Patent ID: 11874061
Assignee: NORTHROP GRUMMAN SYSTEMS CORPORATION
Field: Transport (Mechanical engineering)
Classification: CPC F  B  Y | IPC B  F

Claim 10:
11. A system for manufacturing a space-based component, said system comprising:
means for collecting and capturing space debris directly from and suspended in space;
means for heating the collected space debris using solar radiation in a temperature controlled manner so that the amount of heat provided by the solar radiation selectively, separately and independently melts different constituent elements and compounds in the space debris that have different melting points;
means for collecting the different constituent elements and compounds as they are being separately melted;
means for storing the separately melted different constituent elements and compounds in a molten, solid or vapor form; and
means for fabricating the space-based component using the stored and separately melted different constituent elements and compounds.