Building Spotlight - The Extractor
Building Spotlight - The Extractor
Design and engineering for space
Mining is what keeps the in-game economy stocked with precious materials so all Adalians can survive, thrive, and expand their influence throughout the belt.
The Extractor is a key component to keeping the colony stocked and growing.
Design Brief
The Extractor enables ores to be mined from the asteroid surface and target raw materials to be separated from the gangue and packaged for retrieval by hoppers.
The Extractor has three main sections: a fixed portion and two movable sections, connected by flexible tubes.
The fixed portion is anchored by the centrifugal separator, the battery bank, and the raw material output container racks, all of which have a shotcrete footing to keep debris down and give them a firm attachment point.
The main movable section is the Extractor itself: a ~100m tall tower which can use RCS thrusters to position itself over an ore lode as discovered by Core Sampling. When positioned, foot augers partially secure it to the ground, and hold-down cables are also drilled in and tensioned to make sure the Extractor can stay attached to the asteroid in the near-zero-gravity environment.
At the top of the Extractor are photovoltaic panels which harvest starlight and power the entire building.
The bulk of the building is composed of various drilling and grinding machinery, which can slide up and down on linear actuators to reach deeper into the ground and help bring material back up. At the base of the Extractor is a debris shield which is attached to the ground and ensures the chaotic mess of rocks and dust from mining in microgravity does not escape from the dig site to damage machinery or become a risk to passing spacecraft.
Material that is excavated is blown into the ore tube with nitrogen gas, where it travels to the fixed portion.
The other movable section is the tailings pile: another flexible tube leads from the centrifugal separator to a very large fabric tarp which is attached to the ground and confines the tailings into a rough pile shape, again to prevent them from escaping and causing havoc. The nitrogen which carries the tailings in then escapes around the edges of the tarp.
Features
PV Panels: Supply power for the Excavator
RCS Thruster System: Enable the Excavator to maneuver around the site to the location of ore deposits
Hold-down cables: help hold the Excavator to the surface while mining
Foot augers: help hold the Excavator to the surface while mining
Fabric debris shield: covers the top of the mine pit, while letting through various drilling pipes and machinery, to keep debris from escaping the mine. Ore is passed out of the mine up through one of the pipes.
Supervisor hab: The Extractor is almost entirely automated, but Miners and Engineers are still needed from time to time to supervise certain operations, especially when the Excavator is being repositioned to a new mining location based on the findings of a new core sample. They can supervise operations from this space equivalent of the construction office trailer.
Battery bank: This stores power so the Extractor can operate at night.
Raw material output container racks: the raw material leaves the separator and is blown straight into shipping containers in this rack. Hoppers can collect those containers at any time. They have a limited storage capacity, like all buildings.
Centrifugal separator: This performs rough centrifugal separation and concentration of the target raw material from the gangue (tailings), via several possible industrial techniques.
Tailings pile: a large flexible tarp, fixed to the ground at the edges, which the tailings are blown under, preventing them from going everywhere and becoming a hazard. When the tarp is ‘full’, it can be moved to a new location, leaving behind a tailings pile.
Flexible crushed ore tube and electrical cable: This connects the mobile section of the Extractor to the fixed section. Ore travels down it in a stream of nitrogen gas. Power from the photovoltaic panels also travels to and from the batteries this way.
Drill rig motors and nitrogen fluidization system: Provides motive force for the excavation operation. A lot more machinery is actually not visible below the debris shield - there are several drills, cutting blades, and robotic arms to cut, gather, crush, and deliver material out of the mine. The drill rig motors visible on the surface help power these.
Previous mine pit and tailings pile: The Extractor moves around from place to place, leaving behind large open pits and tailings piles. Miraculously, these never seem to actually fill up the entire lot!
Early renders and sketches
