If humanity is going to fulfil its dreams about space - exploring it, mining it, colonising it - then we need to learn how to build in it. The kinds of large structures required for launching deep-space missions could be made much simpler if we could construct them in orbit rather than packaging them up for launch from Earth. And to build in one of the most extreme environments we know, we'll have to take human involvement out of the picture. Automated construction equipment is one solution. But there may be another possibility: self-assembly.
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