New Module: Engineering/Manfacturing
Nov 1, 2016 20:59:55 GMT
argonbalt, Durandal, and 6 more like this
Post by Pttg on Nov 1, 2016 20:59:55 GMT
One major advantage of manned ships is that they can provide maintenance and repair of their vessel. However, many missions might include months of drifting during which crews currently appear to play solitaire. The addition of a "manufacturing" module which produces replacement parts from feedstock and scrap would make the crews of vessels dramatically more useful on long missions. The blog mentioned that manufacturing uses additive approaches (3D printing) and has a fairly high precision. On the other hand, chemical processes are clearly not an option, nor would we expect ships to produce artificial isotopes or otherwise refine radioactives. Therefore, consider the following:
A manufacturing module is a high-energy system. The most energy-intensive part of any industrial operation will not greatly exceed the melting point of any solids being worked, and one can equip a ship with low-powered machining tools if it only needs to work with low-temperature materials. Therefore, the main features of a manufacturing module are the composition of the tools it carries, the coolant it will use, and the energy budget it has for its melting/cutting tools. A secondary attribute of the manufacturing module is its work envelope, which is presumably slightly smaller than the module's own dimensions.
The crew presumably takes components from the manufacturing module and installs them in the ship. Since most modules are made up of smaller components, the entire module need not fit inside the work envelope, just the entire component being worked on. If a hole is punched through a thrust bell, only the bell need be replaced, not the reactor, gimble, etc.
Naturally, constructing replacement components requires the materials. While some materials can be collected by scavenging (i.e., if your ship has three damaged NTRs, the crew might be able to construct two working NTRs), a cargo hold carrying useful materials may be wise. Replacement armor materials, laser crystals, or simply spare aluminum, all could be stored in a raw form in cargo holds.
Not every ship would require these systems; rather, a tender with a manufacturing module and cargo might follow military craft. However, such a ship is useless while actively in combat unless it has, for instance, a laser to take advantage of its power supply. Defending, or attacking, maintenance tenders seems a natural goal for military spacecraft.
A manufacturing module is a high-energy system. The most energy-intensive part of any industrial operation will not greatly exceed the melting point of any solids being worked, and one can equip a ship with low-powered machining tools if it only needs to work with low-temperature materials. Therefore, the main features of a manufacturing module are the composition of the tools it carries, the coolant it will use, and the energy budget it has for its melting/cutting tools. A secondary attribute of the manufacturing module is its work envelope, which is presumably slightly smaller than the module's own dimensions.
The crew presumably takes components from the manufacturing module and installs them in the ship. Since most modules are made up of smaller components, the entire module need not fit inside the work envelope, just the entire component being worked on. If a hole is punched through a thrust bell, only the bell need be replaced, not the reactor, gimble, etc.
Naturally, constructing replacement components requires the materials. While some materials can be collected by scavenging (i.e., if your ship has three damaged NTRs, the crew might be able to construct two working NTRs), a cargo hold carrying useful materials may be wise. Replacement armor materials, laser crystals, or simply spare aluminum, all could be stored in a raw form in cargo holds.
Not every ship would require these systems; rather, a tender with a manufacturing module and cargo might follow military craft. However, such a ship is useless while actively in combat unless it has, for instance, a laser to take advantage of its power supply. Defending, or attacking, maintenance tenders seems a natural goal for military spacecraft.