Manufacturing in space

Hi Omar,

Rapid Prototyping is the technology that will probably
be used. At least for plastic and metallic products.
Nanotechnology (often considered a sub-class of rapid
prototyping) will also be of great value, at least for
the production of bulk materials. I imagine that
subtractive machining will not go away, and that parts
will continue to be made in machine shops either
manually or by NC methods. Food: greenhouses
w/artificial or reflected sun light, Chemicals:
processed from ISRU materials.

Professor Komerath, an Dept. of Aerospace Eng. at
Georgia Tech., is working on "Tailored Force Fields,
for Space-Based Construction", a interesting idea. I
have done a tiny bit of research into a similar idea
using MHD technology.

To be economically attractive, all new space colonies
would need to be net exporters. They would trade with
earth and other colonies, but would need to export
more than they import. This leads to a discussion on
space transport, but I fear that I may have already
stepped outside of the simple answer to your question.

regards,

Dave Handwerk

--- "Omar E. Vega" wrote: