StructureForge: Autonomous In-Space Assembly and Industrialization

Abstract

A galactic civilization cannot launch its bones from Earth. It must learn to grow structure where structure is needed. StructureForge is a proposed architecture for autonomous in-space assembly and industrialization: robotic yards, standard interfaces, digital twins, process certification, orbital warehouses, lunar extraction nodes, autonomous inspection, and self-expanding industrial grammars. The grounded claim is that in-space servicing, assembly, and manufacturing must be treated as an auditable production system with typed parts, typed processes, robotic guilds, fault ledgers, and local assurance. The speculative claim is that the mature off-world factory becomes a constructor algebra: a machine society that writes new machines into matter while preserving formal evidence that the construction is safe. This paper defines capability closure, forge graphs, assembly policies, risk-priced autonomy, and a phased route from ground demonstrators to orbital hubs, lunar foundries, asteroid foundries, and directed-energy logistics. The practical spine is fission/fusion baseload power, cryogenic and high-current superconducting infrastructure, quantum gravimetry for resource maps and construction metrology, and directed-energy sails for high-energy supply chains.