario is mostly a nonstarter, if you can't reach the location the captive is being held without being detected the captive gets shot and you fail.

[Anaraxes]

How about some non-combat hazards? The ceiling collapses, perhaps, sufficent to trap the powered armor guys even if not hurt them. Might have been mined by the defenders of the mine -- possibly remotely detonated, with an observation camera, if you want to give the PCs a chance to find and disable a security system.

[Agemegos]

Originally Posted by AlexanderHowl

Why would a TL10 civilization have mines on a planet?.

1. Because there is no type of asteroid that is any better than concrete as an ore of any chalcophile element, and several of the chalcophiles are important industrial metals.

2. Because some minerals are valued for reasons other than as ores of elements (e.g. opal, marble, jade, amber, coal), and form through planetary processes and not in space.

3. Because at TL10, especially with the right superscience, launch to orbit is cheap. So airless asteroids lose their main advantage, whereas free air for cooling is still a convenience, as is free gravity to ease materials handling.

[Daigoro]

Do asteroidal minerals appear as veins of ore, or is that a strictly planetary process?

There might be a cost-benefit crossover point where it's cheaper to mine out a vein of ore than pulverise and process a whole asteroid to get the same output.

[David Johnston2]

Originally Posted by Agemegos

1. Because there is no type of asteroid that is any better than concrete as an ore of any chalcophile element, and several of the chalcophiles are important industrial metals.

2. Because some minerals are valued for reasons other than as ores of elements (e.g. opal, marble, jade, amber, coal), and form through planetary processes and not in space.

3. Because at TL10, especially with the right superscience, launch to orbit is cheap. So airless asteroids lose their main advantage, whereas free air for cooling is still a convenience, as is free gravity to ease materials handling.

I kind of think that asteroid mining is a wee bit over-hyped. Sure once you've got a substantial presence in space it makes sense, but there are things you could find on a planet and not in an asteroid and there are things to be said for propinquity and convenience.

[Anaraxes]

Originally Posted by Daigoro

Do asteroidal minerals appear as veins of ore, or is that a strictly planetary process?

Concentration of minerals is mostly done by geological processes. "Veins" in particular are (strictly speaking) the result of liquid processes -- water, in the case of Earth, carrying dissolved minerals that crystallize in open spaces in the surrounding rock. This implies a body that has enough heat to have liquids or melt metal and rock, and enough gravity to cause liquids to move and rocks to flow and fracture.

Of course, your asteroids might be the remnants of a larger body that did at some point have those processes, but suffered a collision. Small asteroids (as we've seen) can be more like piles of gravel flying in close formation than big solid rocks.

[AlexanderHowl]

Even if an asteroid is a gravel pile, it is not useless for mining. In fact, they are easier to mine, as you could gather and process the smaller pieces first and then proceed to the larger pieces. If you have an asteroid 10 km wide and it is 90% gravel, you may have a few dozen 1 cubic kilometer chunks that you can anchor to during mining operations.

[Varyon]

I opted to start a new thread for discussing the tangent, see here

[hoganbball23]

Not to deadhead the thread, but thanks for all the feedback everyone i have added many of these ideas. We are playing on sunday. Thanks again!