{"id":246794,"date":"2026-11-07T02:45:41","date_gmt":"2026-11-07T08:45:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2026\/11\/robot-successfully-builds-space-structure-in-first-autonomous-construction-demo"},"modified":"2026-11-07T02:45:41","modified_gmt":"2026-11-07T08:45:41","slug":"robot-successfully-builds-space-structure-in-first-autonomous-construction-demo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2026\/11\/robot-successfully-builds-space-structure-in-first-autonomous-construction-demo","title":{"rendered":"Robot successfully builds space structure in first autonomous construction demo"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><iframe title=\"Robot successfully builds space structure in first autonomous construction demo\" style=\"display: block; margin: 0 auto; width: 100%; aspect-ratio: 4\/3; object-fit: contain;\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/pJVvvCYmeHE?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope;\n   picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>A robotic truss builder that was conceived, designed and built by Caltech researchers has successfully built a structure in space\u2014without the help of astronauts\u2014for the first time. The truss builder, part of DARPA\u2019s 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 nearby dispensers to repeatedly assemble identical sections, or bays, of a perimeter truss.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is the first time that a structure has been autonomously constructed in space,\u201d says Sergio Pellegrino, the Joyce and Krent Kresa Professor of Aerospace and Civil Engineering, the Lynn Booth and Kent Kresa Department of Aerospace Leadership Chair, the executive officer for aerospace and a senior research scientist at JPL, which Caltech manages for NASA.<\/p>\n<p>Pellegrino is team leader of Caltech\u2019s Autonomous In-Space Tensioned Reflector Assembly (ASTRA) demonstration, a robotic builder that has spent the last six months in space, working to construct a 1.4-meter-diameter (4.6-foot-diameter) reflector antenna from composite fiber tubes, aluminum joints and a Kapton reflective surface.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A robotic truss builder that was conceived, designed and built by Caltech researchers has successfully built a structure in space\u2014without the help of astronauts\u2014for the first time. The truss builder, part of DARPA\u2019s Novel Orbital and Moon Manufacturing, Materials, and Mass-efficient Design (NOM4D) program, consists of an autonomous manipulator that picks up struts and joints [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":427,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-246794","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-robotics-ai","category-space"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246794","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/427"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=246794"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246794\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=246794"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=246794"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=246794"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}