Kilometer-scale, ultra-large spacecraft are major strategic aerospace equipment for the future use of space resources and colonization.

They will study minimizing the weight of the spacecraft and space structures to reduce the number of launches and construction costs.

NASA has had a decade of several NIAC (NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts) projects studying the construction of massive kilometers scale and larger structures in space.

The main NASA study started Feb 2021. Kilometer-Scale Space Structures from a Single Launch, Zachary Manchester, Carnegie Mellon University.

A high-expansion-ratio auxetic structure can be stowed inside a single Falcon Heavy fairing and deployed to a final length of one kilometer on orbit as part of a large space station.