Asteroid Danger

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Hasen't someone already developed a "manufactory" that processs the
lunar regolith and produces solar panels? It seems like I have read
that somewhere.
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There is one developing concept that involves using titanium dioxide ( TiO2) as
a substrate ( you may recall that ilmenite is FeTiO3). Unfortunately, the
experimental cells only survived a few hours, so I guess a lot more development
is needed. Another concept involved using thin slices of ilmenite crystals.
These would be grown from a vat of molten Ilmenite, and doped with an iron
compound, in order to form a PN-type junction. The Ilmenite substrate has a
bandwidth of 2.54 ev (if memory serves), and so would be much more resistant to
radiation damage than normal amorphous silicon cells. The downside was, that
efficiency was quite low, and once again, the cells were unstable.

In short, Unless you have the ability to purify your feedstock to ultra-pure
levels, and you have some serious manufacturing abilities at your lunar base,
then it is much easier to ship up a nuclear reactor from Earth. A 1Mwe nuclear
power system will weigh in at only 20 tonnes, including the waste heat panels.
Once it is installed, the base will have 1 Mw of continuous, uninterupted
electric power, for the entire core life (which is about 10 years). This is
beyond the the widest dreams of what any solar power system could achieve.