Do we have enough surplus energy for this manufacturing proposed?
Made In Space: Manufacturing fiber optic cable could become the first space-based industryMAY 4, 2017 BY KENDRA R CHAMBERLAIN
Made In Space has built what it calls a “miniature fiber-pulling machine” that’s about the size of a microwave oven, which will be flown to the International Space Station (ISS) later this summer on SpaceX’s Dragon.
QuoteMade In Space: Manufacturing fiber optic cable could become the first space-based industryMAY 4, 2017 BY KENDRA R CHAMBERLAINhttps://thedownlink.co/2017/05/04/made-in-space-manufacturing-fiber-optic-cable-could-become-the-first-space-based-industry/Includes:QuoteMade In Space has built what it calls a “miniature fiber-pulling machine” that’s about the size of a microwave oven, which will be flown to the International Space Station (ISS) later this summer on SpaceX’s Dragon.So CRS 12 I assume?
Bigelow Expandable Activity Module (BEAM) Shield Installation: The crew ingressed the BEAM and installed a Radiation Environment Monitor (REM) shield onto the REM sensor. This shield is a 1.1 mm thick component produced by the 3D printer on the ISS. BEAM is an experimental expandable module attached to the ISS. Expandable habitats greatly decrease the amount of transport volume required for future space missions. These “expandables” weigh less and take up less room on a rocket than a traditional module while allowing additional space for living and working. They also provide protection from solar and cosmic radiation, space debris, and other contaminants. Crews traveling to the moon, Mars, asteroids, or other destinations could possibly use them as habitable structures.
How much energy is needed in order to run the fiber making machine?
Quote from: Prober on 08/24/2016 04:08 pmDo we have enough surplus energy for this manufacturing proposed?The energy requirement looks to be the heating of the source material and then the cooling of the fiber. So to produce the amounts at the rates being discussed by MIS, it should not take much power in a % value of that available on ISS or even on a more power constrained BA330 module. These are small NAROO (no assembly required on orbit) rack mount boxes that are doing the work not some large built up system. To produce from 6 to 14 km of fiber a 2 kg block of source material is what is being brought to a melting point. It takes ~20Mj to melt the 2 kg block and that is equivelent to just ~6 kwh. Meaning to also cool it would require 12kwh to produce the entire fiber from the source block. If the unit only pulls 200w it would take ~60hours (2 1/2 days) to produce the complete fiber.So the amount of power used by these boxes is almost trivial to the other power requirements of the ISS or other space-station such as a BA330.A BTW that 6km of fiber at $300/m let alone the $3000/m price is worth $1.8M. At $3,000/m it is worth $18M.
http://spaceangels.com/post/beam-celebrates-birthday-receives-3d-printed-radiation-shieldingExcellent article from Space Angels with lots of interesting links.Sent from my SM-G570Y using Tapatalk
ISS Daily Summary Report – 5/29/2017Posted on May 29, 2017 at 4:00 pm by HQ.Manufacturing Device (MD): The Manufacturing Device failed to complete the 12 hour print of a Radiation Environment Monitoring shield on Friday and during a second attempt yesterday. The REM shield was to be installed in the BEAM during ingress later this week. The Made-In-Space team is assessing the anomaly. The MD – Additive Manufacturing Facility (AMF) enables the production of components on the ISS to meet both NASA and commercial objectives. Parts, entire experiments, and tools can be created on demand utilizing the AMF. The AMF is capable of producing parts using a wide variety of thermopolymers, including engineered plastics.
In-Space industrialization is just a small step away.For large amounts a DragonLab dedicated flight could produce quite a lot of fiber per flight. I believe the data was that 1 kg of source equates to 3km of fiber. So for 1 mt of fiber manufactured in a 2mt plant would produce 3,000,000 meters of fiber. At a sale price of $100/meter (that is less than the current price for the worst quality fiber) the revenue would be $300M. The cost of the flight of both the Dragon2 and F9 (both of which are reused) at about $100M/flight results in $200M profit. Because of the enormous amount of fiber this represents is why I used just $100/m for this supper quality fiber instead of its value when very little of it is available of $3,000/m.If I had used the $3,000/m the revenue from a single flight would be $3B!!!!!!!!!!!!So there is a lot of room for high costs of space travel.
Quote from: oldAtlas_Eguy on 05/13/2017 02:11 amIn-Space industrialization is just a small step away.For large amounts a DragonLab dedicated flight could produce quite a lot of fiber per flight. I believe the data was that 1 kg of source equates to 3km of fiber. So for 1 mt of fiber manufactured in a 2mt plant would produce 3,000,000 meters of fiber. At a sale price of $100/meter (that is less than the current price for the worst quality fiber) the revenue would be $300M. The cost of the flight of both the Dragon2 and F9 (both of which are reused) at about $100M/flight results in $200M profit. Because of the enormous amount of fiber this represents is why I used just $100/m for this supper quality fiber instead of its value when very little of it is available of $3,000/m.If I had used the $3,000/m the revenue from a single flight would be $3B!!!!!!!!!!!!So there is a lot of room for high costs of space travel.I think the key consideration is scale and market size. Previous calculations about running a massive fiber production operation in space assume there is unlimited demand for this ultra-high quality fiber at current prices. Most likely there is not and the price is linked to the volume.If a company wants to target that ultra-high quality fiber market, it will probably do small scale production on the ISS or in some other shared format.If the goal is to create thousands+ km of this for applications where it is replacing an existing silica fiber, the price of the product should be more in line with existing costs. There is not some urgent life threatening need to replace all our fiber optics. But if the cost is comparable, upgrades will happen (or within reason at least). From looking online (assuming the # of fibers should be multiplied by the length) I see bulk fiber in the $1 to $2/meter range if calculating it per fiber not per cable.Point is there is a need to understand the market size of the various sub-markets in terms of finished product. So there might be a market for 5-10 kg of fiber spooling in space at prices that make it viable. But then order of magnitude cost reductions required to access markets with fiber demand in terms of tons. This all isn't necessarily a bad thing or to imply its impossible, just a reminder of natural market dynamics.