AsterAnts

In response to "A lot of things are cast. Casting isn't particularly
difficult," etc. I say that, I have done casting and it is difficult and
requires significant gravity. There is a whimsical piece on bubbles in
carbonated beverages in space, called Suds in Space. You don't get a head!
See http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2001/ast21sep_1.htm?list73135 . The
same would happen in casting metal in micro-g. It would be full of bubbles,
if you could get the melt into the mold or not. But what about making a
lathe? Where do you get, for example, the copper wire for the motor? And
you are planning to make "bots?" These kind of arguments are usually made
by physicists and other scientists who do only theory and probably could not
make a respectable pencil sharpener, let alone an electric motor. I stand
by my statements; ideas explained at this level of detail are
indistinguishable from fantasy, and are probably not much more useful
(fantasy does have some use).
If you borrow money for a space enterprise (or compare alternative uses
for capital) you will have to calculate the interest in units of time, such
as, lets say 10 % per year. For a one week trip to the Moon and back (or
Earth-Moon L-5), that would be about 1/50th of a year per trip, or 0.2 %
worth of interest. One could make 50 trips per year. If you want to go to
the asteroid belt, that is more like 5 years for the first round trip. In
five years the Moon enterprise could have made ~250 trips, or with bots,
which would be easier to make on the Moon, grown by 250 generations. One
could do castings on the Moon. Which would you be more likely to invest in?
I know where I would put my money.
Sincerely, Jay Huebner