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In Alan Dean Foster's novelization, the Nostromo was apparently transporting oil!

I would guess multiple shipments. Pipelines would require some kind of propulsion method to defy gravity- I never considered it. The Dead Space series did that with tethers and basically ripped out chunks of the planet but we see no evidence either way of that in Alien. Good question! BigDave where are you?! 

For all we know- at least from the movie, there could have been a larger tanker in space the Nostromo basically received its load from like being at a gas station.

Ooh! That's really interesting, it'd make a fantastic sequence in a film; something even HUGER than the Nostromo!

Maybe the Nostromo captures meteorites and extracts the minerals from there?

as it was carrying Mineral ore in the movie, I posit that Thedus is a mining world, this there's massive stations groundside that use an orbital tether or 'beanstalk' to transport ore via electrostatic/electromagnetic-mechanical pumping action to an orbit-level loading platform that the refinery would be docked to for loading/unloading, and there's likely something similar for offloading at Earth, or possibly Mars to accept the imported cargo.
Such a system would be able to handle liquids and fine-ground ore with equal ability.

What about from capturing asteroids?

Today I have dedicated myself to post on as many topics before I fall asleep from drinking too many beers.

Regular Parrot lol

Blackwinter-witch Interesting postulation!

I think Blackwinter-witch offers a interesting explanation, my brain is not working 100% to give this or other topics justice lol

I would assume maybe Ships would leave the surface and then dock and siphon/unload their Oil/Minerals to the Refinery.

Looking at the Refinery it would not need Propulsion as it would just Orbit a World like a Satellite once caught in the Gravitational Pull such as the International Space Station.

The Pumping theory could work, but i would assume the Refinery would have to be positioned a certain distance away as if it got to close it would be pulled towards the Planet/Moon and be destroyed.

Facehuggers!

TY :) I had to work it out as backstory in ALIEN: Manticore as Manticore was returning from a job delivering an un-laden Refinery barge to Thedus, so I had to have it make sense to me how such a monstrous construct gets loaded with whatever it's to be loaded with.
Did some research in how ore and oil freighters are loaded in the real world...pestered hubby with a LOT of tech questions, and eventually worked out an efficient, low-cost/high-rate transfer system from groundside to orbit :)

BigDave

With the Orbital Elevator aka 'beanstalk' all a Tug has to do is hitch up to it, maneuver it to dock with the top orbital-level platform of the OE, and it's in a safe, stable orbit by default..
When loading/offloading is complete, disconnect from loading platform and the tug takes it on it's way across the stars.

About the refinery platform, Nostromo's sublight engines mate to thrust tunnels that run through the middle of it ostensibly to eliminate any damage from engine exhaust flare during maneuvering, so the refinery barge-platform is a true Barge, having no innate motive power of it's own.

That would require a lot of research, funds and forethought. Not impossible though. There would have to be an initial team to even find the planet or moon, see if it was viable, then get all the resources and personnel to build whatever was needed to even begin to supply the Nostromo. This story could go way back in different directions really.

dk

Consider the Androids, right?
Now if they are the Top End, then having Capably Competent Robots is definitely a fact. Send an automated 'builder' ship with a small crew of Human specialists to help them on the rare times they get stuck, and with FtL comms progress reports and such would be simple.
So, send 5000 Worker Bots and let them do all the work and such :)

The maintenance bay of the nostromo has mining equipment and vehicles, if thedus is a mining colony then short haul carriers could transport the ore to the refinery and offload it, I am only speculating.

airshaft_surprise

True, but likely only for prospecting, maybe?? The refinery was carrying 200 million tons of mineral ore, it'd take a while using short haulers to load it...

@BWW, either way could be possible, the turn around for the nostromo crew would be the main factor, i am not ruling out what you have put forward, anyway its grand to theorize, hopefully ridley might give us peak in the next instalment after AC of how its loaded, if there is scene with the mining facility, that would be awsome, fingers crossed!lol. 

airshaft_surprise

I agree, yeah and we're all theorizing and such, we're all good I'd say. :) And as we all really still only know actually quite little about the background civilizational abilities of Humanity in the ALIENverse, it gives us a big arena to roam around in :)

I would LOVE to see Thedus and some elements of the backstory of the Nostromo!!