The thing is, I don't really feel like the main issue holding back solar power production is a lack of physical space where we can put the panels.

Look at Nevada. We could probably cover 75% of the land area of the state in solar panels before having to put a single panel within sight of anyone's house! We've got absolute fucktons of basically unused space right here on land, which is going to be way cheaper to build on and way easier to maintain.

The ISS is already basically self-sufficient when it comes to air and water. And we've grown food in space several times, so that part is certainly technologically possible.

Such a structure will still rely on parts shipped in from Earth to maintain many of their systems, though. There's just no way to produce absolutely everything you'd need without basically replicating Earth's entire economy from the ground up.

So its unlikely that such a structure will ever be a completely self-sufficient ecosystem. At least, not until we invent a Star Trek-style replicator!

Does the study actually use the term "Singularity?" Or was that an addition from the journalist who wrote this news article?

Kind of reminds me of Bryce Canyon, here in the US.

Red was a pretty common color for Santa/Father Christmas to wear long before Coca Cola even existed. Check out this version Santa Claus, really pretty similar to the modern version, published 24 years before the Coca Cola company was founded.

As the various visual concepts of Santa Claus/St. Nicholas/Father Christmas coalesced into a single character, those ads probably helped push the needle towards red becoming the only color he ever wears, but the concept had already been kicking around in the public consciousness for centuries, and there's no reason why it couldn't have ended up settling on an image pretty similar to what we have now without the help of Coca Cola's commercials.