I got this idea last night, but it was late, so I didn't write about it. Let's say you put up several shuttle external tanks and connected them together with an internal tether. That would keep them all together. Then spin them around to give artificial gravity. Now with all the space inside, you could build a lot of habitat.
There is a lot of mass that can be utilized in the tanks after they get into space. This could be converted into shielding from radiation in space. The tanks' structure can provide protection for the tether so that it won't break down fast. Actually, it may last for a very long time with all that metal around it. Now, if you can get enough lunar regolith around the inner perimeter of the tanks, you could make the space station very robust.
As for lunar regolith, I got another idea from van Pelt's book that I recently perused here. Set up the lunar elevator at L1 to the surface. Then send up lunar regolith on the elevator. The advantage of a lunar elevator is that it can be made from already existing materials. Nothing new has to be invented. Just set the thing up and it will probably work. But people probably don't believe that though.
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