Scordite and Tritanium

Scordite and Tritanium

Scordite is the ore that is processed into Tritanium, the material that makes up the skin and bones of mankind's starships. It's extra-ordinary and absolute resistence to radiataion has allowed advances in propulsion and reactor technology that has propeled the quality of mankind's starships into unimagined highets practically overnight. Since its' discoery and processing into Tritanium, every ship and spacestation in the solar system has been built with this material, at least in it's engineering section and outer hull components.

Discovery of Scordite

Scordite, as a material, is responsible in many ways to the current shape of human civilization. The discovery of this wonderous ore in the astroid belt beyond mars by a federation science mission in the year 2057. At the time, public discussion regarding the expenses incurred by the grand scale scientific research by the federation government has been active and acrimonious, but the victory of scordite has changed public opinion towards support in research effort for many decades.

Scordite Mining and Prospecting

While the first batch of scordite was found in the astroid belt, theories regarding the possibility of the existence of scordite inside plants (and even earth itself) has prompted advances in mining practices and scientifically related fields.

After the first batch of scordite was found inside the earth's crust, prospecting for scordite has spread from spaceships in the astroid belt to corporations and federal backed surveys across planets. With further advances in ship-building science, smaller and smaller ship becoming feasible, up to and including privately owned ships. Currently, both astroid belts are alive with miners and prospectors, of any material that is useful to mankind among the stars, and foremost among them is scordite.

Tritanium Manufacture

Since the great catastrophe of 2059, the federal government has banned all manufacture of Tritanium not occuring in federal refineries. All mnufacturing of Tritanium is handled outside of atmoshpere, in designated refinery stations that are limited in size and intentionaly distanced from one another to prevent the occurence of a chain reaction of the type that created the tri-nebula.

Despite the best efforts of the navy of the federation, dissident elements and black marketeers build secret Tritanium manufactoring facilities, though thankfuly never in the scale of the phobos complex. Since the accident of 2059, there has never been a known example of Tritanium manufacturing facility going critical, and hopefully there never will be.