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One thing I question is all of the materials that originate from petroleum, like polymers. I'm sure there's sufficient quantities of ore on other planets but an
by wildzzz 3y ago
One thing I question is all of the materials that originate from petroleum, like polymers. I'm sure there's sufficient quantities of ore on other planets but anything made from polymers is going to only come from Earth. Are we just shipping the precursors to the moon and Mars or are we sending polymer products (Kevlar, Kapton, Tefzel, pretty much Dupont's entire high reliability catalog) to these places? Many synthetic polymers still rely on precursors that come from petroleum. It would require significant changes in how we produce many of the products we take for granted on Earth to be able to make them off-earth without just shipping massive tankers full of chemicals.
- zabzonk 3y agoyes, really my first question is not "how do we make chip fabs?", but "how do we make insulated wire?"
- nradov 3y agoIn theory you can synthesize petroleum, polymers, or any similar chemicals out of elemental hydrogen / carbon / oxygen / nitrogen / etc. It just takes enormous amounts of energy, some expensive catalysts, and an large heavy physical plant. So in practice we're not going to be able to do chemical manufacturing in space at scale for several centuries at least.
- twic 3y agoFor hydrocarbons, we build chemical plants on Titan: https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Space_Science/Cassini-Huygens/Titan_s_surface_organics_surpass_oil_reserves_on_Earth https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Space_Science/Cassin...