| abstract
| - Stationary Clusters represent the second phase of telerobotic settlement, building on the facilities of the Beachhead outpost while accommodating a somewhat ad hoc settlement location and reliance on open environment telerobots with fairly crude manipulative abilities. Beachhead landers would have limited ability to pick precise landing sites, hence the need to deploy them in groups in the rough vicinity of a prospective permanent outpost location. One of their key tasks is to perform a nearby topography survey to pick out likely sites for the more permanent surface outpost, ideally in close proximity to a rock outcropping or cliff face that can be excavated for the fully permanent settlement. But before that intensive construction work can begin, a more sophisticated yet still largely exposed transitional surface outpost facility must be setup nearby to provide support for this excavation work as well as for the much more intensive exploration of the surface using larger longer-range semi-autonomous exploratory vehicles. In some situations, a number of these transitional outposts may be necessary. Thus we arrive at the need for Stationary Cluster Systems. The name Stationary Cluster derives from the kinds of hardware these outposts would be based on. Beachhead outposts are centered on a key lander vehicle whose position is somewhat random. The Stationary Cluster is ‘installed’ by utility robots –primarily payload recovery robots– in a very specific location and is based on self-contained modular units that are positioned by robot arms/cranes and then ‘deployed’ in place. These modules would take the forms of simple boxes and containers, many about the size and shape of a front-loading washing machine or a rack-mount computer system, that have built-in leveling legs and a series of function and service ports, some being designed to link together into large systems. Thus the outpost is formed as a cluster of such systems, surrounded by similarly deployed power, communications, robot service, and other facilities. The technology for Stationary Cluster Systems would likely derive from lab and factory module designs for the MUOL - Modular Unmanned Orbital Laboratory of the early Asgard orbital settlement phase and like these the cluster system modules would be largely sealed appliance-like machines designed for whole replacement rather than intricate repair because, in the dusty exposed surface environment, opening these units for maintenance would not be practical. Like the MUOL modules, these would be either largely solid-state systems or feature a self-contained environment complete with its small integrated internal service robots. They would likely be delivered whole as a single payload of a rough or soft lander system and some larger systems might be restricted to soft lander delivery and towing to the cluster site. In addition to these more self-contained systems, the cluster outpost would also deploy a variety of structures and systems at its periphery. Chief among these would be energy systems and high power telecommunications transceivers. There would also be simple deployable sheds, used as a reduced-dust shelter for robot maintenance and supply storage. We’ll discuss these in more detail in the next section. For now, let’s discuss some of the more common Stationary Cluster System modules.
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