Fig. 9. Mechanically free grains of lunar iron metal (angular) and background lunar dust. weight of metallic iron grains which can be extracted electrostatically or magnetically (Fig. 9). This iron and the silicate dust can be used in powder metallurgy and sintering manufacturing to build a wide range of tools and useful goods. More extraction equipment can be made from the extracted iron and dust. The iron grains should be useful for production by means of the starting kits. Conceivably, these starting kits could be worked remotely to establish a major powder metallurgy industry in space (80). Much learning can take place on Earth and be demonstrated in LEO and on the moon. Production techniques used in glass/ceramic/cast basalt manufacturing, chemical refining of lunar materials, or engineering materials development (aluminum, iron, silicon, titanium, oxides, etc.) could take place on Earth and be demonstrated in LEO. Initial Earth and space projects will be very small, essentially laboratory scale. Remember, one shuttle is expected to carry into orbit the mass equivalent of one penny per second. Thus, many different processes can be developed and tested. It will be reasonable to experiment in orbit on equipment which is of the prototype scale. However, the economic returns from such equipment can be significant due to the potentially high cost savings ($/kg) and growth compared to bringing the equivalent materials from Earth. It is intuitively appealing to expect greater growth rate in the use of mass in space than on Earth. Refer to Table 7. Both thermal and electric power systems in space will be very mass efficient (low tons/GW), offer precise control over heating and cooling even enormous objects, not require transport of fuel, should require little maintenance, be quick to make, and should have energy payback times of a few days. Energy and power should be readily available and cheap. An extremely wide range of completely controllable, unique conditions (not just zero-gravity and/or
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