Nanofactory engineering
From Wise Nano
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Mass of support hardware
The "Primitive Nanofactory" paper gives an estimate of the mass of the nanofactory itself. But how much will all its support systems weigh? If they weigh more than a few kilograms, duplication time will be affected. Several of the functions listed below, including cooling, power supply, and feedstock processing, may increase the support mass.
Talk:Nanofactory engineering/support mass
Cooling
Nanofactories, especially early ones, may take a lot of power. How can they be cooled? How much mass will this require? How efficient will it be? Will the equipment be buildable by nanofactory?
- Thermionic effect
- Sonic refrigeration
- Cold environment(space, deep ocean)
- Peltier effect
- Diffuse structure (tree-like?)
- Conventional refrigeration cycle
Even without any clever engineering, it appears that a nanofactory can be cooled by a Sterling-cycle cooler, and that sufficient coolers to remove 150 kW of waste heat will weigh at most 1 kg.
Talk:Nanofactory engineering/cooling
Power supply
Solar collection surfaces can be made quite thin, and structures to support them can be quite light (inflatable). This does not appear to be a significant mass drain. CVD diamond thermionic solar cells have been demonstrated in the lab.
Talk:Nanofactory engineering/power supply
Feedstock processing
Petrochemical (hydrocarbon) feedstock may be made by the kiloton already. This will allow duplication up to a point. Beyond that, or if the feedstock is not currently made industrially, feedstock manufacturing systems will have to be built to support the nanofactories. How much can we say about automated small-scale or microfluidic chemical production, before we know what chemical will be required?
Talk:Nanofactory engineering/feedstock processing
CAD software
Big unknowns here...
Talk:Nanofactory engineering/CAD software
Operations Concept
How the nanofactory will be used has a big impact on the constraints driving design choices. This is a strawman description of the basic nanofactory operations scenario. This will describe one situation for using it, a family of opscons covering all possible uses will eventually be developed and placed on a different page. If a conflict between the published nanofactory design and the opscon is discovered the opscon should be corrected to match the design. The intent of the opscon is to guide development of further design details.
- The nanofactory will be deployed outdoors in an unimproved open area with a temperate climate.
- The nanofactory will operate day and night in all weather.
- Human users will deliver preprocessed feedstock to the cooling unit reservoir for mixing with the ice capsules.
- Feedstock waste products will will stored in a closed reservoir for later disposal by a human user.
- Production instructions will be transmitted to the nanofactory by a standard wireless protocol.
- Finished products will be stored on top of the nanofactory for removal by human user.
