@MolbOrg for the moment i've managed to figure out my problems, but there are sure to be more. two russian guys wrote verge3d. they keep a good eye on their forum and have helped me with everything so far.

i am redoing the solar thermal power plant and lava producer. i really should try to finish in the next day or so. i have a space show in a week and i have other prep to do.

i am making it mostly a production unit for molten regolith, and a collector of trace gases that boil off during the process.

so i added some things and took a little bit away

i have decided that most of the power can be saved pretty efficiently overnight by the use of a simple flywheel design that would work well on the moon, and i'm also supposing that beaming of solar power on a large scale from the skyhooks will be happening by the stage the phase i'm working on portrays

so it is extending setup, and actually the interesting part using solar for processing, interesting

hm, so bit tank is butchered?

*big

i just made it a lot shorter, as now it isn't important to have heat through the whole night, and it is designed to be regularly emptied and refilled.

if i can stop making little mistakes that then cost me an hour to fix, and figure out how to do things more quickly, i can show you the finished thing today.

okay, will see)