A Solar-Concentrator Sintering Furnace for Orbital Production from Metal Powder: Collection Area, Thermal and Throughput Budgets

This paper presents a computed design study, SIMULATED, NOT MEASURED, for sintered gears, filters and porous flow elements in orbit, using gas-atomised steel and nickel powder. The operating principle is distinct from neighbouring production methods: a deployable parabolic concentrator collects sunlight and focuses it onto a small rotating furnace cavity, raising powder compacts to sintering temperature without any electrical heating element. No laser, electron gun or arc supply is carried; the energy source is direct solar flux, and the sizing question becomes one of mirror area, concentration ratio and eclipse-period storage rather than of electrical power. Sizing follows from budgets computed in the accompanying script rather than from analogy with terrestrial equipment. The headline figures are a specific energy of 1.31 megajoules per kilogram of product, an installed electrical power of 8 kilowatts, a production rate of 22 kilograms per hour, and an annual throughput of 1.74e+05 kilograms over 330 operating days. Rejecting 4.4 kilowatts of waste heat at 360 kelvin requires 5.25 square metres of radiator, a photovoltaic supply requires 19.6 square metres of array, and the installed mass is 614 kilograms. Moving feedstock from a 400 kilometre to an 800 kilometre orbit costs 217 metres per second of velocity change. The study is a computed study with no targeting or weapon application; it concerns civilian production equipment only, and none of its figures is a measurement.