and reflectors are positioned by equipment on two of the facilities sites for deployment. The construction facility provides a platform for connection and deployment of the power distribution cabling. Two portions of the facility are devoted to antenna construction. Machines for structural fabrication and assembly will build up . the primary structure and subarray support structure. Other machines will install antenna subarrays. A part of the construction facility will be devoted to manufacture of the subarrays in a pressurized environment. This is conceived of as an assembly-line operation principally in a shirtsleeve environment. Subarray manufacture could be done in low-Earth orbit (LEO) to reduce the personnel logistics requirements. 2. Orbital construction and support equipment.- The orbital construction and support equipment is the manned equipment required to 5- monitor the machines in the construction base, to service them, to inspect subsystem installation, and to perform contingency operations. Manned remote-control manipulators will be provided with a shirt-sleeve environment for man-machine operations. Manipulators will be used for acquiring, positioning, alining, holding, and assembling of subsystem components. Conceptually, there would be facility manipulators attached to the construction facility and mobile manipulators able to move along the SPS structure. Extravehicular activity (EVA) capability for contingencies will be provided by EVA modules that house all of the associated EVA equipment hardware, its checkout facility, recharge, stowage and donning facilities, and an airlock to gain access to the vacuum environment. Manned maneuvering units (MMU) may be necessary to support contingency operations. 3. Logistics facility.- The principal function of the logistics facility is as a "warehouse" in orbit to provide the capability for receiving, storing, and distributing supplies, construction materials, fuels, spare parts, and maintenance tools. A storage and distribution capability will be needed because of the magnitude of materials traffic. A docking port module will be an integral part of the logistics facility and will be used for loading/unloading and servicing arriving and departing orbital transfer vehicles. Materials and personnel will be transferred to other elements of the construction base by means of the attached transit system. Maintenance, repair, refurbishment, and servicing for construction equipment and vehicle systems will be done in the docking/ servicing maintenance module. Fuel storage and fuel transfer operations will also be provided by this module. 4. Integration management facility.- Because of the number of daily arriving and departing orbital transfer vehicles, the displacement of construction base elements, timing or sequence of construction operations, and communications between construction base elements, transportation vehicles, and the ground, a management facility "air traffic control center"
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