Robot Assembles Antenna Structure in Orbit With No Human at the Controls
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A robot in orbit has assembled a structure without a human working the controls, which Caltech researchers and DARPA describe as a first for space construction, Space.com reported. The robot built part of a reflective antenna, and the finished piece measured 1.4 meters (4.5 feet) wide.
The demonstration points toward a future in which large satellites and telescopes are built in orbit rather than folded into a rocket and launched whole.
What the robot built
The project is called Autonomous In-Space Tensioned Reflector Assembly, or ASTRA, a Caltech demonstration funded by DARPA. Its robotic truss builder worked with Kapton film, composite fiber tubes and aluminum joints to create the antenna structure.
Sergio Pellegrino, the Caltech aerospace and civil engineering professor who leads the team, said in a Nov. 5 statement that this was the first time a structure had been constructed autonomously in space.
The payload flew with two prebuilt truss sections, a robotic manipulator and the parts needed to build the rest. Engineers could only talk to it in brief communication windows totaling 15 minutes a day. In that time they sent commands and checked progress as the robot picked up parts, positioned them and assembled them on a plate.
How it got to orbit
Pellegrino’s team had already finished two earlier phases, defining the mission and testing the hardware in a laboratory. The payload then went to the spaceflight company Momentus for integration into its Vigoride 7 space tug. Vigoride 7 launched on March 30 on SpaceX’s Transporter-16 rideshare mission, alongside many other payloads.
The team ran into what Space.com described as many little surprises. Time limits kept the robot from building additional sections of the antenna, so the full truss was not completed. Pellegrino still called the effort a success, saying that building a payload this complex on such a short timeline was an enormous task for a small team.
Why it matters: bigger instruments than a rocket can carry
Anything launched on a rocket has to fit inside the vehicle’s fairing, the nose cone that protects cargo on the way up. Structures assembled in orbit would not face that limit, apart from engineering and financing constraints.
Pellegrino said the work could help astronomy and astrophysics, communications and other areas, such as very large solar arrays for space solar power. He also hopes robots will one day build larger telescope mirrors that look deeper into space, and more advanced structures for radio telescopes listening for distant signals.
Space.com noted that demand for this kind of capability may grow as companies assemble giant constellations of satellites for cell-phone communications, AI computing and other uses. For most people, the nearer-term effect would be indirect: bigger orbital instruments and the possibility of building or repairing satellites in space.
What comes next
ASTRA is the third phase of a larger DARPA effort called Novel Orbital and Moon Manufacturing, Materials, and Mass-efficient Design, or NOM4D. Program manager Andrew Detor said in a Nov. 5 DARPA statement that its goal is efficient, scalable construction of very large structures in space.
By very large, he said, he means hundreds of meters or kilometers in scale, and he added that nothing approaching that can be done today. The 1.4-meter antenna is therefore a small step toward a much larger goal.
NOM4D also supports a separate project from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. That one will take place at the International Space Station and will focus on how to harden carbon tubes in orbit.
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Around Prague, based on reporting by Space.com
