Space-Based Manufacturing from Nonterrestrial Materials

The front flap provides the following explanation for this book: "...mankind may be ready for another bold concept- the establishment of permanent inhabited space colonies held in position by the forces of the earth, moon, and sun. Some of the most important engineering problems are dealt with in this book- how to gather material resources from the nearby moon or even nearby asteroids, how to convert the materials chemically and physically to useful forms, how to construct such gigantic space structures and how to plan and finance so vast a program.... This book represents a pioneer foray into the subject..." One review states: "Mass Drivers are often called "theoretical" but they aren't. Three famous prototypes were made; one at MIT (Kolm, O'Neill, Drexler, Fine), MD2 was Princeton-SSI and MD3 was SSI. If you are interested in the tech, then this book should be part of your research."