A New Metal
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| As a handy rule of thumb, you can roughly tell how production is doing based off of the belts. If the belts are full, like in this case, that means production is greater than usage |
Metals are an amazing material and are almost the sign of humans and their drive to subjugate the natural. Metals are so integral to how society works and the advantages it gives humans that early history can be roughly split into ages based off of the metals that are widely used at the time. You start with copper, a soft and easily smelted metal that nonetheless can be useful as in tools or weapons. It doesn't take long at all for people to start experimenting with alloys, with bronze bearing special mention for being a large improvement and seeing usage well into the gunpowder age. Next came iron, a metal that required increased heat and one that was worse than bronze in most aspects, except for cost. Never underestimate how much cost can influence the effects of a material.
Steel is a special metal. It's technically an alloy, and humans have been technically using it almost as long as we've had iron. Costs and quality concerns kept steel from seeing widespread usage, but we still knew of it and intentionally used it. But knowledge moved on, and humans learned better methods for steel production and created an age that might have been known as the steel age - if not for all the other advances that were being made at the same time. A general knowledge of chemistry and metalworking allowed for multiple types of steel that we could use. New metals we could access with a knowledge of chemistry and electricity, such as the cheap usage of aluminum. Or other synthetic materials like semi-conductors and gases.
History lesson aside, I'm interested in only three different metals: iron, copper, and titanium. Iron serves the bulk of my needs, especially early on. It's strong, and works well as a building material, while also serving as a great magnet when needed. Copper's soft and conductive, and therefore useful for anything involving electricity. Then there's titanium, which lacks the raw strength of steel, but is so much stronger for weight which is absolutely a characteristic I will require. I can combine the three to suit my needs too. Need more strength? Steel. Strength with low weight? Titanium steel.
Annoyingly, there's no titanium on my starting world. If I want some of this great metal, I'll need to do some traveling.
The First Spaceflight
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| With lots of silicon and copper, this world will also be fantastic for producing computer parts |
Enter Zibel 1. It doesn't have the most titanium, but it is close and with an atmosphere allowing for wind turbines. Perfect place to nab some titanium. Conveniently, I've recently upgraded the Icarus's thrusters for interplanetary flight. "Sailing" is the term we use for it, as it's not quite rocketry, but similar.
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| Units and distances not at all to scale. |
Thankfully the two planets are relatively close to each other so the trip doesn't take very long. I'm an engineer and not a physicist so I'm not entirely sure how the sailing process works, but in effect I pour a lot (and I do mean a lot) of energy in and get a fairly steady speed out.
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| This is listed as a "rocky salt lake" planet. There's zero water. It's great for ease of building. |
Welcome to Zibel 1! It's pretty dull, I've gotta say. offwhite to red are the only colors here, but I didn't come here for sightseeing. I came here for titanium. Now I could certainly start harvesting other materials while I'm here. This planet has silicon and copper in high quantities, which would make it perfect for producing computing parts. But, I don't yet have any way of getting those materials back to Zibel 3 outside of carrying it via the Icarus, and I'd far prefer to have something automated first. And wouldn't you know it, but a light and strong metal like titanium would be perfect for objects meant to fly.
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| These are the only titanium veins on the entire planet |
A flurry of construction later, and I have titanium bars being produced for transport back to the boostrap base. While they're producing, I'll give Icarus time to recharge for the flight back as well. Man, you'd think traveling to new worlds would be more exciting than this, but sadly not. Dull is the word of the day here. But not for long. Hopefully.
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