User:Farred/Remote Controlled Industry
Remote Controlled Industry on Earth
Developing remote controlled industry on the moon is helped by experience in remote controlled industry on Earth. Some industries on Earth are dangerous and difficult for workers, and some of these gained experience with remote controled industry. The painting of parts for assembly in various manufacturing industries uses many robots in environments that are not suitable for people. Workers control things from outside the paint booth. Some dangerous work in mining has been given over to robots.
The mining of methane clathrates at the ocean bottoms could benefit from the use of some remote controlled devices at the ocean bottom. While clathrate mining does not seem ripe for big profits immediately, methane produces less CO2 per unit energy than coal, and energy markets could change at any time.
The filling of undersea valleys and cutting through undersea hills could also benefit from the use of remote controlled devices at the ocean bottom in the process of laying level immersed tube tunnels. Some under-sea handling of pipelines and cables is already done by remotely operated equipment.
All of the experiences of remote controlled industry on Earth should be collected and analyzed for the benefit of establishing remote controlled industry on the moon.
Humanity is almost ready to establish remotely controlled industry on the moon. There still needs to be some research in the means of thermal control on the moon, the protection of machines from dust and the planning of the exact processes and marketing that will be the base of the industry. For example the handling of raw materials, processes and products in the FFC process could be adapted to remote control on the moon. This would result in producing iron, titanium, nickel, aluminum, silicon, calcium, and magnesium from the regolith without the expense of maintaining life support for people to do the labor. Calcium and magnesium and their alloys could be used as structural metals on the moon and in cis-lunar space since there is no ambient free oxygen to worry about. People need practice using these materials in novel ways. Constructing numerous solar power stations in geosynchronous orbit could provide the power to support Earth's population until space habitats and orbiting runways could prepare for emigration from Earth. It will require careful marketing and timing of production to match the market.
See also
Progress in Remotely Operated Equipment
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[[category:Robots]]
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