Vesta Smelting Combine

The Vesta Smelting Combine has operated since 2149, turning asteroid ore into steel, titanium and nickel alloys for shipyards on Mars, Luna and at L5.

Five Leviathan Ore Haulers bring raw ore in, each carrying 140,000 tonnes. Six Atlas Heavy Freighters deliver finished metal. Two Basilisk Salvage Tugs move ore around the smelters. The Leviathans, costing 760 million credits each, are flown by six pilots with 22 crew. They use deuterium fusion slurry at 11.4 tonnes per 100 AU, and their 40 AU range covers the Belt and the inner system.

The six Atlas Heavy Freighters, costing 410 million credits each, carry finished metal to Mars, Luna and L5. With three pilots each, they are cheaper to crew than the Leviathans. The two Basilisk Salvage Tugs, costing 68 million credits each, move ore and finished metal around the smelters and remove debris from the shipping lanes near Vesta.

The Combine employs around 4,500 people on Vesta, and its smelters run around the clock, powered by fusion reactors fuelled with helium-3 from the Jovian Helium Cooperative. The Combine is planning to add two more Leviathans to meet demand from the Meridian Colony Ark programme, which needs huge amounts of steel for its hulls.

In 2185 the Combine supplied the steel for the first Meridian Colony Ark hull. Haruto Nakamura, Halcyon's principal structural engineer, worked with the Combine on alloy specifications.