clif lawrence
	recently I had a smallsensor ship with 13 mk2 sensors on it. It scanned just fine. One day I flew into a system and went to the 15th ring to avoid any enemy. I was in there to look around. I run into a belt of asteroids that about wiped the ship out. Its basically done for. Since I have lost this ship and since I had so many mk2 sensors on it, they should have "sensored" some of the individual asteroids and I should have a record of that just before they crashed into it. I'm curious why the sensors failed...in advance, when part of the first orders were."scan system". Perhaps it did register, but requires a sa to decipher it. That would be fair. clif
Dan Reed
	there's a difference in the game between individal asteroids in an asteroid belt and asteroids Those in the belt are dealt with as swarms are in some roleplaying games - you know there are individual asteroids but they are treated as a homogenous mass. This is justified by saying that there is so much interaction between them all that you cannot predict the orbits well enough to find a specific asteroid again purely from sensor scan data. SA's would as you say probably be required to let you keep track of a specific one. Individual asteroids are celestial bodies in their own right with a predictable orbit and if you spot them (they can be anywhere, including in an asteroid belt) you can keep track and get there again. At a guess you didn't find any of the latter before your ship went splat... Dan
Clay
	To add to Dan's comments... I think a lot of it also comes down to the size of the body. An asteroid belt consists of many that are too small to land on, and thus not suitable for bases, etc. Pointless tracking all those rocks. Occasionally, you'll find a larger one that IS big enough to land on - and will give a you a celestial body number. The asteroid belt should also appear on your political - so the data does get transmitted beforethe ship goes *pop*
Jerusalem
	Yup, I've got an asteroid belt on my political. Odd thing about it is though it looks like this: Asteroid Belt {Alpha X in [system] (system##) It doesn't have a position number. Which, I don't know if that is standard or not. I assume once it's on your political though, your ships will have a better chance of traversing that quadrant without running into the belt?
Clay
	Your info is correct. Asteroid Belts do not have a position number, as they are a location kinda thing, and constly changing. A specific asteroid (one big enough to land on etc) would have a position number just like any planet. As for making it easier to navigate, I don't know. I would think not though, as it is constantly changing. Of course, knowing it is there means you can avoid it altogether