To: Zoner Stakeholders of Freeport 1

[kornon]

Greetings Zoners,

I am Dr. Ron Kosher, and I represent a small group of researchers, independent but loosely affiliated with IMG. We are planning to rebuild Appleton Laboratory near Freeport 1 in Omega-3. We previously were about 15 K from Freeport 1, but this time we are looking to rebuild the base closer to Freeport 1. We are inquiring to make sure that this is acceptable to the stakeholding Zoners of Freeport 1.

We perform research in mining ore and in metals extraction from mined ore. We are currently working on producing a more efficient graviton based mining array to improve the yield of ore mined from asteroids.

We began our work at Falkland base in Tau-37 and started initial development of the array working with Niobium from the fields in Tau-23. The jump hole wreaked havoc on the calibration of our scientific instruments mounted on our mining vessels. This required constant re-calibration, which was very time consuming, and seriously hindered our research efforts. We Investigated migrating our work to Java station, but they neither had the necessary facilities nor the power requirements that we needed for our equipment. We built and operated “IMG Research Station” in Tau-23 and gathered data and performed research for many months. We finished the collection of data several several years ago, sold the station, and returned to Falkland base to analyze our data and build a prototype mining array.

We then finished developing the prototype array based on our data of Niobium mining. We chose to develop the array for niobium first due to our agencies specialization in the ore, and the higher atomic mass compared to many other mined metals which makes it easier to use a graviton based technique. We then wanted to extend the research to cobalt ore, and used the field in Omega-3 for our research. Similarly to what we found in Tau-23 there are no satisfactory locations currently in the system that can support our power, space, and facility requirements, thus we found it faster and more economical to build our own station in Omega-3. We constructed Appleton Laboratory about 15 k from Freeport 1 in the Burgess Ice field. We performed research on the mining array for Cobalt and have improved the array to work well for both niobium and cobalt with mining yield increases of more than 90% vs traditional mining arrays. We still need to work on tuning the array for other ores, and overcome some overheating and power utilization issues that prevent the technology from being ready for mainstream.

We previously performed surveys in the system and found that the Omega-3 sun is subject to periodic sessions of increased flare activity which cause electromagnetic interference that will affect our instruments on the station. Therefore, we propose to use the solar collector of Freeport 1 as a radiation shield to shield our base. Our proposed location is at coordinates: (-19711, 356, -19620) in Sector 3C in Omega-3. These coordinates are 2.5K from Freeport 1, 7.4K from Omega Palace, 3.1K from Med Force Omega Hospital, 5.8K from The Geneva Shipping Platform, 6.2K from the Planet Sprague trade lane, 5.5K to the Aland Wreck trade lane, 4.1K from the trade lane heading to the Cambridge jump gate. The position is also just inside the uncleared portion of the Burgess Ice Field and well beyond the traffic paths heading between the trade lanes, and will not interfere with commercial traffic. Please see an image of the proposed base location. We are excited for our new research, and will share all of our findings with any Zoners which are interested, which could provide extensive benefits. The location of the base is key in the success of our research as we can have a direct shield to the sun's corona from Freeport 1. Our last location while adequate, and using some of the station as a shield was not near as low in background radiation as the new location.

I have attached a copy of our Station Logs as well.

We are planning three modules initially and are:
1: Shield Generator
2: Cargo Storage
3: Core Upgrade

We have no plans to build any defense platforms as the base will be within the NFZ of Freeport 1. If we found a need for such defenses we would return to get approval from stakeholding Zoners of Freeport 1.

We got along quite well for the year or so Appleton Laboratory was operating in Omega-3 previously and hope to continue that with a new base constructed a bit closer. If there are any questions I can answer I would be happy to do so. We look forward to a response.

Respectfully,
Dr. Ron Kosher
IMG Research
Director of Research