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Moon Base L2 for Solar Sail Assembly Line



 
 
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  #21  
Old March 9th 16, 04:16 AM posted to sci.space.policy
William Mook[_2_]
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Posts: 3,840
Default Moon Base L2 for Solar Sail Assembly Line

On Wednesday, March 9, 2016 at 3:27:38 PM UTC+13, William Mook wrote:
On Tuesday, March 8, 2016 at 3:08:03 PM UTC+13, William Mook wrote:
On Wednesday, March 2, 2016 at 9:42:28 PM UTC+13, William Mook wrote:
http://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=19780044024

Demandite involves taking found and spent materials and reducing them to elemental forms, and then re-assembling them into useful products and materials. This takes 40 MJ/kg of material. So, the aforementioned 107 GW of power per unit man 9,630 metric tons per hour is processed. 84.4 million tons per year. Now, a person uses about 1 ton per year which means each station supports 84.4 million people. Since each station masses 1716 tons, and the self replicating machinery masses 1000 tons, we have a replication time of 20 minutes.


http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu...ics/lagpt.html

Microscopic devices that self replicate mimic living systems in many respects, excepting those that make use of silicide (a silicon analogue of graphene) can 'grow' anywhere! From a space developer's perpsective, this means that very small payloads can grow into significant capabilities in very short times.

Nanoscale structures on crystalline surfaces of silicon make modern electronics possible. Creating nanoribbons of 2d patterns of silicon

http://www.nanowerk.com/spotlight/spotid=24693.php
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1322256

and folding them into a variety of shapes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQXKgG7tsII

to create machines

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZVYz7g-qLjs

that make other machines

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZX-iJLHZt8M
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ihR9SX7dgRo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FZTsWEfnqtg

I have been working on machine cells that are 6 micron thick shells that are 230 microns in diameter. They are solar powered, and use any reasonable source of silicon to make copies of itself. A 300 mm wafer may be patterned with 1.7 milion shapes that fold up into 1.7 million functional cells.

Each cell weighs 6.4 nanograms and intercepts 56.8 microwatts of sunlight on the moon's surface, which it converts with 80% efficiency to useful work. 45.5 microwatts net output, available for processing rocks into more cells.

Dividing 45.5 microwatts by 6.4 nanograms obtains 8.9 kilowatts per gram! 8.9 MW/kg. Now with 40 MJ/kg energy cost in additively assembling chemicals extracted from rock that is 27.7% silicon, it takes 16.2 seconds for a cell to self replicate from 23.1 nanograms of rock. In less than 8 minutes, a single cell grows to 1 gram. In 10 minutes, this grows to 1 kilogram. In less than 16 minutes, this grows to 1,000 metric tons.

What can you do with lots of microscopic machine cells?

Assemble things out of them! Just as multi-celled organisms are formed from patterns of cooperating cells, so too are multi-celled machines possible.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dDsmbwOrHJs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZXpkG93KzdY

So, what's the minimum system required to put something like this on the moon?

Consider the advances produced by Myrabo's Lightcraft

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_9ac-w4DW8

combined with Infineon's thin film power mosfet technology adapted toward the purposes outlinded here;

http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1280471

A ten wafer system, each wafer 7 microns thick, masses only 12.8 grams together, and containing in unfolded form, a single 7 micron payload layer that folds into 1.7 million cells upon receiving a signal, and then 'eats' the pure silicon 'ship' to get started - growing to 2 billion cells before spreading to the surrounding environment!

SPACE PROPULSION

http://lmts.epfl.ch/MEMS-ion-source

A laser energised jet that accelerated to 3.2 km/sec that switched to a laser energised rocket that accelerated to an added 9 km/sec, and then used a laser energised rocket to slow to a landing on the moon's surface imparting a delta vee of 3 km/sec.

LUNAR LANDING

Producing 1/2 gee at the moon to impart 3 km/sec using a 9 km/sec exhaust speed. 12.8 grams spacecraft with 300 mm diameter receiver. It carries 5 grams of working fluid to achieve this. Moving at 9 km/sec 5 grams contains 202.5 kilojoules. At 1/2 gee, it takes 611.83 seconds to impart 3 km/sec delta vee. So, this implies a 331 Watt power level for the exhaust jet.. 9.7 micrograms of propellant per second to produce 87.3 millinewtons of force. This is only a small part of the 20 kW laser beamed from Earth using a 4 m diameter thin film adaptive reflector.

UPPER STAGE

With a 6 km/sec exhaust speed to produce a 9 km/sec delta vee requires that an additional 62 grams of propellant. About the size of a super-large inkjet cartridge. The propellant is a layer of material only 1 mm thick, between the wafer layers described earlier.

At two gees it requires 458.9 seconds to impart 9 km/sec. 62 grams moving at 9 km/sec contains 1.116 MJ. The power level to achieve this performance totals 2.5 kW. The distance over which it accelerates at right angles to the Earth's center is 2,065.2 km.

FIRST STAGE

The electrospray system that imparts thrust from the 62 grams of propellant, forms an annulus around a laser receiver/transmitter at the base of the vehicle. At lift off and in the lower atmosphere, the system uses air as a working fluid rather than propellant stored on board. The air is ejects at 6 km/sec and so has the same power level as the upper stage, but the acceleration is largely vertical, so, it requires 326.3 seconds to accelerate to 3.2 km/sec. It moves straight up 52 km before heading off at right angles toward its trajectory to the moon and travelling another 430 km downrange before switchin on the propellant flow. At that point is is 7 degrees above the horizon relative to the launch center. For this reason, several telescopes with 20 kW laser beams and adaptive optics beam energy to the spacecraft.

AEROSHELL

The wafer stack is surrounded by an aerogel filling forming an aeroshell to give the system lifting properties, while inducing air flow into the MEMS jets. Meanwhile the MEMS electrospray rockets cover the rim in a way that allows switching between elements to change direction of thrust relative to the wafer receiver and CG. So, the disk rises vertically over the launch laser and has the ability to change thrust vector relative to the receiver so that angle of attack can vary in ways that reduce drag, and maintain optimal flight path and energy reception.

MAX Q

40 seconds after launch, at 5.9 km altitude, thrust is reduced to maintain subsonic speeds until air density is reduced rising to an altitude of 52 km over the next three minutes. An appropriate level to maintain conditions. At a distance of 215 km from the launch point the device is 14 degrees above the horizon at both the launch center and 14 degrees above the horizon at a point 430 km away where a second 20 kW laser operates. By the time the vehicle is overhead of the downrange facility, it is 7 degrees above the horizon from the launch center, and begins climbing in altitude along a trajectory to the moon. Because of the shape of the Earth and its rotation, relative to this trajectory, the vehicle is 3 degrees above the horizon of the downrange laser when it achieves Trans Lunar Injection speed.

Terminal velocity is chosen so that the vehicle is 30 degrees above the horizon when lunar landing is to take place and rising. There is only a slight 4 degree variation between the two lasers, and having two lasers gives some backup.


AFTER LANDING

Upon settling down on the lunar surface, a 300 mm diameter wafer with the sun directly overhead, receives 97 watts of solar energy and at 80% efficiency, generates 77.4 watts from sunlight. Now, the ability to send a laser beam that energises the same wafer to 331 watts, with nearly 100% efficiency, provides an efficient start to the replication process! Within 15 minutes a ton of machine cells spreads from the landing point forming a dark spot some 16 meters in diameter.

UTILITY FOG

The laser beam now acts as a command and control system for the growing population of machine cells on the moon. Well before the sun sets at the landing point, the entire lunar surface has been processed to a depth of several meters, creating an array of lunar bases.

LUNAR MAGLEV & LUNAR LAUNCHERS

A 300 km lunar maglev that accelerates payloads at one gee has the ability to project objects from the lunar surface, or slow objects arriving at lunar escape velocity, if they are well aimed and guided. A network of maglev tracks also operate to transport objects anywhere on the lunar surface.

L4 and L5 SOLAR POWER STATIONS

Materials processed and then ejected from the lunar surface and use laser powered ion rockets powered from lunar surface, to stop at L4 and L5. This allows the assembly of massive power stations a L4 and L5 that are used to propel ships launched from the moon deeper into space.

GEO SOLAR POWER STATIONS

Materials processed and then ejected from the lunar surface and use laser powered ion rockets powered from L4 and L5, to enter GEO orbits around Earth. This allows the assembly of massive power stations at GEO, that are used to propel ships launched from Earth into orbit and beyond.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8xy6YKTu51c

ASTEROIDS

Accelerating at 2 gees for a distance of 996 km attains a speed of 6.25 km/sec - which is sufficient to carry a well aimed payload from Earth Orbit to the asteroid belt in 38 weeks. Once there, similar processes take place there to process asteroids into useful products. Speeds are 1/6th the rate because sunlight is only 220 W/m2 instead of 1368 W/m2.


6.4 nanograms per machine cell,
56.8 microwatts per machine cell in sun,
1.7 million machine cells at the outset,
16.2 seconds replication time.

The moon intercepts 12.97x10^(15) Watts of solar energy. Generating 10 quadrillion watts when fully coated with machine cells. At 56.8 microwatts per cell, this requires at least 228.34x10^(18) cells. This takes 19 minutes to achieve starting with one cell. 13 minutes starting with 1.7 million cells.

Since a cell can be tossed half way around the moon in no less than 64 minutes, using electrostatic or electro magnetic means, if accelerated to 1.6 km/sec, it will take more than an hour to cover the sunlit side of the moon. Since it take 29 days for the sun to come back to the same position in the sky, it will take on the order of two weeks to cover the entire lunar surface with cells.

To avoid negative publicity, it is likely that such a system as described here and above, would land at Daedalus crater a 93 km diameter 3 km deep on the lunar far side, at a third quarter moon, and by the time the moon is a waning crescent, that back side is filled from Mare Marginus to Mare Orientale, all beyond the view of Earthlings, reducing reflectivity dramatically.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped...on-craters.jpg

Though one design feature could be to reflect say 20% of the light - of the local pre-cell terrain - to replicate the moon - only dimmer! Perceived only 50% dimmer by people looking at the moon!

http://www.lutron.com/TechnicalDocum..._Perceived.pdf

One interesting feature of a moon covered with self replicating machine cells, would be the ablity to draw images across the surface of the moon by equipping a certain number of them with variable reflectivity. This permits them to reflect 8x as much light as the moon currently reflects, and appear 3x as bright as the moon now does or 5x as bright as the moon would appear after being covered with solar collectors.

So, you could advertise your logo or other information on the moon. This is something written about in Robert Helinlein's story "The Man Who Sold the Moon".

https://openlibrary.org/books/OL1557..._sold_the_moon

Its also something people are thinking about today

http://www.theverge.com/2014/5/15/57...o-moon-in-2015

10 quadrillion watts of power converts 250,000 tons of rock into 69,250 tons of cells every second. Now the moon is 3340 kg/m3 on average, but the crust averages 2550 kg/m3 with the core up to 5000 kg/m3.

This means at the outset, a total of 98,039 cubic meters of rock is converted to cells every second. Spread across the surface of the moon, this translates to 1.56 mm per week. 81 mm per year. 810 mm per decade.

In terms of present human population, this is 296 tons of cells per year for every man woman and child on Earth. More than four tons of material processed per day per person.

With a laser infrastructure, we could use lasers to lift people off Earth in large numbers;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8xy6YKTu51c

and transport them across the Earth / Moon distance at one gee, taking only 3 hours to transit.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QICCrlmBjvY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-KZXCyBf8o

The moon base consists of a large centrifuge with the sides canted out slightly.

http://www.funfairevents.co.za/image...s/Tornado2.jpg

Much larger than the rides you find at the circus.

A 2.5 km diameter and 0.5 km tall cylinder that is 2.667 km diameter at the top and 2.500 km diameter at the bottom, and rotates 114 m/sec speed completing a round every 2.3 minutes, produces 98.6% gee radially that when added to 1/6th gee downward, produces 1.000 gee directly through the surface canted at an average of 9.6 degrees. The cylinder is held in tracks and suppored magnetically and sports a 20 meter (66 foot) tall roof. At the base of the cylinder 392.7 hectare one gee surface is a stack of 150 moving sidewalks that slow from 114 m/sec to 1 m/sec as the angle relative to the center of rotation changes from 90 degrees to 0 degrees as gravity is reduced from 1 gee to 1/6th gee. Each cylinder contains 62,832 people at the same living standard as Monaco. 117,456 cylinders at the center of a hexagon with 11.1 km length edges, totalling 320 sq km, separated by a distance of 22.2 km.

Each person has access to 5.5 MW of power, and 1 ton of raw material per day. The entire array of centrifuge neighborhoods is produced in 10 days.

It takes about a month to take a few tons of plant and animal cells from Earth and produce sufficient cells to feed 7.38 billion people with adequate diets. This process uses cell cultures fed by organic chemicals that are then shaped into food items using 3D food printers.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eEez9lNh8Uw

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencete...gredients.html

So, once the moon has been transformed in this way, similar payloads are sent to the major asteroids to process these over the next few years;

Name Diam (km) Dimen (km) Dist (AU) Discovered Discoverer Class

1 Ceres 946 965×962×891 2.766 January 1, 1801 Piazzi, G. G
4 Vesta 525.4 572×557×446 2.362 March 29, 1807 Olbers, H. W. V
2 Pallas 512 550×516×476 2.773 March 28, 1802 Olbers, H. W. B
10 Hygiea 431 530×407×370 3.139 April 12, 1849 de Gasparis, A. C
704 Interamnia 326 350×304 3.062 October 2, 1910 Cerulli, V. F
52 Europa 315 380×330×250 3.095 February 4, 1858 Goldschmidt, H. C
511 Davida 289 357×294×231 3.168 May 30, 1903 Dugan, R. S. C
87 Sylvia 286 385×265×230 3.485 May 16, 1866 Pogson, N. R. X
65 Cybele 273 302×290×232 3.439 March 8, 1861 Tempel, E. W. C
15 Eunomia 268 357×255×212 2.643 July 29, 1851 de Gasparis, A. S
3 Juno 258 320×267×200 2.672 September 1, 1804 Harding, K. L. S

Name Mass (×10^18 kg) Precision Approx. prop'n all asteroids
1 Ceres........... 939.3 0.05% (939-940).................. 31%
4 Vesta........... 259.076 0.0004% (259.075-259.077) 8.6%
2 Pallas........... 201 6.4% (188-214)..................... 6.7%
10 Hygiea....... 86.7 1.7% (85.2-88.4)................... 2.9%
31 Euphrosyne 58.1 34% (38.4-77.8).................... 1.9%
704 Interamnia 38.8 4.6% (37.0-40.6)................... 1.3%
511 Davida...... 37.7 5.2% (35.7-39.7)................... 1.3%
532 Herculina. 33 17% (27-39).......................... 1.1%
15 Eunomia..... 31.8 0.9% (31.5-32.1).................... 1.1%
3 Juno............ 28.6 16% (24.0-33.2).................... 0.95%

http://www.orionsarm.com/im_store/bishop.jpg
http://www.iase.cc/openair.htm

A total of 1,704.1 x 10^15 tons is available at 10 locations. At 35% material utilitsation, and 10 tons per square meter, 59.6 billion square kilometers may be built, in the form of Bishop Rings. With a 2,000 km diameter ring that's 68.5 km wide, each ring has a surface area of 137,000 sq km and a mass of 1.37 trillion tons. This is 435,354 Bishop Rings each 2000 km in diameter each separated by a distance of 5,685 km when evenly spaced around the asteroid belt.

Each Bishop Ring starts with a human population of 16,952 people from Earth's moon. Each person is allocated 8 sq km. Another 0.08 km allocated as common area for each colony. This is a central city for each ring, totalling 1356.08 sq km. At the outset 8 hectares are allocated here per person (in the central city) which is 1% of the area allocated to each person in the rest of the Bishop Ring.

So, extracting people from Earth to join the off-world colonies;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sZNzz4SaTYk

using resources extracted from the moon, and later expanded to the asteroids and to Mars, we have

Lunar Centrifuge at this population density (16,000 / km2)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aDgkKYMZrN4

Bishop Ring 'starter'city at this population density (64 hectares/home)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IWpjqtzFmaY

Family of Four 64 sq km Estate population density
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1cSB0_tgnN4

Meanwhile, the few who remain on Earth oversee the use of this technology to rid the Earth of the excesses of 20th century industry and over-population, while building one billion time shares serviced by advanced automation for each of 8 persons to visit up to one month per year on average.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZOlgC79Fqf8

This could be achieved in less than five years, once certain details are worked out fully. Yet, this won't be enough, as Carl Sagan pointed out 40 years ago which gives us the tools and skills to expand outward to the stars.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WjzzGawND3s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q6goNzXrmFs


A maglev hyperloop type ring that circles the sun at a distance of 2.7 AU provides a solar powered means to quickly visit any of the nearly half million ring colonies. You take off from the open air colony in a laser powered spacecraft entering a hyperloop type path going in the direction you want. The path has a certain speed associated with each lane, and as you ascend lanes you increase speed. The spacecraft accelerates at a constant gee force and orients the cabin to maintain normal gee forces in the cabin. Autostereoscopic displays make it seem like the ship is stationary to the outside world, with transparent walls. At 100 km range, the entry lane starts at 1.4 km/sec. This ship continues to accelerate, moving from lane to lane as it increases speed.

Each neighbouring ring, 5500 km distant, takes 25 minutes to reach at one gee. A ring 25 rings distant takes two hours to reach. Any one of 847,600 persons may be reached in this amount of time.

It takes 34.2 hours acceleration at one gee to reach a speed of 1,210.8 km/sec in this way. The interesting thing about this detail is that with a radius of 2.7 AU, the radial acceleration is 1 gee! So, further acceleration is not possible without stressing the travellers. This occurs at a linear arc distance of 1/2 AU, or one 16th the total circumference. 22.5 degrees.. In 68.8 hours starting from any point, any one of 1.84 billion persons may be reached.

Travelling at a constant 1,210.8 km/sec around a 2.7 AU arc, for 7 AU arc length, reaches the deceleration point in 10 days, so in 12.86 days anyone living anywhere in any of the habitat rings may be visited.

Once fully proven, another 132 Bishop Colony Habitats each 2000 km in diameter each 12.56 million sq km in area, can be shipped from the moon or the asteroid belt, to create Earth centered colony ring. This provides 22.4 hectares per person for 7.38 billion persons. This is the ultimate destination of those remaining on Earth, as they return the planet to pre-human habitation, excepting historically important areas and recreational areas.

Moving at 20.3 km/sec at this GEO radius provides a 1 gee outward pull. So, traveling along a hyperloop connecting the 132 colonies is limited to this speed. It takes 35 minutes to get to this speed and 1.5 hours to get to the opposite side of the ring. It takes an hour at 1 gee to move from the colonies to Earth's surface. 2.5 hours to move from the colonies to the surface of the moon.

  #22  
Old March 9th 16, 03:18 PM posted to sci.space.policy
William Mook[_2_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 3,840
Default Moon Base L2 for Solar Sail Assembly Line

Now efficient photonic laser thrusters reproduce power levels across their surfaces to produce sensible thrust. So it is likely that systems that use such technology will adapt it to build self replicating machine systems on the solar surface creating an intelligent sun that responds to coded commands for power and even material from a star with high metallicity.

Post singularity humanity will reach out from its cradle embracing first it's moon and then the inner solar system. Shortly thereafter it will reach out and control the sun. A photonic laser thruster efficiently imparts momentum to a payload at any speed. So we can tell today at what rate any star can support traffic based on use of this technology knowing the stars power level. This is given by the surface Temperature and surface area of a star. The sun for example converts 4 million tons per second to energy. This is from E=mc2. Now F=E/c. So F=mc. So the sun has the capacity to exert 4 billion kg X 300 meters per second. Or 1.2 billion billion Newrons. It can lift 122 trillion tons at one gee. Final speed determines mass flow rate.. A constant boost for 3 years star time gets payloads to 95% c. This takes about 6x the red ads as energy. So without recycling of photons from a paired star about 20 trillion tons per year is the limit of traffic around Sol.. At 10 tons per person this translates to 2 trillion people per year. At 1..15% population growth rate this limits population to 175 trillion around Sol. A population we will reach in 2197 years. Or years or by 4213 AD. Well before that we will leave sol. We will ever in space colony sized ships that move at 95% light speed while we slumber in hibernation while more rapidly moving drones move ahead at 97% light speed to prepare a place for us. This means that we hardly replicate at all during transit As we expand in all directions across space we suffer inevitable accident and loss. This combination of features reduces density over time as humanity expAnds its sphere of influence. Assuming starships are as safe as airliners and starting with 12 billions leaving Sol at just over natural population increase the solar system fAlls to 1 billion as distant settlers visit sol and loss rate stops expansion due to vehicle loss beyond 10 000 light year radius.
  #23  
Old March 9th 16, 03:53 PM posted to sci.space.policy
William Mook[_2_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 3,840
Default Moon Base L2 for Solar Sail Assembly Line

Auto correct made some unfortunate omissions and iPhone is not easy or accurate to type on. Red ads should read rest mass. Entire phrases were dropped along with the word million as in 300 million meters per second as light speed not 300

LOL

 




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