Institutional development · Research, innovation and assessment · United States
Caltech's DARPA-funded robot assembles a structure in orbit without astronauts
A robotic truss-assembly system created by Caltech researchers with DARPA funding has put together a structure in space on its own, which its team leader calls a first.
Why it matters: Caltech's aerospace researchers on the ASTRA project now report an autonomous in-orbit assembly result from their DARPA-backed work.
Caltech reported that a robot its researchers devised and built, with money from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), has for the first time assembled a structure in orbit with no astronaut involvement.
According to Caltech, the system forms part of DARPA's NOM4D programme on orbital and lunar manufacturing, and its autonomous arm collects struts and joints from adjacent dispensers to put together repeated, identical segments of a ring-shaped truss.
Caltech said the ASTRA demonstration, headed by aerospace professor Sergio Pellegrino, has been in space for six months attempting to build a reflector antenna 1.4 metres across from composite tubes, aluminium joints and a Kapton reflective layer.
Pellegrino described the work as the first autonomous construction of a structure carried out in space.
Editor’s view
Scott James, Research and Innovation Editor
The Caltech ASTRA team and DARPA's NOM4D programme are the parties directly involved: Caltech reports that its robot assembled truss segments autonomously in orbit during a six-month mission working towards a 1.4-metre reflector antenna.
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