MINING THE HALLELUJAH MOUNTAINS

Started by Ateyo Te Syaksyuk, December 13, 2011, 12:48:24 AM

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Ateyo Te Syaksyuk

It seems obvious that the Floating Mountains of Pandora mut be largely composed of unobtainium.
You would think that Capitalist Greed would dictate finding a way to descimate these first.  Could it be that the flux vortex could accuately impeed their "progress?"

archaic

The flux messes with some equipment, but not everything, so exactly what would work there and what wouldn't, Idk. :-\

Mining a floating rock would present many challenges. Not least, how to get the floating ore down to be processed. I imagine that's why the RDA have left them well alone.
Plus several sources hint or expressly state that workers on Pandora have health problems caused by the environment, including exposure to strong magnetic fields. This would probably be much worse if they worked in flux for long periods.
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Ateyo Te Syaksyuk

Interesting point!  Cheaper not to retool.
I didn't remember the references to grav flux influencing health issues, but that would be a consideration.
I'll bet the resident ayIkran would have discouraged the process!

Human No More

#3
That's like standing on a zeppelin and trying to extract helium - you're just going to crash it :P. It's stated in semi-canon stuff that when they tried one, it promptly flipped over when enough was removed, killing and destroying everyone and everything on it. Smaller ones would also likely be inviable in terms of quantity anyway.

Magnetic fields don't cause health problems even at levels of intensity greater than those in an MRI machine (~5 T where Earth's field is 0.000003 - 0.000006 T, so well over 100,000 times as strong :P ). The only way a magnetic field can cause a health problem is if someone gets in the way of a magnetic object attracted/repelled at high speed ;D
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How do they not get blown away by wind? Most don't seem to have vines anchoring them so they could get dragged/blow off until they crash in a less magnetic area. Also wouldnt the flip over easy if you step on them and spin from wind because there's no stabilizers. If they want to mine them they could tow them off till they land then mine away
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archaic

Don't they find a patch of intersecting magnetic field lines and become locked there?
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Carborundum

Quote from: archaic on December 28, 2011, 10:00:06 AM
Don't they find a patch of intersecting magnetic field lines and become locked there?
Magnetic field lines do not intersect.

The phenomenon is called flux pinning. It's a property of certain superconducting materials, of which unobtainium presumably is one.

Here is a nice video clip of the effect.
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Ateyo Te Syaksyuk

AH!  Niri Te devised an electromagnetic railgun when she was 12 for a science fair project.  She accelerated a nail through a glass tubewhich was lined by magnets, which she sequentially enegized Electromagnetically   Same principle that the Japanese tube trains now operate upon. Theoretically, could a mining ship equipped with an electro magnetic arm be operated (Visual Flight Rules, only) that would snatch away the smaller masses?
I like the concept of the masses flipping over when the balance is interrupted. Repelling magnetic forces might be used to push the floating masses away from the strong field.  Now I'm imagining a string of magnetic rocks being hurtles toward the minig vessel, because they met a stronger opposing field.  It would be squished like that soldier between two heavy pallets in the attack scene.
Mind you, my personal experience with flux pinning is limited to operating magnetic toys across a surface by moving a magnet below using the opposing magnetic field!
(I'm an artist, NOT a scientist. That's HER job. *points at Niri Te*)

archaic

Forgive me, flux pinning was pretty much what I was thinking of, add to that the fact that Earths magnetic field is not uniform and distribution of unobtainium in the rock will also not be uniform, so I expect it will likely settle into a position where it is stable and remain there.

Quote from: Ateyo Te Syaksyuk on December 28, 2011, 01:47:29 PM
..... Theoretically, could a mining ship equipped with an electro magnetic arm be operated (Visual Flight Rules, only) that would snatch away the smaller masses? .....

Sounds plausible, but I would expect the RDA to blow the bigger rocks to bits with explosives, cut it up with high power lasers, or use natural resonant frequency to shake it to pieces. The 'over burden' would fall to the ground, leaving what they want floating around.
Actually using natural resonant frequency seems pretty plausible too.
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Ateyo Te Syaksyuk

That would be sad. Very sad only.  I'm just thinking that (in the movie) greed has not been satisfied and RDA or some other entity will return to rape and pillage Pandora.  I could easily envision the company torching and defolliating the Halleluyah Mountains, to claim inhabitability; thus justifying their continued exploitation.

archaic

And as the natural hiding place for Na'vi resistance fighters to hide/base operations, there would be added reason to want it destroyed.  :'(
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