Orbital construction: How to get around some of its problems?

Orbital construction facilities have a great many advantages over ground based ones: You can use materials from space without having to drag them up the gravity well, you can make vessels that don't have any atmospheric capability, and you can cold weld certain metals. However: They also have downsides.

1: Everything is in microgravity: This makes it hard to keep hold of your work and simply removes the possibility of performing some industrial processes.

2: Everything is in vacuum: At least in a 'traditional' orbital construction rig, the thing being built isn't inside the thing doing the building, and even if it were making a solid shell to build ships in is hard.

3: Everything is either too cold or too hot: Space is cold, but heat doesn't move away from hot things very well, so your materials are too cold while your tools are overheating.

4: Large crews...: ...Are hard to feed and maintain while they work.

5: Any number of other things that I haven't even thought of yet.

How can we resolve these issues, or minimise the amount by which they impede our glorious progress towards Spaaaaaaace! ??

posted almost 9 years ago

Joe Bloggs‭

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