Glassmith

Glassmith, owned by the Spacer Guilds, is the single largest hull-manufacturing installation in the Sol System, both in terms of its own physical size and the size of the hulls it produces. Located at the Venus-Sol L1 point, and doubling as the Venerian Sunshade, Glassmith consists of hundred of independantly movable mirrors capable of focusing several terrawatts of solar energy into a very small volume for the purpose of quickly melting iron-nickel and rocky sillicate asteroids. Canisters of cheap condensed volatiles [liquid/ice water, liquid CO2, etc.] are placed in the interiors of these asteroids prior to melting, causing them to inflate into hollow spheres most commonly used for Island II Bernal Sphere colonies.