China calls on scientists to study the mechanics of a 0.6-mile spacecraft in orbit/technologies/industrial-automation-space/b/blog/posts/china-calls-on-scientists-to-study-the-mechanics-of-a-0-6-mile-spacecraft-in-orbitThis image shows an artist’s illustration of a futuristic space station. Kind of copied Deep Space 9 there. China wants to build a 0.6-mile long spacecraft. (Image Credit: ParallelVision/Pixabay) China has big and ambitious space plans! Th...en-USTelligent Community 12RE: China calls on scientists to study the mechanics of a 0.6-mile spacecraft in orbithttps://community.element14.com/technologies/industrial-automation-space/b/blog/posts/china-calls-on-scientists-to-study-the-mechanics-of-a-0-6-mile-spacecraft-in-orbitTue, 05 Oct 2021 12:31:32 GMT93d5dcb4-84c2-446f-b2cb-99731719e767:864d6d8f-28ff-452b-bedd-87c783edaa86awiltsey0<p>If they were smart about it they’d spend at least a portion of that five year research budget on researching the viability of a space-based 3D printing platform with a dock and material storage/handling space. That way (with the exception of electronics and other finishing treatments) they would only be boosting up mostly compact dense raw material vs. large prefabricated sections, and the printer could run virtually round the clock reducing overall construction time and cost.</p><img src="https://community.element14.com/aggbug?PostID=21924&AppID=141&AppType=Weblog&ContentType=0" width="1" height="1">