/sci/ - Science & Math

>>11317474
Well you'd probably swap out a conventional steam turbine for a Stirling engine+alternator, you keep the cold loop in perpetual shade and concentrate all of your sunlight onto the hot loop end. You'd probably have to send it up in multiple large parts, personally I'd try to figure out some kind of reflector material that was flexible but didn't disintegrate with prolonged UV exposure. You would want a cheap superheavy lift rocket to perform the transfer of materiel from Earth to a parking orbit, the stages could simply be parked in a line based on the steps of assembly. When that's done another superheavy lifter volley would bring up packages of extra supplies and other sundry construction materials, and a final volley would carry several large expandable habitat modules like Bigelow or SNC are working on to form a semi-permanent base for a large construction crew. Robots and boom arms can do much of the heavy lifting work but the delicate touch of humans will still probably be required for a lot of it, ideally spars to hold reflectors and reflectors themselves can be built to unfurl from a more compact state, making assembly easier, reflectors will start out turned away from the sun. Once all components of the powerplant are assembled you could start by turning just a few reflectors towards the sun to test it, then bringing it fully online over a period of time. The habitats could be moved into position and permanently attached to the powerplant so that a small crew can remain on site to both monitor and repair the plant if necessary.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GqIapDKtvzc Here's a good breakdown of stirling engines.