Establishment of a Space Manufacturing Facility

Abstract

A scenario leading to the establishment of a Space Manufacturing Facility (SMF) with a production rate of five Solar Power Satellites (SPS's) per year (10 GW each) was developed. Preliminary cost comparisons defined the system elements and their interrelationshi ps. It was estimated that the SPS's would be 90% producible from lunar materials. The mass for other system elements (the Lunar base, from which lunar surface materials are mined and catapulted into space by means of an electromagnetic mass-driver; the SMF, an end-to-end system which fabricates sections and components of structures ready