(Bill Bogen) wrote in message . com...
(Len) wrote in message . com...
Hop David wrote in message ...

.....snip.....
Assembling stuff in a vacuum is hard when you have cucumber fingers.


The key item required for assembly in space is frequent,
reliable, low-cost access. With frequent, reliable,
low-cost access, relying on hangars and assembly bays will
be more logical than not having them.

Sure but you have to assemble the hangars, etc. Also, not all work in
the vacuum of space will be in low Earth orbit or in convenient
facilities.

Some combination of prefab and telerobots should be
able to do this job.

Telerobots will
do most of the routine, "outside" work.

Maybe but to be effective they'd have to be operated by someone on
site (light speed lag from Earth is troublesome) and if you're going
to have someone there anyway, it's cheaper to put a person in a suit
than build and maintain a robot.

What is your basis for saying that.

Small, manned,
maneuverable, support vehicles may be an important adjunct.

Sounds like a rigid suit. Still need gloves/manipulators of some
sort.

I had in mind something like the excursion modules in
2001--perhaps smaller.

Assembling an automobile requires only about 20 man-hours;
nearly all the work is done by robots. But a certain amount
of manned presence is critical.

Yep. So we need better gloves.

I think better gloves would be very useful. But
I think that frequent, reliable, low-cost access
is far more important and would open up many new
options.

IMO, the size of what is assembled is restricted more by the
uncontrolled reentry hazard, than any other factor.

If that were true, ISS wouldn't be as big as it is, would it?
I think cost is the limiter.

For the cost of ISS, something perhaps 1000 times more
massive would become possible with truly low-cost access;
there is a compounding effect with respect to total costs.
Moreover, is anyone ready to say that uncontrolled reentry
of ISS would not be a serious problem?

Best regards,
Len (Cormier)
PanAero, Inc.
(change x to len)
http://www.tour2space.com