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I had a re-read of GW's blog post on an orbital assembly shack, and I've been wondering - would it be feasible to create pressure vessels (habitats, fuel tanks...) within such a facility?
The problems that you would be facing with such construction are (1) microgravity and (2) vacuum. Perhaps for the latter you could use a pressurised bag that could be used to create a small pressurised volume to work in.
The method I'm envisioning using is based around layering material on a frame, perhaps with a small amount of pressure to keep them inflated in the desired shape. This is how carbon fibre bodies are made at the moment (for example, in cars). I do not know if this needs a pressurised environment in order to cure properly. Perhaps this can be used to create composite vessels?
Another possibility, though one which I do not know if it has been attempted, is sintering metal foil - layering it up, and then heating it to form a solid metal vessel. Given a non-oxidising environment (such as vacuum...), this could possibly be done by running a current through it, though this might cause the structure to fall apart instead from electromagnetic effects...
I think it's worth looking into, given that it would allow us to manufacture space habitats and spacecraft big enough to have proper centrifuges and truly be called spaceships. One could construct craft massing hundreds of tonnes without needing to construct Sea Dragon, or being constrained by its fairing.
Use what is abundant and build to last
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The shuttle bay derived space dock would be a plus and would not be all that difficult to design or implement since we can clone it as it already exists.
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In order to produce pressure vessels of substantial size, such as those required for attachment of Centaur like upper stages to planetary probes, satellites, and repurposing of space junk, an empty SLS tank should be utilized.
SLS can put 70t in LEO with no upper stage. If an orbital manufacturing facility could be attached to ISS, then we could have astronauts separate the interstage, LOX, and LH2 tanks. The expensive RS-25's could be de-orbited using HIAD or ADEPT instead of reactivated Space Shuttles (an earlier concept I wanted to employ that, thankfully, is no longer necessary because we have like-kind capability), captured mid-air by aircraft, and returned to KSC for reuse. $288M is too much cash to blow on RS-25's alone.
We still need SEP tugs for collecting space junk and a fuel depot, which should not be anywhere near ISS for obvious reasons. Satellites and upper stages would be refitted or refurbished at ISS. The SEP tugs transfer the remanufactured satellites and upper stages to the fuel depot for relaunch. Any SEP powered satellite or probe and the tugs could be refueled with Xenon/Argon/Krypton at ISS.
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