Side note but: I've always thought that this kind of technology rather than rockets/spacecraft is the limiting factor preventing us from being able to realistically colonize another planet.
When you got to Mars, the Moon, etc., you'd have to be able to unpack and set up a reliable self-sustaining industrial infrastructure.
Yea, I think you're right. You need a real version of a GECK* really. A lot of this is a material science problem I think - making the Martian soil into some type of metal / ceramic building material using just solar / nuclear energy.
When you got to Mars, the Moon, etc., you'd have to be able to unpack and set up a reliable self-sustaining industrial infrastructure.