DIYbanter - View Single Post - Self-Reproducing Machine Tools

On 03 Oct 2003 11:56:53 GMT, ( Doug Goncz ) wrote:
Yes, and for the simplest part copying process one machine goes down and one
machine goes to work. They may be different-class for any one and likely most
tasks, but E a task | a pair of identical machine tools are required.

You're implicitly assuming that to replicate a part you need an identical
part on hand as a template. But that's not a requirement. All you really
need is a print.

For your postulated Mars machine shop, the mass of prints (most likely
CAD files) is a lot less than the mass of unnecessarily duplicated machines.
Payload mass fraction is *the* critical limit on space flight.

Seems to me you should be trying to discover the fewest number of
machines necessary to replicate a machine shop, given full sets of
plans for all the machines to be produced. I don't think you'd find it
necessary to have identical pairs of any machine tool in order to do
that.

Gary