Okay, I searched for this to see if anyone had come up with this yet, but it bought me every instance of the word "rock" on the entire forum so i'm asking it here...
When mining only a small percentage of the rock you dig through is going to be what you are actually there to grab, and the rest is just useless spoil left to drift of in to deep space... but wait... what can be done with all the rocks we don't need?
I put forward the TEST Industries Pet Rock (Tipr for short). The guy who came up with the idea originally in the 70's sold over a million in the first year, they are idea for lonely space captains as they do not need feeding or water, resources a live pet would needlessly drain, we can stick googely eyes on them to make them extra cute and in a ship boarding it can be used as a blunt object for self defence. I see them being spot-on for the Cabin-Crazy deep space explorer set.
So, we get rid of a lot a useless spoil, keep space clean, make a packet, keep pilots sane and do not waste their resources, and you don't even have to go very far or in to dangerous space to find the raw materials as there are planets and 'roids all over made of otherwise useless rock, with other saleable materials a bonus on the way...
The Test Industries Pet Rock... do you think we have a winner on our hands?
When mining only a small percentage of the rock you dig through is going to be what you are actually there to grab, and the rest is just useless spoil left to drift of in to deep space... but wait... what can be done with all the rocks we don't need?
I put forward the TEST Industries Pet Rock (Tipr for short). The guy who came up with the idea originally in the 70's sold over a million in the first year, they are idea for lonely space captains as they do not need feeding or water, resources a live pet would needlessly drain, we can stick googely eyes on them to make them extra cute and in a ship boarding it can be used as a blunt object for self defence. I see them being spot-on for the Cabin-Crazy deep space explorer set.
So, we get rid of a lot a useless spoil, keep space clean, make a packet, keep pilots sane and do not waste their resources, and you don't even have to go very far or in to dangerous space to find the raw materials as there are planets and 'roids all over made of otherwise useless rock, with other saleable materials a bonus on the way...
The Test Industries Pet Rock... do you think we have a winner on our hands?