Regolith Miner

[Craigjw]

it's reasonably cost effective on materials.  The Robo-miners don't need to be close to each other to clear themselves.  In this example, I used Gold for the Miners, Sweepers and Loader.  I filled the cavities with Diamond tempshift plates and petrol and cooled using gold radiant pipes.  For the coolant, I used petrol at 30c.  I've not tested it long term, more of a proof of concept really, as I've only just reached turn 500 and don't have glass, solar panels or hundreds of Weezeworts for cooling.

The miners remove regolith from the tiles above the sweepers and loader, while the doors shove the regolith to the side for the sweepers.  The loader needs to be upside down, with it's head immersed in petrol.

I didn't like the idea of having two rows of doors covering the entire width of the map all automated on a timer, and I also didn't like the idea of doubling up robo miners to clear their neighbours.

The idea could be improved upon, perhaps when I get glass and 100's of weezeworts, I can cool some glass and use the regolith as a conduction medium to cool the sweepers and loaders, but I have neither.

Steel sweepers and loaders were tried without using coolant, letting the regolith cover them, but it seems that they eventually overheated.

I'd really like to see improvements on this if anyone has ideas.

Disclaimer.

*1 dupe was harmed in the making of this.

[Coolthulhu]

If all the tiles were made of glass, you could support a solar array.

If all the robot parts were made of thermium, you wouldn't need any cooling.

[Neotuck]

1 minute ago, Coolthulhu said:

If all the robot parts were made of thermium, you wouldn't need any cooling.

how do you figure that?

[Craigjw]

I'm guessing that if they were made of thermium, the regolith would absorb the excess heat generated from operation.  A moot point regardless, as I'm playing on survival and don't have either of these.  I switched to sandbox to make a proof of concept with materials that I do have available.

[Neotuck]

2 minutes ago, Craigjw said:

I'm guessing that if they were made of thermium, the regolith would absorb the excess heat generated from operation.  A moot point regardless, as I'm playing on survival and don't have either of these.  I switched to sandbox to make a proof of concept with materials that I do have available.

steel would be enough for that

and I thought the point of your build was to avoid overlapping the miners

[Coolthulhu]

5 minutes ago, Neotuck said:

steel would be enough for that

Some regolith is hotter than steel overheat temp, meaning you'd still need some cooling.

[Craigjw]

I tried using steel sweepers with a tempshift plate, however they still overheat.  They originally worked, but I noticed that the tiles were acting as the heat buffer between the regolith and sweepers.  After a while, the floor tiles get hot and no longer absorb the heat from the regolith and sweepers.

I think it might be the dust comets, I tested it with many comets, maybe too many, I wanted to be certain it wouldn't break.

What do you mean, the miners don't overlap, they both have their own ranges.  If this is extended to further sets, the sweepers will eventually overlap, as the spacing is different to the miners and would occupy the same space.

[Neotuck]

3 minutes ago, Coolthulhu said:

Some regolith is hotter than steel overheat temp, meaning you'd still need some cooling.

it's rare when that happens, most regolith disperses it's heat below the overheat temp before even toughing the robo miner

I find it cheaper to repair steel robo miners than to spend thermium which is both hard to make and very limited

2 minutes ago, Craigjw said:

I tried using steel sweepers with a tempshift plate, however they still overheat.  They originally worked, but I noticed that the tiles were acting as the heat buffer between the regolith and sweepers.  After a while, the floor tiles get hot and no longer absorb the heat from the regolith and sweepers.

you need to keep the floor tiles cold too, regolith alone isn't enough

[Craigjw]

I have a secondary purpose for using a coolant.  the coolant can be used to preheat water/steam for a steam generator.

[Neotuck]

you don't need coolant, some wheezeworts under the floor will work just fine

[Craigjw]

I don't have many weezeworts.  Not the number that we're talking about anyway.

[Neotuck]

1 minute ago, Craigjw said:

I don't have many weezeworts.  Not the number that we're talking about anyway.

how far are you from exploring space? a trip to an ice world will get you plenty of wheezies

[Craigjw]

I'm very far from space.  I have no spaceship.  I have only just managed to cap off the meteor showers with steel tiles.  My glossy drecko ranch has no hydrogen in yet and slimelung is still a real threat.

[Neotuck]

sounds like you should leave the surface alone until the rest of your colony has stabilized 

[Craigjw]

It's stable enough for the time being, the residual slimelung is at safe limits now.