metal or ceramic foam

"Huebner, Jay" wrote: Some advantages of space for industrial operations are the lack of an oxidizing atmosphere, cheap vacuum, solar energy and low temperatures in the shade (if the heat flow is not too large). Objects in focused sunlight can reach the surface temperature of the Sun, ~ 6000 K, which will melt anything (everything made so far). So one could vapor deposit iron and it would not rust or burn as in Earth's atmosphere. By vapor depositing from multiple sources of different metals onto plastic (or what-ever) forms (which would later be discarded), one could lay down a platinum or chromium rich layer to be covered (and to cover) iron and finish off with another stainless layer. Try that on Earth. One could weld aluminum by holding two pieces together, heating with focused sunlight to melt and then let cool. Again, something you can only do in an inert (usually helium) atmosphere. Fractional distillation using solar energy and the cold of space would be without energy costs. Sincerely, Jay Huebner
Quite possibly but so high level. I can see all sorts of problems with trying to design a factional distillation system in zero gravity using focused sunlight. The major one being containment before during and after vaporization or liquidfication assuming that continous processing is required. I can think of one batch process that would be very wasteful. One big container with lens in its side that is used to vaporize sample which then deposits in layers on walls as walls cool. (have to heat the container before it can cool.)
Can you tell that I think that we should be designing systems instead of just talking about them?
Mitchell James