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Originally Posted by FriedPhoton
But that's the point. We could intentionally use materials that would be useful. Why not make greater use of carbon fiber composites or plastics high in carbon? I'm sure with a little imagination almost everything that is sent up could be reusable.
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And how much technology (masswise) would be needed to convert that resource to a reasonable form?
While I do agree that re-usability should be considered, it just doesn't sound like it's all that practicle.
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Originally Posted by FriedPhoton
As for the junk ferrying problem, as mentioned in the show, NASA is already planning on building robots and such to help remove debris from orbit and fetch satellites for repair.
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Planning or studying? There's a big difference, and the context is important. Since I haven't seen it, I'd like a bit more information before I dispute this.
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Originally Posted by FriedPhoton
There's too much stuff in orbit now, the junk needs to be cleaned up. A space dump would make sense.
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Deorbiting space junk is much simpler than moving it. No matter what method you use, you still need to rendezvous. That's going to be expensive.
It takes a relatively small delta-v to bring an orbiting object into a low enough orbit for re-entry. It takes a huge delta-v to send it off to the moon. So now that solution has just added a whole lot of fuel to to the equation.
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Originally Posted by FriedPhoton
Oh, and just because metals are available on the moon doesn't mean they'll be easier to mine, refine, and forge than it would be to recycle materials that have already been made.
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Before we even talk about converting or recycling material to a useable form, what about actual construction using that material. At this point it's easier to construct it here and send it.