Shimizu wants to cover Moon with solar panels

Yes, I think the proper comparison is between LPS and GEO SPS built from lunar resources in the manner recommended by O'Neill. In that scenario, the fabrication facilities would be in HEO. Perhaps not "onsite", but it's a relatively short hop from HEO down to GEO, and can be done with space transportation systems much simpler than what we typically think about (Earth-to-orbit).

Yeah, I can certainly see an orbital depot with an inventory of critical spares.

Regards,

Mike Combs

From: spacesettlers@yahoogroups.com [mailto:spacesettlers@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of Matt Gallimore
Sent: Friday, June 04, 2010 9:22 PM
To: spacesettlers@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: [spacesettlers] RE: [ssi_list] Shimizu wants to cover Moon with solar panels

"You seem to be assuming repair equipment will be onsite in the case of the moon, but not in the case of orbit. I see no reason to assume that."

Maybe we are looking at the scenario differently.

The article's project envisioned fabricating some components (the vast majority by weight) on the lunar surface. My assumption was having that fabrication equipment meant having spare parts for those parts of the system. That was not unreasonable.

Obviously simple manufacture would not yield a lot of other very important parts. These would come from Earth. Wouldn't it be practical that for any large system, some critical spares would be inventoried and used for repairs if needed?