The easiest thing to send and receive from space is information. Anyone with a good idea and a little money can rent a timeshare from the Green Bank Telescope. Taking the lead from the robot explorers we can send construction robots to some select object and experiment remotely. It follows that we need to design robots, probably small ones, that can be monitored and reprogrammed by telemetry. We can define the absolute minimum needed to be exported from earth and develop the factory in space so that when regular space transport is available, there will be some place for us to go.

Many of the original torus space-station designs used moving external mirrors which, like the large scale open foundry seem vulnerable to me. If the same effects can be achieved by optical fibers or stationary mirrors I think it is an improvement � the handling of light and heat becomes integral instead of mechanical. What if all that is needed to make glass fibers is to put some hot glass in a gas filled cylinder and vent the far end? In lieu of outriggers a track around the inside ceiling can carry a train of solar panels spanning a third of the circle creating a day � night cycle independent of the rotation. Fiberglass is probably not a good material for space, the resin probably evaporates or degrades rapidly. Concrete may loose its hydration bonds in a vacuum for all I know but ceramic has already proven to be useful as well as some composites. We will try to make walls of glass fiber in a ceramic matrix. In space our little robots will lay down the glass fibers and mix them with some kind of slip, heating them with some kind of tool to make the bond. The real goal is to create a production process because we do not need a space station � we need more of them than cars, more than aluminum cans, more than any other manufactured product, we will fill the universe with them. Our little robots will make them like wasps build nests � little by little and continuously.

To misquote a fictional hero, since survival is not an option and assumptions are necessary we will make the assumptions quickly and change them just as quickly if they do not work. We know solar energy is available in space � all the energy we have and use is ultimately of that kind now. There is also electrical energy available if we can tap it. The single most prominent feature of the solar system is the magnetosphere of Jupiter. It may be we can power our space stations just by passing thru this wonder. Space has great resources both of material and energy, all that is needed to tap them is intelligence which we can supply in the form of programming. Sending programming into space is cheap and easy and even readily available for rent. If we can get a few small robots to build things in space we can create a reserve of prepared materials and even constructs on a continuously growing curve. Others are working on transport systems � what I want is a place to go.

Habitat has a well known decomposition: materials, structure, construction, systems, and operations. Each of these presents numerous potential projects, products, and areas of research.