Caltech robot assembles a truss structure in orbit for DARPA's NOM4D program

DARPA says a system built by Caltech has assembled a truss structure in orbit for the first time, as part of its NOM4D program on space manufacturing. A simple three-axis gantry robot inside an automated box joins modular elements at nodes, attaches a reflective mesh and deploys each finished section. The prototype flew on a SpaceX rocket 15 months after the decision to test in orbit, and the program targets structures hundreds of metres to kilometres in size, such as solar power satellites.

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