The 1979 book Toward Distant Suns features the “Space Spiders,” illustrated below. Space Spiders are designed to help build the space colonies of the (paleo)future.
Use of Space Spiders to build a space colony of the Stanford torus type. In the foreground mobile teleoperators carry rolls of aluminum to restock the Spiders’ supplies. Detail shows a Spider laying down the hull of the colony, which has the shape of a bicycle tire. Central disk structure will carry solar arrays.
See also:
Space Colony Pirates (1981)
Sport in Space Colonies (1977)
Space Colonies by Don Davis
More Space Colony Art (1970s)
Mars and Beyond (1957)
Challenge of Outer Space (circa 1950s)
Like Earth, Only in Space …. and with monorails (1989)
Space Colony Possible (The News, 1975)
