Overview

1. Mirrorswarm uses SI units and Earth time (day,hour,year,kg,s,mol,cd,Ampere,Kelvin,m). E-notation with no spaces is acceptable.
2. The host planet Mercury ("Host") is low-gravity which will help get the swarm into orbit. It is close to the necessary location of the swarm, between the host and the sun.
3. Avogadro says there are 6E23 atoms in every mol of material. A reasonable estimate for the average mass of a mol of the elements of the host is 54g.
4. The raw material for the swarm and its factories is elements. These elements will be extracted from the host. There are fewer then a hundred elements needed.
5. The construction material for the swarm and its factories is the nanite. This is a general purpose machine consisting of fewer than 1E20 atoms (0.25g). Teams will specify the performance requirements and design of the nanite.
6. The 1% of the host which is available as raw material has a mass of 3.3E21kg and makes up to 1.3E25 nanites.