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Midget Miner

The Midget Miner is my latest 100% vanilla (modless) design for the most weight-efficient design for SURVIVAL at REALISTIC settings that will carry sufficient parts off-world to establish a space base for the express purpose of refining uranium and platinum for use on the player's home planet. The Midget Miner is projector-friendly because it doesn't have subgrids and all components are externally accessible, so building it in a survival setting is very easy.

My previous two designs to achieve this space base goal were:

Uranium Express: https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1687185187

Naked Truth: https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1693848053

Unlike the Midget Miner, however, both had limited success with their capability to meet the goal. The Midget Miner uses a battery instead of hydrogen engines for power, as for the Naked Truth, and doesn't require increased inventory settings (3X) as for the Uranium Express, not to mention its subgrids that make building it with a projector much more difficult. More information about its success is described in the testing section, below.

Construction of the Midget Miner requires the following parts:

368 - steel plates
92 - metal grids
120 - interior plates
571 - construction components
141 - motors
96 - large steel tubes
67 - small steel tubes
50 - computers
7 - displays
32 - bulletproof glasses
20 - power cells
4 - radio-communication components
1 - detector component

The following components, used to build the off-world refinery, will fill the large cargo container and connector at REALISTIC SURVIVAL settings:

10 - light armor blocks
1 - battery
8 - solar panels
1 - survival kit
1 - small cargo container
1 - advanced refinery
1 - advanced assembler
1 - small reactor

...consisting of the following parts:

1,812 - steel plates
38 - metal grids
40 - interior plates
344 - construction components
50 - motors
28 - large steel tubes
20 - small steel tubes
269 - computers
12 - displays
96 - girders
32 - bulletproof glasses
80 - power cells
256 - solar cells
100 - reactor components
3 - medical components

Empty Mass = 20,074 kg
Blocks = 44
PCU = 1,115

TESTING AT REALISTIC SETTINGS: As prepared per the description, above, the total loaded mass, i.e., takeoff weight of the ship was 81,032 kg: the hydrogen tank was full, the O2/H2 generator was full with 2,703 kg ice, and the medium cargo container was full with 9,122 kg ice. The cockpit contained a welder, grinder, drill, rifle, 10 5.56x45mm NATO magazines, one oxygen bottle, and one hydrogen bottle. The above off-world refinery parts were loaded into the large cargo container and connector. All thrusters were engaged, the landing gear was released, and the ship accelerated upward until 700M whereupon the large hydrogen thruster was disabled to conserve fuel. The ship continued upward at full speed until 5km whereupon the large thruster was once again enabled, then disabled again when the ship hit 0.5g, again to conserve fuel. At an altitude of 41km, upward thrust was ended and the ship allowed to coast until it came to a full stop in space. The remaining hydrogen in the tank was 16%, but increased to a reserve level of 61% when all the ice was fully processed by the O2/H2 generator. Sufficient energy reserves were available to scout for a nearby asteroid to set up a refinery base for processing uranium and platinum into ingots. After building the refinery components, i.e., a 10-block base, a battery, 8 solar panels, a survival kit, a small cargo container with a small reactor and an advanced refinery attached, and an advanced assembler attached to the end of the refinery. Obtaining additional ice for fuel was the first priority. After that iron and other ores were obtained and the refinery base was expanded for the express purpose of refining large quantities of non-planet alloys, i.e., uranium and platinum. Readily accessible in space, a large quantity of gold and silver was also processed into ingots. To increase the ship's capability, two additional drills were added, but later removed for return to the home world. When sufficient ingots were processed, the ship was reloaded with those ingots and flown back to the planet. The maximum return weight was limited to 80,000 kg to ensure a safe landing.