Mint class Mining Drone

Mint class Mining Drone
Mining: difficult + dangerous + dreary = drone
Type: UDG Mining Vessel
Category	Smallcraft
Size	10 Tons
Hull Configuration	Planetoid Hull
Streamlining	Planetoid Hull
Tech Level	TL–12
Engineering
Computer	Model/5
Jump	J-0
Maneuver	1 G
Armaments
Hardpoints	0
Accommodations
Staterooms	0
Personnel
Crew	0
High/Mid Passengers	0
Payload
Cargo	0.1 Tons
Fuel tank	0 Tons
Construction
Origin	Second Imperium
Manufacturer	various
Year Operational	-2148
End of Service	Examples still operate post-Collapse
Price
Cost	MCr11.9655. MCr10.76895 in quantity.
Architect fee	MCrAdrian Tymes
Statistics
Quick Ship Profile	UG-1P10
Images
Blueprint	Yes
Illustration	No
Source
Also see	Industrial Vessel
Canon	Published, fan design
Era	Second Imperium
Reference	EXTERNAL LINK: MGT Forums
Designed with Mongoose Traveller High Guard rules, but portable to other versions.

The Mint class Mining Drone is a Mining Vessel.

• It is a drone.
• It is commonly found in a swarm with examples of the Fuelbag, Icepick, Quarter Hammer, System Defense Brick, and Zip drone classes.

Description (Specifications)

Mints are simple automated mining drones. Given a large enough surveyed planetoid, a Mint extracts an average of 18 tons of ore per day using its laser drill, of which it refines 1 ton into a half of raw materials suitable for constructing more drones (or other structures, such as fuel depots). They are often deployed in swarms, but even one is enough to get depot construction started. It is capable of repairing itself and other drones in its swarm, so long as it has design files. Fully half of a Mint is its refinery; sometimes they just refine what they have mined for long stretches, to enable repairs or construction.

The claw-equipped tow cable is most often used as a frog-like tongue, launched at a small chunk of ore the laser drill has blasted free, latching on, retracting, and depositing the nugget in the smelter, to be processed or just to be quickly cleaned of impurities. Actually towing large bodies is usually reserved for sending fused-together caches of raw ore or materials into an unpowered transfer orbit near (but never on a direct intercept course with) a local inhabited planet, which will have boats capable of intercepting and deorbiting the bounty. Alternately, some Mints arrange their output for direct pickup by merchant ships who either broadcast a pre-approved identifier to, or arrange payment via, the swarm's System Defense Bricks. Payment is often at a discount given the volume of output and the distance from an inhabited world, though regular discounts on millions of tons of ore and raw materials draws the concern - sometimes expressed as legal or marketing pressure, sometimes as pirates - of competing mining interests.

Image Repository

Not available at this time.

General Description & Deck Plans

1. Deck Plans for this vessel.
   

These plans also show data for the Fuelbag, Icepick, Quarter Hammer, System Defense Brick, and Zip classes.

Basic Ship Characteristics

Following the Imperial Navy and IISS Universal Ship Profile and data, additional information is presented in the format shown here

Basic Ship Characteristics
No.	Category	Remarks
1.	Tonnage / Hull	Tonnage: 10 tons (standard). 140 cubic meters. Planetoid Hull. Dimensions: Maximum - 6 m by 6 m by 6 m.
2.	Crew	Crew: no sophonts. Software provides virtual Pilot and virtual Gunner.
3.	Performance	Acceleration: 1-G maneuver drive installed. No jump drive.
4.	Electronics	Model/5.
5.	Hardpoints	Too small for hardpoints. 1 firmpoint.
6.	Armament	1 laser drill, not recommended for combat.
7.	Defenses	None. Usually reliant on other drones in the swarm, or working so remotely that no pirate finds it.
8.	Craft	None (besides itself). With no crew, vacc suits and Rescue Balls are not normally carried.
9.	Fuel Treatment	It is not equipped with a fuel purification plant or fuel scoops.
10.	Cost	MCr11.9655. MCr10.76895 in quantity. (The architect's fees were amortized long ago.) Known to high precision after extensive manufacture by Quarter Hammers.
11.	Construction Time	12 days standard, 9 in quantity. Quarter Hammers (which construct the majority of this type) build one at a time, and thus use the standard rate.
12.	Remarks	A classic self-running mining drone.

History & Background (Dossier)

See Quarter Hammer class Construction Drone, which Mints were created to assist.

While the Quarter Hammer project never caught on, small scale automated belt mining exists in locations across Charted Space. Several of these efforts either use Mints or designs virtually identical to it. Most large scale belt mining efforts use sophont crewed ships instead.

Class Naming Practice/s & Peculiarities

Mints are almost always known by numerical identifiers. Most Mints are never individually addressed by anything other than the computer coordinating their drone swarm, and thus only nominally even have an identifier in any sophont language.

Selected Variant Types & Classes

Civilian Ship - Utility Craft - Drone:

• Type UDG class Industrial Smallcraft
  • Mint class Mining Drone

References & Contributors (Sources)

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This article is missing content for one or more detailed sections. Additional details are required to complete the article. You can help the Traveller Wiki by expanding it.

This list of sources was used by the Traveller Wiki Editorial Team and individual contributors to compose this article. Copyrighted material is used under license from Mongoose Publishing or by permission of the author. The page history lists all of the contributions.

• Marc Miller, Frank Chadwick, John Harshman. High Guard (Game Designers Workshop, 1980), 20-37. (Design Sequence Used)
• EXTERNAL LINK: An Alphabet of Ships
• Traveller Wiki Editorial Team
• Author & Contributor: Adrian Tymes