Next Bolthole devellopment

Those temporary and mobile ship docks and repair facilities. While they won't be useful for long term construction, could they be used to build up such facilities?

In theory you could build an entire Catapillar factory starting with the machine tools in a high school shop class. In practice it would not be easy.

David's whole "never mind" as to there being an long term effects on Manticore or the RMN from having their entire industrial infrastructure and everyone who manned it blown up doesn't impress me. It was problem for almost two chapters.... uh, why bother?

SYED wrote:Those temporary and mobile ship docks and repair facilities. While they won't be useful for long term construction, could they be used to build up such facilities?

I think that was the game plan. One builds modules in Beowulf hauls them to Manticore, assembles several modules on the dock bed then hauls the pieces close to the permanent location and starts final assembly. Alternately position the repair ship at permanent location then move it to the new location. Not sure which would be most efficient.

WeirdlyWired wrote:

SYED wrote:Those temporary and mobile ship docks and repair facilities. While they won't be useful for long term construction, could they be used to build up such facilities?

I think that was the game plan. One builds modules in Beowulf hauls them to Manticore, assembles several modules on the dock bed then hauls the pieces close to the permanent location and starts final assembly. Alternately position the repair ship at permanent location then move it to the new location. Not sure which would be most efficient.

Beowulf is on the other side of the WH, as is Gregor. You can move a truly huge object through the WH. IIRC, over cubic km in size. And Gregor and Beowulf are fully industrialized planets capable of building pretty much anything that Manticore can.

So there is no need to build small modules, you build huge structures and then move them through the WH using strap on sails and tugs for the ten minutes it takes.

kzt wrote:

WeirdlyWired wrote:
I think that was the game plan. One builds modules in Beowulf hauls them to Manticore, assembles several modules on the dock bed then hauls the pieces close to the permanent location and starts final assembly. Alternately position the repair ship at permanent location then move it to the new location. Not sure which would be most efficient.

Beowulf is on the other side of the WH, as is Gregor. You can move a truly huge object through the WH. IIRC, over cubic km in size. And Gregor and Beowulf are fully industrialized planets capable of building pretty much anything that Manticore can.

So there is no need to build small modules, you build huge structures and then move them through the WH using strap on sails and tugs for the ten minutes it takes.

The best idea would probably be to construct several massive module factories then transport them through the wormhole and install them in Manticore. Then using Manticore's intact and underutilized extraction industry, pump out manufacturing modules assembly line style on the new module factories. Meanwhile, everyone else concentrates on constructing the non-standard bits.

SYED wrote:Those temporary and mobile ship docks and repair facilities. While they won't be useful for long term construction, could they be used to build up such facilities?

WeirdlyWired wrote:I think that was the game plan. One builds modules in Beowulf hauls them to Manticore, assembles several modules on the dock bed then hauls the pieces close to the permanent location and starts final assembly. Alternately position the repair ship at permanent location then move it to the new location. Not sure which would be most efficient.

kzt wrote:Beowulf is on the other side of the WH, as is Gregor. You can move a truly huge object through the WH. IIRC, over cubic km in size. And Gregor and Beowulf are fully industrialized planets capable of building pretty much anything that Manticore can.

So there is no need to build small modules, you build huge structures and then move them through the WH using strap on sails and tugs for the ten minutes it takes.

If I remember correctly, this is basically the tactic they used to build the forts at the Lynx terminus. Build big modules, ship them through the wormhole, bolt them together when they arrived.

The fly in this particular ointment is that Manticore has (or had) proprietary micro-miniaturization technology and extremely well tuned manufacturing technology that nobody else could match, and that the MAlign hadn't managed to pry loose for their own use. I don't see them having shared this with the Andermani. Beowulf, quite possibly, since they seem to have been able to plug the plans into their manufacturing infrastructure and start cranking out things like recon drones, mini-fusion plants, missiles, Keyhole II modules and so forth practically from a standing start.

If we're looking for a tech advance, here's an idea. The grav pulses that are used for FTL communications propagate along the hyper wall to the next higher hyper band. (Let's leave the question of what a "hyper wall" is for some other thread.)

Why can't you do the same in the lower wall? You've got to be able to do something with it in order to shift downward after all, so it's not like it's invisible or anything.

That would let you communicate between adjacent hyper bands without having to have a shuttle bobbing up and down like a duck.

JohnRoth wrote:If we're looking for a tech advance, here's an idea. The grav pulses that are used for FTL communications propagate along the hyper wall to the next higher hyper band. (Let's leave the question of what a "hyper wall" is for some other thread.)

Why can't you do the same in the lower wall? You've got to be able to do something with it in order to shift downward after all, so it's not like it's invisible or anything.

That would let you communicate between adjacent hyper bands without having to have a shuttle bobbing up and down like a duck.

FTL comm pulses don't penetrate the hyper wall. Otherwise, they wouldn't need to use DDs or dispatch boats to summon ambush forces lurking in hyperspace.

The pulses merely ripple along the wall. Two reasons they might not use the lower wall: there isn't a "subspace" available in normal space and I suspect whilst in hyperspace, the lower band might propgate those ripples more slowly than the higher one would.

JohnRoth wrote:The fly in this particular ointment is that Manticore has (or had) proprietary micro-miniaturization technology and extremely well tuned manufacturing technology that nobody else could match, and that the MAlign hadn't managed to pry loose for their own use. I don't see them having shared this with the Andermani. Beowulf, quite possibly, since they seem to have been able to plug the plans into their manufacturing infrastructure and start cranking out things like recon drones, mini-fusion plants, missiles, Keyhole II modules and so forth practically from a standing start.

They gave the Andies the whole tech package for the Mk-23 and Apollo and a contact team to help them put them put it production after OB per David at Honorcon I.

SYED wrote:Those temporary and mobile ship docks and repair facilities. While they won't be useful for long term construction, could they be used to build up such facilities?

I still think the Alliance should hit Yildun and take out the Technodyn facilities there. In this case, "take out" means tugs and freighters, and haul the surviving ones (after another interesting battle) back to Manticore.

Yes, I do have ideas on how to do that, but that would be fanfic.

-- Bob G