> On Feb 23, 2016, at 4:41 PM, Tim <xxxxxx@little-possums.net> wrote:
>
> On Wed, Feb 24, 2016 at 06:57:45AM +1100, Greg Chalik wrote:
>> Assuming 0 ice processing in space capability at TL10 before the invention
>> of Jump and in the immediate aftermach (for a couple of centuries?
>
> I suppose it could work, but it seems unlikely.  In Traveller's tech
> timeline, early grav tech at TL9 already drastically brings down cost
> of access to space with the consequent explosion in space
> applications.  One of the early commercial applications may well be
> mining rare elements from metal-rich asteroids -- or at least,
> developing the technology required to do so.

How else are you supposed to “find” the “crashed alien ship" with the mostly intact Jump Drive that Gramps carefully seeded this neck of the galactic woods with?

I still maintain the only difference between 'Major' and ‘Minor’ races is that the ‘Major’ ones were merely much more successful at hiding the fact that they didn’t invent Jump Drive either, but found an example and reverse-engineered it :-)

--
Bruce Johnson
University of Arizona
College of Pharmacy
Information Technology Group

Institutions do not have opinions, merely customs