Crucible Ltd.
Crucible, Ltd. is a Sheffield-based company which operates an automated manufacturing facility on the Amor group ferro-nickel asteroid (6178) 1986 DA. Whilst limited assembly is possible on site, the company strongly reccomends no people are left on the asteroid during its almost 2 year journey out to its aphelion as they are likely to suffer from loneliness and isolation issues.
The company produces triangular trusses (usually in a Warren girder) and sheets to customer-specified dimensions, at a rate of 2,500 kg of beam per hour. Some limited assembly of products is permitted in the vicinity of this operation (space rented on the asteroid’s surface or within 10 km at a rate of $500 per day) but customers are required to organise transportation themselves, with the most common destinations being the orbits of Bellevistat and Aresam, having delta-V’s of 1.20 kms-1 and 1.14 kms-1 respectively.
Crucible Ltd. charges $0.20 per kilogram of formed metal or $0.10 per kg of metal provided as 5 mm diameter spheres. The metals offered are: iron (steel), nickel, chromium, cobalt, copper, lead, molybdenum, manganese, magnesium, silver, zinc, zirconium, and alloys of any of these metals (surcharge of $0.10 per kg). Available unformed only at a higher price of $1.20 per kg are bismuth, calcium, gold, iridium, osmium, palladium, platinum, rhenium, rhodium, ruthenium, tantalum, tungsten. Crucible will pay clients $0.05 per kg to rid them of slag, consisting of 98% fused silicon dioxide by mass, and 2% trace metal oxides.
This webpage refers to a fictional company which is part of the UK Space Design Competition. No information presented here or implied herefrom should be regarded as factual. Any similarities with real events, places, or persons are purely coincidental.