modular habitats

an image of mir 1 a soviet station from the 1970s

modular habitats have been around since the early days
of human spaceflight these structures are composed of most
of the time of cylinderical modules and they are mostly
used for research and microgravity menufacturing
the first modular habitats were built in low earth orbit
in the 1960s and 70s using the space shuttle
and were mainly small stations for a few people at a time
later modular stations called conglomorates were built
in various orbits which are tumor like structures
that have dozens of modules do space menufacturing jobs