/sci/ - Science & Math

>>3314093
>>The pinnacle of our space robotics consists of slow, limited rovers that get stuck on rocks and dust.
What's wrong with slow? Moving slow consumes less power. Also, current space robots generally go alone, if robots were to operate in groups, they could help other robots get unstuck. Though in a self-replicating factory there's not really any need to get robots unstuck as long as it's able to replicate and produce more robots than it loses(or recycle them).

Also the longest operating space rover, Lunokhod 2 did not fail by getting stuck in the dust, it failed due to cooling system failure.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunokhod_2
>>prospecting
take out prospect, if your replicator needs to use weird super rare minerals that can only be obtained from small veins of minerals, you're doing it wrong. There's no need to prospect.
>>mining
Take out mine, replace with move moon dust into chemical processing sector.
>>refining
Refining, well that's a bit hard, but not impossible. The main issue isn't automating it, but doing refining without stuff imported from earth, as we aren't used to doing refining in a space environment.
>>forging
A great deal of forging today is or can be automated, but there's really not much reason to do forging on the moon, molding makes more sense.
>> all packed in one robot
Who says it needs to be one robot

>>3314143
It's called a feasibility study faggot

so /sci/ lets do something useful, let's find out if it's possible to build a practical efficient electrical motor on the Moon from stuff on the Moon for usage on the Moon. Why? Because if we want to build self-replicating robot factories on the moon we're gonna need robots capable of moving.

Things to keep in mind:
-You can only use the elements listed here:
http://www.islandone.org/MMSG/aasm/AASM5E.html#t513
-use them wisely
-Samarium, Cobalt, Nickel, Copper, Neodymium, Carbon, and Bismuth are not on this list
-aluminum is A LOT more abundant than copper on the moon
-basalt is very common on the Moon, it can be spun into thin threads and wrapped around wire to be used as an insulator
-there's no air on the Moon, which means you have to use radiative cooling for your motor
-there's no air on the Moon, which means iron won't rust, sulfur can be used for structural/insulating parts, and molten sodium won't spontaneously explode

>>1306974
Why can't everything be automated?
>>1307039
Highly advanced machinery isn't free, it cost matter and energy to make. Make the highly advanced machinery capable of automatically transforming matter and energy into advanced machinery and use your advanced machinery to turn out advanced machinery.

TL;DR version: make self replicating robot factories and take advantage of exponentials