Orbital Economic Infrastructure

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In order for the space industry to be self sufficient, there must be a system of space stations in orbit that would compose a type of economic infrastructure. There must be greenhouse stations, which would necessarily be centrifugal since the roots of plants are gravitropic, and such stations could also be used for pre-reentry quarters for people returning to Earth and needing to restore muscle tone. There already is plenty of communications infrastructure with the satellites in orbit presently. There would need to be stations for housing cargo which would be better as non-rotating structures. Zero-g manufacturing plants taking advantage of the properties of space would allow for some return on investment. Shipyards would allow for the construction of vehicles with capabilities beyond that which can be built and launched from the surface of the Earth. Using such ships to transport supplies, equipment, crew and using the vehicles as initial lunar habitats would allow for lunar mining of raw materials. These are just a few example ideas of what I think would be essential steps for starting a self sustaining space industry, as opposed to merely having ground supported laboratories. What other infrastructure components would be necessary?

Any ideas for other necessary infrastructure components? Perhaps like transportation hubs for personnel and cargo vessels?

You first need to inexpensive means of reaching orbit otherwise the entire thing is cost prohibitive.

Long range communication will require vast improvement. Wouldn't microwaves and radio-waves dissipate after a certain point? How far could you leave earth before communication became chancy? although these are likely problems for farther on.

He's talking about the Earth-moon system, or maybe as far as mars. Hes not talking about interstellar space.
We had no trouble keeping in touch with the human astronauts on the Moon back in 1969, nor with the automatated golf cart like robots that explored Mars in the 21st centurey. So thats not a problem.
Hes NOT talking about going boldly where no man has gone before, but about going back to where weve already been and making it pay.
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One thing you would need would be energy. Back in the eighties they talked about building space colonies in rotating cylinders that would orbit at Lagrange points in the earth-moon system. They talked about powering them with the solar energy which would be more accessible outside of the Earth's atmosphere. They even talked about building solar sattelites that would collect surplus solar energy and beam it back to the earth via mircowave and actually export power to the earth ( ie compete with the Arabs in selling energy). I dont know what happened to the idea since.

Mono filament space elevator.

ruveyn

Space elevators are definitely an answer. In addition I think space planes, though in their infancy, will in time provide easier access to space. As for orbital infrastructure, I think the various Lagrange points provide good places to put refueling/hydroponic stations. Orbital spacecraft construction will also require some infrastructure so perhaps the counterweight on the various space elevators could serve as a construction site as well, as you can literally send resources straight to the factory. So I can see there being 'industrial' space elevators and also 'passenger' space elevators. Stanford Torus type space stations would probably be ideal for the Lagrange point infrastructure. Also I think a network of deep space communication satellites for transferring messages to the other side of the sun (say, for a Mars mission) will probably be necessary if we want constant communications with our guys out there. They could also complement the STEREO system currently in place for monitoring the sun for mass ejections or other hazards

Wouldn't the placement of satellites for transferring messages around the sun make sense to be in a closer orbit around the Sun than the Earth is? That way the travel time for the signal is reduced. We're 8 light-minutes away from the sun, so if we were to have three satellites equidistant at Earth's radius the travel time between two of them would be,

(8,0) (-4 , 6.9), -4 - 8 = -12; 6.9; Sqrt (-12^12 + 6.9^2) = Sqrt (144 + 47.61) =Sqrt (192) = 13.8 light minutes distance between each satellite.


Having the satellites closer to the sun would allow for the reduction of signal transit time.

Yeah that is true. What I meant by 'deep space' is not close to Earth, they could be at Mercury's orbit, or perhaps near Venus

Wasn't that deemed impractical due to the earth's polar axis shift? If by that you mean the idea of some sort of super-rope up to the sky where payloads would be winched up... rotation, earth atmosphere forces plus polar axis shifting would make it very dangerous.

I also read a mass driver would work.. for non-crewed stuff. basically a giant cannon to shoot stuff into orbit rather than use a rocket.

Perhaps have communication rigs thereabouts, basically just robotic satellites like most around Earth for communications, and have - after the colonization of Mars is finally underway - have some manned space stations in orbit around the Sun between the orbits of Mars and Earth so as to allow for cargo storage and transfer (allowing for each ship to have less of a journey between destination ports) as well as fuel storage and have accompanying stations for growing food and residency. Have some hangars for fighter craft also as piracy in space would occur eventually so it would be better to be prepared for it.