Borg Mining Station

posted on December 17th, 2010, 12:35 am

I remember hearing the Borg getting on-moon mining stations. I forget whether Dominus told me when he talked about Borg redo features on TeamSpeak or if it was a post by Optec or something. But I'm fairly certain that it is a planned Borg feature.
Ciadan get a mining station that completely covers the moon, that's not the same as being on it.

From  what I remember of the "redo' Posts the Circadians were supposed to get  the "Dyson Sphere  type  station"  simiular to the type of station  that Scotty  fron the  TNG episode "RELIC'S  was stranded on."Dyson Spheres "completely encases a Star .

posted on December 17th, 2010, 12:38 am

And they're impossible to build in real life.

posted on December 17th, 2010, 12:44 am

Wait, what? Some things in science fiction aren't possible?

posted on December 17th, 2010, 12:47 am

Learn something new every day...

posted on December 17th, 2010, 12:53 am

Dyson spheres are possible, just ludicrously impractical to build.

posted on December 17th, 2010, 1:02 am

They are impossible to build for many reasons.  The primary reason is that the sphere cannot be put into an orbit.  Even if the sphere encloses the star, it still needs to be able to orbit the star, which it can't.

[Tyler]

posted on December 17th, 2010, 1:05 am

Last edited by Tyler on December 17th, 2010, 1:08 am, edited 1 time in total.

The one from the series was ridiculous, the cost alone would make it senseless. Small ones, like the ones the Ciadan will use ingame, wouldn't be too bad (assuming you have the tech to build them).

posted on December 17th, 2010, 1:13 am

They are impossible to build for many reasons.  The primary reason is that the sphere cannot be put into an orbit.  Even if the sphere encloses the star, it still needs to be able to orbit the star, which it can't.

Orbit? A Dyson sphere doesn't need to orbit.  All it has to do is enclose the star without being torn apart.

Not impossible to build, just insanely hard and impractical to build. Easiest way to build without the sections orbiting would be to make two halves and then join them, but then the joining part becomes the last huge construction problem.

posted on December 17th, 2010, 1:21 am

Dyson spheres are possible; they're just ludicrously impractical.  But they do exist in Star Trek, and we also have people like Q, so...

[Nebula_Class_Ftw]

posted on December 17th, 2010, 1:31 am

Last edited by Nebula_Class_Ftw on December 17th, 2010, 1:44 am, edited 1 time in total.

And the Borg. Want to assimilate whole races that have interstellar travel? Have nanites that can turn people into your slaves in seconds to minutes? Have readily available nearly undetectable cloaking? Send an enormous ship that has WAAAY more metal and drones than it needs and to.

Even more back on topic: And then build your own resource infrastructure when the species you enslave already have their own!
Would be interesting to see Borg players using assimilated miners in some way. Maybe they could use some Mandril class ships with some assim'd fed mining stations to have a temporary expansion while they build some miners of their own.

posted on December 17th, 2010, 1:35 am

You don't seem to like your science fiction to be challenged and overturned by science fact, but you mind trying to completely destroy science fact with science fiction.

posted on December 17th, 2010, 1:49 am

What are you ranting about? The Dyson sphere thing? If so, you have misunderstood the meaning of the word impossible. Nothing says that it can't be done, just that the amount of resources, time, and engineering needed to do it would be enormous. Going at the speed of light is impossible because you would need infinite energy, not because you'd need an enormous amount of fuel. If going at the speed of light required 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 gallons of fuel (and the universe contained such an amount, I don't feel like finding out if it does since it's just an ass-pulled number to mean a lot), it would not be impossible.

posted on December 17th, 2010, 2:26 am

You don't seem to like your science fiction to be challenged and overturned by science fact, but you mind trying to completely destroy science fact with science fiction.

Sorry, but I don't see any science fact being overturned here.  A Dyson sphere is theoretically possible.  It's been explained in the above posts.

I think we all acknowledge, though, that Star Trek, and science fiction in general, often does things that aren't actually possible.

posted on December 17th, 2010, 2:51 am

Even if something is not quite impossible, there is a fine line between being possible, but extremely unlikely, and being impossible.  The Dyson sphere crosses that line easily.

Going the speed of light would require a lot of energy, but you're far more likely to achieve 1.001 C than you are to get a star inside a giant ball.

posted on December 17th, 2010, 3:16 am

Well, Einstein theorized that it would be impossible to cross the barrier given by the speed of light.  Energy needed increases exponentially as a ship even approaches it, and theoretically if a ship actually got there it would have infinite mass.

There's nothing impossible about the Dyson sphere.  I don't know why anyone would actually make it, given how impractical it is, but it's possible.

In any case, the point here was that the Ciadan may get a Dyson sphere-like structure for mining.  We know it's possible in Star Trek.  If you start questioning that, then you have to question other things essential to what Star Trek is, particularly warp drives.