Identification and Prioritization of Orbits for a Factory in Space

Ever since the successful moon landing of the Apollo 11 mission crew, extraterrestrial exploration has continued to gain interest in the scientific community. This interest has been renewed recently with the advent of private entities such as SpaceX, RedWire, and Blue Origin. This has seen the load on space infrastructure continue to increase, necessitating a shift in space infrastructure's design, manufacturing, and logistics. Currently, the features of space structures are inherently limited by launch constraints, affecting the mass, volume, and costs. To overcome these limitations, Factory in Space (FIS) was introduced. FIS proposes direct servicing, manufacturing, and assembly of space systems in Orbit, circumnavigating the launch constraints. This study aims to identify and prioritize orbits suitable for establishing FIS. To analyze the orbits, a hierarchical ranking was performed using multicriteria decision analysis to rank the orbits. Several parameters were identified to prioritize for the Orbit selection, highlighting that the costs (launch and material retrieval cost) associated with FIS are paramount. Finally, Low Earth Orbit was identified as the most promising Orbit for establishing FIS.