but also something like a conventional petrochemical factory and it probably uses solar concentrators for something. Thin film construction seems possible. There are a lot of problems that are like trying to build a ship in a bottle except you're in the bottle and trying to build a ship outside the bottle.
What has me scratching my head is:
a. Do you have to send humans? If the factory can be started up and run autonomously it saves the need to build a human habitat.
b. What do you do with the volatiles? I think when you punch through the crust of an asteroid you might get a dangerous quantity of gas, which is also highly valuable. You might have to devolatize the asteroid before the metal line and storage tank factory are online.
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[ 3.4 ms ] story [ 16.2 ms ] thread2. Factory Factory builds a factory that builds a solar sail factory
3. Solar sails maneuver on their own power to the Earth-Sun L1 point
I can picture much of the chemical factory involved, it looks something like
https://www.netl.doe.gov/research/Coal/energy-systems/gasifi...
but also something like a conventional petrochemical factory and it probably uses solar concentrators for something. Thin film construction seems possible. There are a lot of problems that are like trying to build a ship in a bottle except you're in the bottle and trying to build a ship outside the bottle.
What has me scratching my head is:
a. Do you have to send humans? If the factory can be started up and run autonomously it saves the need to build a human habitat.
b. What do you do with the volatiles? I think when you punch through the crust of an asteroid you might get a dangerous quantity of gas, which is also highly valuable. You might have to devolatize the asteroid before the metal line and storage tank factory are online.