RAW SOURCE: Space Plate — The Basic Building Block of Space Construction

URL: https://perryjones.medium.com/space-plate-the-basic-building-block-of-space-construction-32ff9c10a717 Published: Oct 30, 2023

Content (close paraphrase, unfiltered)

Space Plate is a bonded composite construction material: a solid metal outer plate welded to a flexible honeycomb ceramic backing. Standard size is 1m × 4m, with 4cm solid metal + 4cm honeycomb ceramic as a baseline. Available total thicknesses: 2, 4, 5, 7, 9, 10, 12, 15, 17, 19, and 20 cm. The 2–5cm range suits small civilian craft/structures; 7–12cm suits larger civilian vessels; the top four sizes (15–20cm) are used for military starships. Custom thicknesses cost +10%. Standard width is 1m but can be widened to 5m+ at no extra charge. The bonded solid+honeycomb version is called "Bonded Space Plate"; a non-bonded, solid-only version can be ordered but is discouraged by civil authorities for habitable structures, and many shipyards/construction firms refuse to build without the bonded version. Typical hull construction uses two layers of Bonded Space Plate — outer layer solid-side facing out (for shielding), inner layer solid-side facing in (welded to bulkheads, painted/finished) — with a gap between them (a few cm up to 1–2m) used for piping, ductwork, and in wider gaps, fuel tanks, water storage/purification, gas storage, and airlocks. The material is made primarily from trititanium, an alloy that is 12% titanium plus other metals/compounds, over 22x the strength/hardness of base titanium, about 1/3 the weight of standard titanium, and only about 30% of the cost — with multiple competing producers keeping prices closely aligned.