[TML] Molding Ships

[Richard Aiken]

On 9/26/07, Timothy Little <tim at little-possums.net> wrote:
> In response to the original question of smelting a spaceship hull in
> situ directly from an asteroid, I don't think that would be either
> easy or economical.  It would be much better to start with hull
> material of controlled composition - and as argued above, that
> material would likely be very cheap indeed.

Someone else was posting - in the related thread, I think - that
nickel iron asteroids are almost certainly solid nickel iron, except
for a few traces of heavier elements.  Yet another person mentioned
plasma differentiation.  Could we heat up the asteroid enough to
seperate out everything but the iron and nickel as part of the
production process?

> Of course, most hulls in Traveller aren't going to be ordinary steel.
> So: what methods are used for producing superdense hulls?  :)

Eh.  I'm with Leonard on this, I think.  Superdense just doesn't make
sense as a construction material.  It was a fine plot device in the H.
Beam Piper books, but I'm been pounded with too much science from this
list since then.  :P

-- 
Richard Aiken

"Never insult anyone by accident."  Robert A. Heinlein