Robo-miner for clearing Regolith

[Gurgel]

I did some experiments with it and here is what I found. Add your observations please.

1. You have to have 3 tiles protection above left and right or it can get buried and becomes non-functional. Regolith splash 3 tiles below the shield is rare but apparently can happen. I had one in 35 cycles. With that, the miner clears exactly 4 tiles left and right, which is one bunker door. That means you can keep two adjacent bunker doors cleared. Should be enough for rocketry, I think.

2. You have to cool it, as it does not exchange heat with the tiles it stands on in vaccum (not tested with the patch from 30 minutes ago). I found that dripping some water on it works well. I just use the pwater from the lavatories, which I pump into space anyways.

Here is my current set-up. It includes what I have learned so far, but is itself not yet longer-term tested:

[chemie]

What are you trying to achieve in that screen shot?  Why not just have a continuous blast tile ceiling rather than 6 tiles shield and 3 tiles open to mine.

[Gurgel]

First, it is 4 tiles open to mine. And second, what would I mine with a full shield?

[chemie]

but why do you need to mine that area?  With blast doors, it makes sense but with a blast tile floor, I dont understand unless you actually want regolth

[Zarquan]

Personally, I haven't actually played the new update yet.  But I was under the impression that the autominer could be placed upside down on a ceiling.  Can you place then on the bottom of your bunker doors, then let the regolith fall and autodig it?  Or am I misinformed?  I suppose the main problem with that is that if the doors were closed, the solar panels wouldn't work...  But I think we should be able to build on pneumatic doors anyway and I believe those let light through.

[Gurgel]

14 minutes ago, chemie said:

but why do you need to mine that area?  With blast doors, it makes sense but with a blast tile floor, I dont understand unless you actually want regolth

It is an experiment. It tests two things: Getting iron (not regolith) and trying it out for eventual use with blast-doors. 

11 minutes ago, Zarquan said:

But I was under the impression that the autominer could be placed upside down on a ceiling. 

You can mount it in all 4 directions. But in space, how do you cool it then?

[Mariilyn]

It would be nice if we could build the robo-miner on the background walls.

[Craigjw]

So, has anyone actually found a use for the robo miner yet?

[SharraShimada]

1 tile left and right overlapping is enough. If you are higher on the map, even a simple roof over the 2 tiles occupied by the miner itself is sufficient. 

And insulated tiles are enough. Make it from ceramic or other real insulaters. That way the miner itselt wont heat much. Build if from steal, if you dont have (yet) access to higher tier mats. It will never reach 300+°C. 

 

In your setup, the top bunker-walls transfer heat down all the way via your backwall-tiles. The top will heat up from new regolith, and your miner will brake due to heat transfer.

[Neotuck]

On 10/12/2018 at 4:36 PM, Gurgel said:

But in space, how do you cool it then?

I did an experiment way back that cools them by allowing them to be temperately buried in regolith 

the cooling comes from a layor of tempshift plates and underneath the glass, regolith acts like a thermal bridge between the glass, tempshift plates, and robo-miner

It's true they will be nonfunctional when buried so you would have to have another robo-miner in range to dig it out it

note: the robo-miners, sweepers, and loaders need to be made of steel so they don't overheat from the 200C+ regolith

1 hour ago, Craigjw said:

So, has anyone actually found a use for the robo miner yet?

3 so far

keeping solar panels clear

ranching shove voles

cooking dirt

[shanemadden]

Radiant pipe of something hard to boil running behind the miners should do the job for cooling, no?

I'm just getting there in my current map so it's not all the way built yet but having one protected miner where it won't get buried providing coverage for another, and just building a miner chain from there with overlapping areas seems to work.

[Neotuck]

5 minutes ago, shanemadden said:

Radiant pipe of something hard to boil running behind the miners should do the job for cooling, no?

In a vacuum? no...

[shanemadden]

32 minutes ago, Neotuck said:

In a vacuum? no...

Bummer, I was thinking buildings directly interacted with pipes for some reason.

Adding a gas to the mix will just cut down on light levels.. there has to be a clever way to do this.

[Neotuck]

5 minutes ago, shanemadden said:

there has to be a clever way to do this.

did you see my pics in my first reply?

[crypticorb]

1 hour ago, Neotuck said:

I did an experiment way back that cools them by allowing them to be temperately buried in regolith 

the cooling comes from a layor of tempshift plates and underneath the glass, regolith acts like a thermal bridge between the glass, tempshift plates, and robo-miner

It's true they will be nonfunctional when buried so you would have to have another robo-miner in range to dig it out it

note: the robo-miners, sweepers, and loaders need to be made of steel so they don't overheat from the 200C+ regolith

Is regolith always within the 275C overheat range of a steel building? I haven't experimented much with the surface since starting a new base for space industry.

[Neotuck]

1 minute ago, crypticorb said:

Is regolith always within the 275C overheat range of a steel building? I haven't experimented much with the surface since starting a new base for space industry.

yes, from what I have seen regolith is near 200C average by the time it falls on the buildings, and the super cold glass and tempshift plates cool the regolith quickly

[Sasza22]

27 minutes ago, crypticorb said:

Is regolith always within the 275C overheat range of a steel building?

I had scenarios where regolith was slightly above it. It can go as high as 300^oC but usually stays below 275^oC.

With proper automation i never had my robo miners get heated by regolith when put at the bottom of an autmoated airlock. The issue is their passive heat production. It will make them overheat eventually unless you cool it down somehow. Even if it`s made form steel.

[Neotuck]

2 minutes ago, Sasza22 said:

I had scenarios where regolith was slightly above it. It can go as high as 300^oC but usually stays below 275^oC.

With proper automation i never had my robo miners get heated by regolith when put at the bottom of an autmoated airlock. The issue is their passive heat production. It will make them overheat eventually unless you cool it down somehow. Even if it`s made form steel.

this can be fixed by building it out of Niobium or Thermium but that will get expensive 

[Sasza22]

Just now, Neotuck said:

this can be fixed by building it out of Niobium or Thermium but that will get expensive 

In theory it would still overheat without contact with anything. It would just take like 1000 cycles for it to reach 975^oC. And you could use regolith to cool it down.

[Neotuck]

Just now, Sasza22 said:

without contact with anything

that's why regolith is so important for my build

in the unlikely event that 275C+ regolith does fall on it the damage would be minimal and easy to repair  

[crypticorb]

25 minutes ago, Neotuck said:

that's why regolith is so important for my build

in the unlikely event that 275C+ regolith does fall on it the damage would be minimal and easy to repair  

A fair point. Steel is a fairly easily renewable resource once you are to the point of space exploration, so as long as maintenance access is available, your build should be permanently sustainable.

[GemeinerJack]

it most likely is not the end solution, i just wanted a setup and forget system there first

[Rainbowdesign]

Its like coming with a gun to a knifefight - unfair to the competing people :D...

But just i cannot resist.

 

This is my setup:

 

 

[crypticorb]

8 hours ago, Rainbowdesign said:

Its like coming with a gun to a knifefight - unfair to the competing people :D...

But just i cannot resist.

 

This is my setup:

Mods?

[Neotuck]

12 minutes ago, crypticorb said:

Mods?

"Laser Miner"