So, let's say you were an asteroid belt miner, and you specialized in dragging big (but let's say not moon sized, say, 1/4 the size of a star destroyer to give a ballpark idea) rocks back to a mining station for turning into credits.
What ship would be your ideal? Assuming you could modify it as you liked? And what kind of mods would you make to it?
Only caveat is that the asteroid MUST be towed or pushed, it can't be carried internally.
Pretty much anything with a heavy tractor beam should be acceptable.
Temple-Class Heavy Freighter with tractor beams holding asteroids in place rather than their cargo pods. You could even have a miniature refinery/manufacturing complex as one of the pods to process in place.
You're talking about a tugboat, basically, so you need powerful engines and a powerful tractor beam. Also probably good shields.
I wonder, though, is it only for use in a single system? I'm pretty sure you can't drag asteroids through hyperspace. In that case, I'd remove the hyperdrive and add in a dedicated power system for the tractor beams.
Ideally, you'd want a two-ship operation, each one maintaining a tractor on the asteroid, and reducing the load on both vessels. A metal-rich asteroid a quarter the size of a star destroyer probably masses as much, or more, than a star destroyer (which is mostly full of air).
I'd also say that big asteroids would likely be split into smaller chunks through demolition charges and brought back with small to medium ships rather than trying to use huge ships to haul big asteroids whole.
This.
Look at today's pit mining operations. One ot two ridiculouslyrics huge diggers and a fleet of dump trucks hauling rock/ore back to the refinery.
If your mining in an asteroid field.. or such here is how it should go:
A prospector ship takes a core sample and figures out what it is made of. Usually the ship would have some sort of mass detector to find heavier elements. or just finding a rock that is made mostly of water. The prospector ship files a claim, and if it is worth the effort the second stage will happen
A tug will move the rock to the refinery where it is broken up, heated and made into nice ingots for sale. But the mass needs to be worth it. There is no point in moving an asteroid that is hundreds of meters in diameter for a few tons of precious metals.
if the rock is large enough, the prospector can mine for the veins of rare metals himself and sell the ore to the refinery, cutting out the costs of salvaging the whole asteroid. usually some sort of drill would work that would collect the tailing and use some sort of centrifuge to separate the rock from the ore
Ideally, the prospector wants to find small asteroids, with high density
Edited by kinnisonAye, exploitation in place is generally the order of the day. However, this is Star Wars! Cinematic visuals are required. And what's more cinematic than a ship struggling to haul a freaking asteroid through space?!
You just need a small scale death star laser for breaking down the asteroids :B.
Aye, exploitation in place is generally the order of the day. However, this is Star Wars! Cinematic visuals are required. And what's more cinematic than a ship struggling to haul a freaking asteroid through space?!
Well, quite a bit, really. Remember Superman Returns? Hauling a big rock around just isn't all that cinematic when you get down to it.
Aye, exploitation in place is generally the order of the day. However, this is Star Wars! Cinematic visuals are required. And what's more cinematic than a ship struggling to haul a freaking asteroid through space?!
Well, quite a bit, really. Remember Superman Returns? Hauling a big rock around just isn't all that cinematic when you get down to it.
I'll see that and raise you Age of Ultron.
Could use a modified "Juicer" as a rock crusher ship.
Problem with crushing asteroids in space, is everything likes to take separate vacations
I don't think this was the size of miner you were looking for (not intended as a tug even if it can latch on to rocks), but I will throw it in since it was intended for belt miners: