NASA studies of bootstrapping industry on the Moon or Mars are relevant and provide key insights to the essential physical architecture of this materials transformation network. The network connections are also determined by economics and social-political requirements. There are thus three types of constraints on the architecture of the global manufacturing system; physical material constraints, economic constraints and social-political constraints. The location of industries and manufacturers is often determined by low labour, low energy and logistics costs. Logistics cost are reduced with local manufacturing. New factories are an opportunity to transition to locally produced energy. Local recycling can reduce imports. Labour cost is reduced by robotics & automation and eliminated in ‘lights out’ automation. Constructor Automation will reduce capital costs by enabling factories that produce multiple products, automating the transition from design to manufacturing and facilitating low volume customized production. Investment in automation is often critical for economic viability.

Due to Covid-19 pandemic supply problems, nations are assessing their trade-dependency and the feasibility of establishing ‘onshore’ industries. Countries wanting to ‘onshore’ industry need to understand materials transformation networks and advanced automation opportunities - then sequentially select manufacturing and processes to be brought onshore in order to create a wave of reduced input costs that will enable the economically viable development of their onshore manufacturing network.