Robot builds structure in space for the first time in technological breakthrough

A Caltech-built robot has autonomously assembled a structure in space for the first time, demonstrating a way to construct large systems that would be too large to launch prebuilt and unfold. The achievement could support future space telescopes, communications antennas and solar-power systems that transmit energy to Earth.

The ASTRA robot spent six months assembling a 1.4-metre-diameter reflector antenna from composite fibre tubes, aluminium joints and a reflective Kapton surface. It repeatedly joined struts and joints into sections of a perimeter truss, without astronauts’ help. Funded by DARPA, the demonstration followed earlier design and Earth-based laboratory phases; the payload was completed and delivered in under 12 months.