Factory, Structure

From OPU Wiki

Common Metals Cost: very high

Rare Metals Cost: none

Build Time: very long

Tube Connection Required: yes

Power Required: 50

Size: large

Workers Required: 4

Hit Points: very high

Scientists Required: none

Armor:heavy

Description

Rather than attempting to fabricate structures piecemeal on site in a hostile environment, the colony designers determined that it would be quicker, safer, and more efficient to produce buildings in the form of prefabricated kits that could be assembled on-site by fully automated ConVecs. These kits are produced in the Structure Factory. Structures employ advanced smart-composites using millimeter-scale folding. Such materials arrive at the site in the form of compact blocks, but when an electric current is correctly applied, they self-deploy into their final forms, panels, girders, trusses, conduits, and ducts. The resulting structural elements are light and filled with billions of individually sealed pockets, having many of the desirable structural characteristics of natural materials such as shell and bone. The material is especially good at absorbing kinetic energy, and thicker hull panels act as effective micrometeor buffers.

Optical pathways and wave guides can be built into the structure, eliminating the need for conventional communication and control wiring. Some power wiring must still be manually installed and connected, but whenever possible, cables are anchored into the structural units at one end, and the rest of the cable coiled on reels. In this way, the deployment of the structural unit will automatically pull the cables through the conduits as the unit takes final shape. Once the unit is installed in the structure, hookups need only be made at each end, and the cable is ready to use.

The Structure Factory maintains several assembler vats for continuous production, folding, and storage of smart composites in any length, and widths of up to seven meters. Separate automated production machines produce cables, flexible piping, fixtures, life-support modules, storage tanks, trim-work, windows, doors, and armor plating. All of the Structure Factory's production lines are completely non-specialized, and it can, on command, immediately fabricate any structure kit for which it has a template stored in its master computer.

Complete kits are packed together like three-dimensional jigsaw puzzles according to the pattern included as part of the template, resulting in a compact module that is easily stored and transported, and that deploys in the order to be assembled with maximum efficiency.

Operational Notes: The Structure Factory produces structure kits required for most structures. It can store up to 6 kits. ConVecs can dock at the Structure Factory to load or unload structure kits.

Tales from New Terra

Brook Panati sat on the railing of a catwalk overlooking the factory floor. He watched as the automatic machinery below busily produced a new Agridome kit. Meg O'Halloran walked up and leaned on the rail next to him. "Been looking for you. Pardo said I could find you here. He said you come here all the time." He nodded without taking his eyes off the activity below. She looked down to see what was so interesting.

He glanced at her for a moment. "I never get tired of watching this. It's like parlor magic." He pointed at the big smart-composite extruding machine in the far corner. "It's making a floor truss right now. You can see the truss feeding out of the machine, that huge beam coming out of that little box, and then feeding into this other machine, the folder, and just vanishing again. Of course, the folder is packing it back into a compact form so it can be put in the structure kit, but it seems to be vanishing."

He climbed back over the railing and smiled at her. "From nothing into something, and back into nothing again. It's a metaphor for life. We can learn a valuable life lesson here." "What lesson, Brook? All I see is a factory." He shook his head sadly. "You have a profound, but common, lack of vision. Things aren't always what they seem. Would you like to learn a valuable life lesson?" She looked down at the beam, which was now being removed from the folder in the form of a compact cube, and shrugged. "Sure."

"Do you have a ration credit?" She dug in the pocket of her jumpsuit and pulled out a yellow plastic token. She handed it to him. He fumbled and seemed to drop it. "Whoops," he said. She didn't hear it hit, and assumed it must have gone through the grate floor of the catwalk. "Not a problem," he said. "I know how to get it back." He reached behind her right ear. She felt something, and when he pulled his fingers back, he was holding the token. She smiled in amazement. "How did you do that?"

He shook his head. "Magic. It comes out of nothing ..." he held up the token in his hand and did something with his fingers, so fast she couldn't see, and then he opened his hand. The credit was gone. "... back into nothing." He cocked his head as though she should read some meaning into this, but she didn't get it. He turned and started down the stairs toward the factory's main airlock. "Wait," she called, "when do I get my credit back?" He half-looked back over his shoulder. "You don't."

Annoyed, she raised her voice. "Wait! What's my life lesson?" He turned, but continued to walk backward down the stairs. He laughed. "Never hand Brook Panati a credit you plan to get back!" He turned and ran, laughing.