Robot builds structure in space for the first time | Latest Tech News
A robot has constructed a structure in space for the first time, a milestone that could lead on to establishing large-scale space systems.
The robotic truss builder labored to assemble a 1.4-meters-diameter reflector antenna without the help of astronauts.
It might allow large-scale buildings, such as enormous reflector surfaces, to be constructed in space, ready to harvest solar energy and wirelessly transmit it to Earth’s floor.
A robot has constructed a structure in space for the first time, a milestone that could lead on to establishing large-scale space systems. DARPA/Colie Wertz / SWNS
The robot was conceived, designed, and constructed by Caltech researchers and funded by the US Department of War’s Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).
The truss builder, half of DARPA’s Novel Orbital and Moon Manufacturing, Materials, and Mass-efficient Design (NOM4D) program, consists of an autonomous manipulator that picks up struts and joints held in close by dispensers to repeatedly assemble an identical sections, or bays, of a perimeter truss.
“This is the first time that a structure has been autonomously constructed in space,” says Sergio Pellegrino, crew chief of Caltech’s Autonomous In-Space Tensioned Reflector Assembly (ASTRA) demonstration.
Concept artwork reveals how large space buildings may very well be constructed and deployed utilizing capabilities demonstrated in the NOM4D program. DARPA/Colie Wertz / SWNS
ASTRA is a robotic builder that has spent the last six months in space, working to assemble the reflector antenna from composite fibre tubes, aluminium joints, and a Kapton reflective floor.
Caltech said: “According to DARPA, the autonomous robotic assembly is akin to piecing together a high-tech K’Nex or Tinkertoy structure. But the process of automating the build in space is nothing like child’s play.”
The space demonstration is the third part of the DARPA project. In the first two phases, the ASTRA crew developed the idea and design methodology and then confirmed that the idea labored in laboratory settings on Earth.
The space payload was accomplished, examined, and delivered to the payload host, Momentus Inc., in less than 12 months.
The robotic truss builder labored to assemble a 1.4-meter-diameter reflector antenna without the help of astronauts. DARPA/Colie Wertz / SWNS
ASTRA is a robotic builder that has spent the last six months in space, working to assemble the reflector antenna from composite fibre tubes, aluminium joints, and a Kapton reflective floor. Caltech/Momentus / SWNS
“Developing a payload of this complexity on such a short timeline was an enormous undertaking for our small team,” says Pellegrino, who is also co-director of the Space Solar Power Project, which goals to harvest solar energy in space and wirelessly transmit it to Earth’s floor. “As we wrap up the mission, we are finally able to start thinking about the new avenues of research opened by this demonstration.”
Caltech said: “Scientists would love the means to deploy large-scale buildings such as reflector surfaces in space. These may very well be used as huge mirrors for highly effective space telescopes, permitting astronomers to observe ever more distant objects; alternatively, these buildings might kind the aperture of large radio frequency antennas.
“Once you get to the size limit where structures cannot be prebuilt on the ground and unfolded, you have to think about how to build them in space,” Pellegrino says. “So, this work could be useful not only for astronomy and astrophysics but also for communications and other areas, such as building very large solar arrays for space solar power.”
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