** Author's Note: This update is a bit haphazard, I will try to get things a little more structured going forward, but the history is a little 'uneven' right now and seems to defy attempts at easy organization.**Continued Inner-System Surveys(2130-2137)As far as the Prospector was concerned, going beyond the moon meant taking into more consideration the fuel needed for an extended journey in space. Even with a maximum-efficiency thruster going at a minimal velocity of about 100 km/s, considerable space inside the probe would be needed. Luna itself was pretty easy; it could be reached in just over an hour. Best estimates on travel time to the other major bodies in the system were as follows:
Venus -- almost 5 days
Mars -- A little over 9 days
Mercury -- 10.6 days
Jupiter -- 73 days
Saturn -- 148 days
Uranus -- 316 days
Neptune -- 503 days
The longer a trip was, the more sacrifice would need to be made in terms of the size of geosurvey sensors onboard -- and therefore, more fuel required for a longer operational duration. The initial readout of Earth's mineral reserves, as completed in November 2030, reported the following:
Duranium -- 1.27 mt, 100%
Neutronium -- 866 kt, 60%
Corbomite -- 1.06 mt, 60%
Tritanium -- 1.42 mt, 40%
Boronide -- 447 kt, 60%
Mercassium -- 1.44 mt, 40%
Vendarite -- 504 kt, 60%
Sorium -- 989 kt, 100%
Uridium -- 496 kt, 50%
Corundium -- 1.39 mt, 100%
Gallicite -- 417 kt, 90%
It is estimated that, at current techniques each manhour involved in mining operations might eventually produce as much as a little over a 40th a pound of refined ore per year. Clearly a massive effort would be required. This fact only intensified the debate about who would control these resources. The IRC, the UN, various nations and regional authorities around the world, and multinational corporations all naturally chose 'us' as their preferred solution. There was considerable concern voiced about the IRC gaining too much power if they were given a monopoly; nobody wanted an autocratic, single body effectively forming their own global government. Their technical expertise would be required, however.
While the back-and-forth on these issues raged, Sullivan was at work using the 'dead time' to finish research on more fuel-efficient thrusters, research that was begun nearly a century ago and then mothballed. The data is still there however, and it didn't take long to resurrect it. This was merely to make use of the time though. Two things were obvious to all sides; an agreement needed to be reached quickly, since further progress in use of the TN minerals could not happen without it and the public would not tolerate such inaction. Secondly, no one faction had the necessary resources. Only the corporate sector had the necessary investment capital for large-scale mining, refining, and fabrication operations, which would require a massive initial outlay and large-scale investment for the forseeable future. At the same time, only the IRC had the technical expertise. Resulting from this was an arrangement which hearkened back to the concept of eminent domain. The IRC was given the authority to purchase, subject to UN approval, whatever amounts of refined ore their needs required at fair market value up to 70% of available stockpiles. In exchange, they would provide technical, consulting assistance to multi-national corporations in developing these resources, including any related scientific advances that may come about in the future. Any nation or corporation that refused such an accomodation would be cut off from the IRC's support, which all of them needed desperately and they knew it. With the UN acting as a theoretically impartial observer and broker of these terms, in 2031 initial efforts to harvest significant quantities of the ores was begun. At first, the rate of employment in the new high-tech industrial industries(mining only at this point) was about two hundred thousand new jobs a year, which isn't even a grain of sand compared to the beach. Compared to a population of about 17.7 billion worldwide, it would take nearly a thousand years to employ just 1%.
In 2132, late November, new improved efficiency thruster concepts completed by Sullivan. On the industrial side, despite the efforts of now nearly a half a million full-time workers, the testing and equipment/facility design phase was still underway. Director Blake was becoming increasingly disturbed at the delays, but there were signs the first tangible results would become viable by spring of the next year. The researchers were thrown into a sort of limbo for the time being. By April of 2133 the first tangible results finally appeared. It was only a few tons, but it was something. The engineers reported that for the most important immediate application, the design of new, more efficient Prospector probes that could visit other bodies in the solar system, they would need more time to study the sorium and refinery techniques. And so the waiting continued. The next year,
Kane Sullivan passed on, a bit early but he was in his early 60s. It appears his lasting contribution will be in the development of the reactors and propulsion systems, but he did not see the Prospector project come to full intended fruition.
Just a couple months after Sulllivan's passing, in June of 2134, the first-ever sorium refinery operations got underway, with an annual capacity estimated at twenty thousand liters initially. By early July, there was more than plenty to spare and initial testing showed it to be of good enough quality to begin testing a new engine combining the improved fuel with the latest in propulsion efficiency understanding. Unfortunately the power required mandated some sacrifice in terms of fuel consumption. Attitude issues or not,
Zoe Fry was the only candidate for the job, having improved herself markedly. A full million were now employed in TN-related activities, with a mineral stockpile of over 100 tons and an extraction rate over 150 tons annually. Of the current proven deposits, gallicite possessed has the lowest exhaustion timer, over 22 thousand years' supply at current extraction rates, most of which was being stored, not used. There was no need to worry about a lack of raw material for the forseeable future.
Prospector DesignsWith the new thrusters available and more than sufficient sorium fuel being produced, the Prospector Project was finally fully underway. The new probe design was essentially a balance between the fuel needed to ensure it would have power long enough to complete it's mission, and also report back it's findings before shutting down, and having as large a scanner possible in order to provide enough power to complete the surveying itself.
Two versions were actually designed. The standard one was intended to survey the larger bodies of the inner system: Luna, Mercury, Venus, and Mars primarily. Like the original that did the initial scan of Earth, it was a maximum-size, 60-ton rocket. The second version, known as the 'M' variant -- the M representing it's minaturized size, some took to calling it simply the 'mini' -- would have just a single booster instead of three, and handle much smaller targets like the moons of Mars, asteroids, or any local comets. The Prospector M was, as a result, a fraction of the cost and size at under 20 tons.
A more long-term goal was a package capable of getting past the asteroid belt and reaching the many moons of Jupiter and Saturn as well as the gas giants themselves, and perhaps even Neptune and Uranus. But first things first. Getting results from all the major inner-system bodies and a representative cross-section of the smaller ones would give the IRC a much better idea of how common mineral deposits were beyond Earth, and what, if any, future survey activities were justified.
Lacking any real rocketry specialists as of yet, Blake again turned to the man who has become his premier researcher, 43-year-old
Alexander Donnelly, in order to hammer out the prototypes. The standard Prospector would come first, and it took only months to complete them. Five standard probes were begun, at a total cost of 230 million; a dozen of the mini-Prospectors would mean another 156 million. A miniscule cost in the grand scheme of things. And then the question was, what to do with the research department? A break of some years was expected, but not long enough to do any kind of major economics research yet.
Adam Doherty was back in the mix for some uridium-based work on the possibility of detecting uncharted gravitational disturbances in space. Near-earth collison and other similar needs made this a field that interested a fairly broad spectrum of interests.
In July, after confirmation of sufficient fuel quantity and purity was made, the first Prospector was ready to go, and as it happens, Mars was in nearly the perfect position, something that happens only once every few years. It was an easy decision, and the launch occurred on the morning of July 6. In less than two weeks it was on station, and all that remained was to wait for results, which would take months.
Mars was not the only iron in the fire though. By mid-September a second Prospector was finished and sent on it's way to Mercury. This was the longest journey at around 100 million miles, but the real resource hog was still the scanning operation.
About a week later, a stupid error by Flight Control at CTMSS, and the Mars Prospector was sent off course, out of orbit, aborting it's scan. It could not be salvaged, and a new probe would be needed. Good thing a spare was built! The planets were no longer in alignment though, so it would have to wait some while.
**In actuality, I messed up and deleted the wrong waypoint, causing the probe to just hang out well behind Mars in it's orbit. It's still there **In December, the third Prospector was launched, this one headed on the trip to the moon which would take just over an hour for the transit. This ought to be child's play ... if the beauracrats could manage to send the right telemetry data, that is. Up through year's end all appeared to be going well ... but there was still no completion messages from either Mercury or Luna, so nobody could be certain.
As 2136 began, there were now two million employed in the mining and refining operations, 357 tons of minerals and almost 28k liters of fuel in storage and production increasing all the time. The third side of the triangle, manufacturing, has been silent but now gets into gear working on adding capacity for building the probes faster. It'll take three years at the current rate to see any real increase, but there will be need for similar projects down the road almost certainly. By mid-January, the Mercury Prospector reported back, the first to complete it's assigned mission! And not only that, but it confirms Earth is not the only source of suitable deposits.
** 1.22 mt duranium(0.5)
** 193 kt mercassium(0.5)
** 263 kt vendarite(0.4)
** 688 kt uridium(0.1)
** 3.62 mt gallicite(0.7)
So, just under half of the relevant ores are present here. Combined, mining here would be between a third and a quarter as productive as on Earth. The big news here is the amount of gallicite -- not quite as accessible as that found on Earth, but almost nine times the amount. Of course, such considerations make the rather large leap that it would even be possible. If Director Blake immediately ordered a mission to do so, it couldn't be carried out. There'd be no way to either transport the necessary equipment and manpower, nor house those needed to operate it. A ground team would need to be sent first for more specifics and confirmation. There is in fact no guarantee it will ever be possible. The presence of minerals both on Earth and Mercury suggests that such deposits may be common. If so, there is a chance that more developed space travel may be profitable, with a whole host of implications. But definitely the biggest news here is the scientific aspect, and the fact that the probe worked. The Prospector program will definitely continue in light of this success.
The fourth Prospector was finished in late February. It will be some time before Mars is in position, but Venus is nearly so, and the Mars replacement enters production. Activity resumes at CTMSS as a launch is expected within weeks. Within days, the Luna probe reports back that the moon is barren. This is a considerable disappointment, since this would obviously be the easiest test destination for off-world mining due to it's proximity. Less than weeks later, the Venus Prospector launches. This is the most challenging survey of the group, as Venus requires almost as much effort and time as the Earth to complete. Minimizing travel time, and therefore fuel, was critical. The trip itself takes less than week and is completed successfully, but pretty much the rest of the year will be required for the survey.
In May, the final standard Prospector finished was completed. With Earth now basically directly opposite the Sun from Mars, about as bad of a launching position as it is possible to get. Therefore it would be some time before the second attempt at scanning the red planet commences. The first of a dozen mini-Prospectors were begun, and those would be sent at the closest targets of opportunity as they were completed.
The first such launch happened a month later, with the closest asteroid, Apollo, chosen as the target. Apollo is just two kilometers wide, making a survey of it nearly instantaneous.
The goal of this stage is to do a cross-section of the smaller bodies that are closest to Earth, in order to gain an inkling of the relationship between size and mineral value. A dozen data points is far too few to be conclusive of course, but it is a dozen more than we currently possess. It's just a small sample, a starting point. And Apollo is first. By the end of June, the report came back that Apollo was barren as well. In late September, another tiny asteroid, 'ahead' of Earth in it's orbital path, 2010 TK7, was found to be barren also.
Incoming comet Faye is the next target in October, although the 'M' Prospector probes are being built faster than they are being used at the moment. This proved to be more difficult than expected. The probe overshot the comet and then turned to catch it, but didn't appear to be fast enough to do so. After a few more weeks of pointless chasing, it was clear that a faster probe would be needed to reliably intercept such objects.
2137 started with a bang; the Venus probe returned massive deposits, but most of them highly inaccessible. The total amounts were as follows:
** 30 mt duranium(20%)
** 33.8 mt neutronium(90%)
** 20.1 mt tritanium(10%)
** 26.5 mt mercassium(10%)
** 28.4 mt gallicite(10%)
Massive amounts of all of these compared to Earth, but only neutronium is accessible -- to say nothing of the general inhospitability of Venus as well.
In February, Director Blake decided to sample a couple of 'M' class missions to some of the larger asteroids. The first to be targeted was Cybele, which is near the outside of the asteroid belt at some 515m km from the Sun and was now near closest approach, some 365m or so. Even a 'large' asteroid such as this is only 274 km across, and would require only days for an orbital scan. Before the end of the month, a similarly located, slightly smaller asteroid, Euphrosyne, was targeted as well. This pair of launches figured to be the last until the Earth caught up enough to Mars to give a second attempt at a scan of the red planet. By early March, the last of the current run of Prospector probes was finished. No more are intended for the immediate future.
By the end of March the Cybele probe was on station, and the one headed for Euphrosyne was just a few days out. They still had over half their fuel remaining, no question about the ability to complete their missions. Additionally,
Adam Doherty's team had finished theoretical research into gravitational sensors. Time to find a new direction in terms of research. Commercial application of new construction techniques became the focus once again.
Another week, and the Prospector 'M' chasing the comet Faye ran out of fuel and self-destructed. By the middle of the month, both Cybele and Euprhosyne reported negative results from their scans. Not good news for the prospects of finding deposits of heavy metals on asteroids, as all of the few that have surveyed so far have come up completely empty. Meanwhile, limited supplies of Tritanium are slowing down expansion of the rocket-producing facilities.
A quiet few months later, Earth caught Mars in the orbital alignment, and the final standard Prospector was launched to finish that survey. It arrived on station in Mid-August, and weeks before year's end reported that Mars is barren. This effectively concluded this phase of the Prospector's exploration. Journeying to the outer system and searching additional asteroids closer in is not deemed cost-effective at the present time, given that whatever might be found can't be developed at this point in time anyway, and so far the asteroid results are not encouraging. The IRC's focus is now firmly on coordinating and cooperating with the corporate sector in mining and refining the TN minerals, and any research that might be necessary related to that endeavor.