Automated Mining Extractors

[Soda Popinski]

Not sure if something like this has been suggested. Maybe I've played too much KSP with Kethane.

Suggesting a way to be able to scale up mining based on ship size, the same way trading goes.

Automated mining extraction pods.

Load your ship up with empty canisters connected to mining extractors that are launched like a very slow torpedo and latch onto asteroids. They would then drill in and extract ore directly into the canisters.

You can then select them to unlatch, or they may do so automatically. You then scoop them up, and the contents go into the hopper - say 1 ton of ore.

Some of the canisters then fill with processed metal (a fraction of the ore), the rest remain empty to be reused.

Ideally, these extractors would be tethered together so you just need to scoop the first one, and the rest get "slurped in" like spaghetti. This would drive down the tedium of scooping dozens or hundreds of canisters individually. Maybe have strings of a dozen or so.

Another interesting mechanic would be requiring a slow rotating asteroid for these, as the centripetal force could throw these guys right off.

The extractors themselves could be single use like ammo, so you would carry / buy more than your initial cargo capacity. Or they could wear out over time (as would any drill head).

Just to be clear, these won't be automated drones flying back and forth, nor drones picking up the floating rocks. These fly straight into asteroids, then you grab full ones after.

 

[Soda Popinski]

Here's a narrative to help envision it (or at least how I envision it).

I'm in a Lakon Type 6 with no cargo and 1000 rounds of Extractors. I find a nice juicy asteroid with very little rotation and hit it with my mining laser to see what comes out. 5% palladium!

I select the Extractor pods, which automatically mates 10 extractors to 10 empty cargo canisters in a "clip." I line up my shot, and give the ship a small upward thrust with Flight Assist Off so I can coast as I fire off the 10 Extractor Pod clip at about 1 second intervals.

The string of 10 pods tethered together coast toward the asteroid and make contact. A red light on the pod turns on once it locks onto the asteroid, and begins churning away filling the canister with raw ore / asteroid stuff.

I repeat this procedure a few times over the asteroid leaving rows of pods attached all over it. I don't want to over do it, knowing pirates may come by and steal the pods when they disengage.

After a few minutes, the first string canisters are full, and the extractor pod light turns green. It automatically disengages when I get within 200 meters, and being to float outward.

I target the first canister in the string, and grab it with my cargo scoop, pulling the rest of the string of pearls in. The ore goes into the hopper, and I select which metal to refine. As normal, the excess material is vented, leaving me with a half ton of palladium and 9 empty canisters and a spent extractor head unit.

The next string finishes up, and I head there. After using up the 1000 extractor heads over the coarse of less than an hour, I have 45 tons of palladium. I wish I bought more extractor heads.

I decide to stick around and use the mining laser to slowly fill up the rest. After all, palladium doesn't grow on trees.

 

[Soda Popinski]

Meanwhile a sneaky sneak thief in a Cobra watches a Lakon 6 as it moves about an asteroid, like a pregnant yak.

Our thief has most of his modules off to reduce his signature. He does keep his cargo scoop active though.

When the Lakon has moved behind the asteroid out of sight, leaving a few strings extractor pods unguarded, the thief moves in.

At 200 meters out, one string of pods automatically disengage, and our thief snatches them up. Never seen by the clumsy miner. Will he even notice the missing booty?

 

[ChrisT]

A similar post, I had posted this elsewhere, and was asked to post it in this forum, so here it is...


I recall, back in an Alpha newsletter, that there was a concept of a Mining Robot. That has never come to pass in-game.

It strikes me, that if you really do want to compete with the trader career path, then having parallelism in mining MUST happen.

Let me explain.

If I buy a Sidewinder, I have a maximum parallelism of 4 i.e. I can carry 4 tons of goods, so 4 chances for profit per trade.

if I get richer, I can buy a T7 and eventually a T9, each upgrade brings more parallelism, so with a T7 you have 220 tons to play with per trade.

As a miner, there is no comparable career path.

If I buy a Sidewinder, I can mine 4 tons of goods before I need to cash in. Not ideal.

Buy if I have a T7, I have 220 tons to fill before cashing in. Problem is, filling that 220 will take an AGE!!!

So, SOMETHING like a mining robot is desperately needed to make mining a viable career path.

I should be able to buy a T7, kit it out with 4 mining robots, that may take up cargo space? Maybe they can fit into certain modules?

When deployed, I would then be able mine much faster, making my effort parallel, and getting full benefit of my much larger ship

Mining robots could be a whole thing unto them selves

* Different qualities of robot.
* They could degrade during use, requiring repair.
* They could come in specific flavours i.e. metal mining bots, mineral bots, etc.

Here's an idea. Two types of bots

The primary one, it can actually mine, and is autonomous. It will flit from asteroid to asteroid, mining, refining until full.
The secondary bot collects chunks of ore, and simply deploys them into our open scoops.

So, imagine I am a minor lord. I could buy a T9, and fit it with a number of Mining bots, some miners, some ore grabbers.

I form a wing with 3 others, and we all kit out with mining lasers. The others have some combat lasers as well, for defense.

We arrive at some asteroids, we deploy ALL bots, and some go mining, whilst others wait in space for ore chunks to appear.

We all then start mining asteroids with our lasers. The T9 keeps its scoop open and as chunks are created by our team the grabbers grab, and pop them in our scoop.

When the mining bots are full, they return to the ship, dock and offload, rinse repeat.

So, its now possible for that T9 to actually use its size, in solo, or with a wing to really up its mining rate.

 

[Epicurean Dream]

Mining will get a big overhaul at some point in the future Michael has said himself that the current mining system is an extremely bare bones implementation of what they had originally planned. The DDS mentions things such as deep system/planet scanning and heat maps, placing and triangulating probes for prospecting potential mining sights with ore density read-outs, triggering new extraction sites. To all manner of different mining lasers, modules and involved techniques to carry out mining as a profession.

Hopefully we will be seeing some of this in the future.

 

[ByuKnight]

I totally understand I make my living at trade for the moment but want to venture into the mining. I got all good equipment on my cobra found and started mining the asteroids but when it came to loading OMG it was a nightmare. I probably was doing it all wrong, so I watched some videos, no help. I just wish there was a tractor beam or something to help with loading.

 

[Soda Popinski]

I totally understand I make my living at trade for the moment but want to venture into the mining. I got all good equipment on my cobra found and started mining the asteroids but when it came to loading OMG it was a nightmare. I probably was doing it all wrong, so I watched some videos, no help. I just wish there was a tractor beam or something to help with loading.

Exactly. Not only is it a pain, but it doesn't scale, as ChrisT mentioned. Personally, I don't like the Tractor beam idea, as in the lore, there isn't artificial gravity. Tractor beam usually implies gravity control, as magnetics wouldn't work (most ore isn't magnetic).

I'm not a fan of the idea of autonomously flying drones to grab rock chunks for you, as it seems out of place in the lore. Most of the piloting is done manually, and a docking computer, the only automated piloting we've seen is fairly expensive. Drones with the ability to pilot themselves and grab moving objects, then dock back with your ship should be at least as expensive as a docking computer, probably more for each one.

 

[Wullail]

A minor thing but something that COULD be done immediately to help with mining is.

If I mine a fragment of a mineral/metal that I don't have in a hopper already....BUT I have a hopper empty , for BOBS SAKE...don't tell me 'Unallocated Resources' , just PUT IT IN THE EMPTY HOPPER.....

 

[madcheeze]

I had this idea too, all be it on a bigger scale.

you could delpoy an extractor pod, having to align it correctly on the asteroid surface taking in to account of rotation etc.

these pods would be much bigger, ie 16ton or 32ton or scale up to 64+... it contains a refinery also. and it can just fill up for you. so u can fly around in ur t9 or anaconda and deploy several of these then come back once they are done, like fisherman dropping baited cages, deadliest catch style.

but they are vunerable to attack and being stolen...

 

[CMDR IAN NORTON]

I too am wanting an MB4

Yes, I'm missing the idea of an MB4 mining machine too! It would be rather cool. They might also get stolen from time to time too.