[ExI] Power sats and the industrial development of space (was global waming again)

[Bryan Bishop]

On Tue, Mar 24, 2009 at 1:37 AM, Jeff Davis <jrd1415 at gmail.com> wrote:
> Sure be nice to know how much that mini combine would weigh.  Yo,
> Bryan, care to comment?  What basic tool set would my thousand
> hamster-sized robots need in order to process the raw materials, build
> the moon base, and make more bots?  Minimum mass; lunar regolith
> starting materials;...

That really depends on the context. What gets to become a vitamin
part, and what has to be made on the spot? I'd start by looking over
Freitas' KSRM book for a list of the different types of tools that you
might need. Recently I saw a good paper on a thermodynamic analysis of
different manufacturing processes, which might provide a starting
point for energetically-analyzed processes (as opposed to just random
guessing about the parametric variables). This is partly why I've been
wanting to do a diagram-based explanation of what it takes to build
different manufacturing process units, i.e. the dependency
requirements of the machines, such as what it requires to build those
machines that build the machines, and whether or not they are
satisfied by machines already "in use" or "on the list". It's a big
job, certainly something that could be computerized .. if I had more
data.

- Bryan
http://heybryan.org/
1 512 203 0507