Player Features and Ideas Discussion

Right now the sun is just there doing nothing. Is their a way we can setup a mobile structure that can collect solar radiation for something or use it as another moon mineral used in some reactions?

You dont know why or what for you want to harvest the suns rays, you just know you want to harvest them...

Check out the sun-orbiting station in this video :) Would be amazing if this was a reality.....but for what purpose, who knows.

Posting the relevant part from here:

Solar Mining

Solar flares are happening almost constantly on any star at any given time. Finidng them is rather easy as there is only a very small area where they can be found. So probing for current solar flares is a simple endeavor. One merely needs to drop the most accurate Spectrographic Probe at the star and scan for them. Depending on the activity of the star there could be several suitable solar flares around at any given time, though the area will only be useful for a few hours.

The interesting part of the solar flare isn't the flare itself but the coronal mass ejection associated with it. This stardust is very rich in isotopes, the kinds to be found depending on the age and type of star. It can be collected from the solar flare location from a Coronal Mass glowing cloud item with Gas Cloud Harvesters. Once the Coronal Mass is depleted or the location runs out it gets simply removed.

The only reason solar mining isn't rivaling ice mining for isotope production is the extreme danger involved with solar mining. So close to the sun, a ship is pummeled by concentrated radiation, causing continuous EM and Thermal damage. The amount of damage done to all objects at the solar flare location depends on the star and wide randomness. One has to be alert all the time, ready to warp of, should the tank fail. Getting melted while not looking could prove fatal for one's pod. Apart from this potential lethality solar flare locations have no other special attributes.

Solar Flares come in several magnitudes. The higher the magnitude, the more stardust is around but the damage will be higher. Distribution of magnitudes should depend on how active and what type the star is. The type of star also determines what kind of Coronal Mass is found and thus what kind of stardust can be mined and what isotopes can be refined from it. Of course security level should be a deciding factor.

The amounts of isotopes that can be gained from solar mining needs to be balanced with the risks involved and should be comparatively with what one could gain from ice mining. The lack of heavy water, liquid ozone and strontium clathrates in stardust should be taken into account when balancing is done.