peregrinkm OP t1_j8dkjt3 wrote on February 13, 2023 at 2:58 PM

Reply to comment by Scoobywagon in Would an arcology be conceivably possible? by peregrinkm

I see, thank you. What if it could be made primarily from materials available in space, like on the moon, in asteroids, or on Mars?

honbeee t1_j8eraip wrote on February 13, 2023 at 7:47 PM

If the materials were gathered in space, they would need to go back down to earth in order to be made into the parts of an arcology that would then be assembled in space.

The cost of moving that much material from Earth into space would be immense. If I were to guess, it'd probably be more likely that we'd need to build factories (or whatever means of production is necessary) in space. Factories on the moon

peregrinkm OP t1_j8g041f wrote on February 14, 2023 at 12:53 AM

Yes, factories on the moon would make it less energy consuming to assemble it in space. But they should put them on the side of the moon that faces away from earth, so they don't make it ugly.

Scoobywagon t1_j8frqq0 wrote on February 13, 2023 at 11:51 PM

we do not have the ability, for the moment, to gather and process materials in space, either from an asteroid, or the moon, or Mars. There have been several thought experiments centered on how to do that sort of thing and what we should expect in terms of the materials produced. But we have not built anything that I know of to try and prove or disprove any of that.