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 Featured Sols 4214–4215: The Best Laid Plans...3 min readSols 4214–4215: The Best Laid Plans...article1 day ago Hubble Observes a Cosmic Fossil2 min readHubble Observes a Cosmic Fossilarticle15 hours ago Voyager 1 Returning Science Data From All Four Instruments2 min readVoyager 1 Returning Science Data From All Four Instrumentsarticle1 day ago
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 Highlights A large propeller plane takes off from a runway, surrounded by brown and green grasses with low buildings out of focus in the background. The plane is white with a blue stripe down the middle, and has a NASA logo on the tail. The sky is a hazy blue with some clouds.

	2 min read

		NASA-Led Mission to Map Air Pollution Over Both U.S. Coasts

		article

			7 hours ago Students watch a sounding rocket launch at sunrise.

	4 min read

		NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility to Launch Student Experiments

		article

			8 hours ago NASA’s Hubble Restarts Science in New Pointing Mode

	3 min read

		NASA’s Hubble Restarts Science in New Pointing Mode

		article

			8 hours ago
 Highlights A woman with long, wavy hair and a bright smile sits at a round table during a formal event, surrounded by other attendees. She is wearing a brown cardigan and a patterned blouse.

	5 min read

		Lakita Lowe: Leading Space Commercialization Innovations and Fostering STEM Engagement

		article

			2 days ago NASA’s Repository Supports Research of Commercial Astronaut Health

	2 min read

		NASA’s Repository Supports Research of Commercial Astronaut Health

		article

			3 days ago NASA astronaut Doug “Wheels” Wheelock and Axiom Space astronaut Peggy Whitson prepare for a test of full-scale mockups of spacesuits developed by Axiom Space and SpaceX’s Starship human landing system developed for NASA’s Artemis missions to the Moon.

	4 min read

		NASA Astronauts Practice Next Giant Leap for Artemis

		article

			1 week ago
 Highlights A large propeller plane takes off from a runway, surrounded by brown and green grasses with low buildings out of focus in the background. The plane is white with a blue stripe down the middle, and has a NASA logo on the tail. The sky is a hazy blue with some clouds.

	2 min read

		NASA-Led Mission to Map Air Pollution Over Both U.S. Coasts

		article

			7 hours ago NASA Announces New System to Aid Disaster Response

	4 min read

		NASA Announces New System to Aid Disaster Response

		article

			1 day ago Amendment 21: A.3 Ocean Biology and Biogeochemistry: NSPIRES cover page issue and Delay of Proposal Due Date

	2 min read

		Amendment 21: A.3 Ocean Biology and Biogeochemistry: NSPIRES cover page issue and Delay of Proposal Due Date

		article

			2 days ago
 Highlights The Next Full Moon is the Strawberry Moon

	17 min read

		The Next Full Moon is the Strawberry Moon

		article

			1 day ago Mars Dunes

	5 min read

		NASA’s Perseverance Fords an Ancient River to Reach Science Target

		article

			1 day ago Ed Stone, former director of JPL and project scientist for the Voyager mission, died on June 9, 2024. A friend, mentor, and colleague to many, he was known for his straightforward leadership and commitment to communicating with the public.

	5 min read

		Ed Stone, Former Director of JPL, Voyager Project Scientist, Dies

		article

			3 days ago
 Featured Hubble Observes a Cosmic Fossil

	2 min read

		Hubble Observes a Cosmic Fossil

		article

			15 hours ago WL20 group of stars is located in the Rho Ophiuchi star-forming region

	5 min read

		NASA’s Webb Reveals Long-Studied Star Is Actually Twins

		article

			1 day ago Artist's illustration of a star system near the Sun that is close enough to Earth for exoplanets in their habitable zones to be directly imaged using future telescopes.

	4 min read

		Coming in Hot — NASA’s Chandra Checks Habitability of Exoplanets

		article

			2 days ago
 Highlights Hubble Observes a Cosmic Fossil

	2 min read

		Hubble Observes a Cosmic Fossil

		article

			15 hours ago Voyager 1 Returning Science Data From All Four Instruments

	2 min read

		Voyager 1 Returning Science Data From All Four Instruments

		article

			1 day ago WL20 group of stars is located in the Rho Ophiuchi star-forming region

	5 min read

		NASA’s Webb Reveals Long-Studied Star Is Actually Twins

		article

			1 day ago
 Highlights Illustration showing several future aircraft concepts flying over a mid-sized city with a handful of skyscrapers.

	7 min read

		ARMD Solicitations

		article

			1 week ago Team “Rumble Ready” from California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, comprised of (from left to right) Professor Mark Gonda, Nicole Xie, Junaid Bodla, Jordan Ragsac, Krishi Gajjar, Gerald McAllister III, and Leara Dominguez, took home first place at the 2024 Gateways to Blue Skies Forum held May 30-31 at NASA Ames Research Center. They are standing in a row posing for the photo; the team members are wearing blue t-shirts, black pants, and tennis shoes.

	4 min read

		Winners Announced in Gateways to Blue Skies Aeronautics Competition

		article

			2 weeks ago Graphic shows a possible future General Electric jet engine with exposed fan blades in front of a cut-away-interior view of its core mechanisms -- all part of NASA's HyTEC research project.

	4 min read

		NASA, Industry to Start Designing More Sustainable Jet Engine Core

		article

			4 weeks ago
 Highlights Simulated Roman image full of synthetic galaxies

	6 min read

		NASA’s Roman Mission Gets Cosmic ‘Sneak Peek’ From Supercomputers

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			2 days ago Ed Stone, former director of JPL and project scientist for the Voyager mission, died on June 9, 2024. A friend, mentor, and colleague to many, he was known for his straightforward leadership and commitment to communicating with the public.

	5 min read

		Ed Stone, Former Director of JPL, Voyager Project Scientist, Dies

		article

			3 days ago Astronaut-packaged cheese sandwiches

	2 min read

		Food Safety Program for Space Has Taken Over on Earth

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			4 days ago
 Featured A team from Iowa accepts its Artemis grand prize award during NASA’s Lunabotics competition on Friday, May 17, 2024, at the Center for Space Education near the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida.

	5 min read

		Artemis Generation Shines During NASA’s 2024 Lunabotics Challenge

		article
			2 weeks ago
 Highlights Students watch a sounding rocket launch at sunrise.

	4 min read

		NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility to Launch Student Experiments

		article

			8 hours ago A large propeller plane takes off from a runway, surrounded by brown and green grasses with low buildings out of focus in the background. The plane is white with a blue stripe down the middle, and has a NASA logo on the tail. The sky is a hazy blue with some clouds.

	2 min read

		NASA-Led Mission to Map Air Pollution Over Both U.S. Coasts

		article

			7 hours ago NASA astronaut and Expedition 64 Flight Engineer Victor Glover reviews procedures on a computer for the Monoclonal Antibodies Protein Crystal Growth (PCG) experiment inside the Harmony module.

	2 min read

		NASA Joins National Space Council in Celebration of Black Space Week

		article

			6 hours ago
 Highlights NASA Astronaut Official Portrait Frank Rubio

	5 min read

		Astronauta de la NASA Frank Rubio

		article

			9 hours ago 2021 Astronaut Candidates Stand in Recognition

	6 min read

		Diez maneras en que los estudiantes pueden prepararse para ser astronautas

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			3 months ago Astronaut Marcos Berrios

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		Astronauta de la NASA Marcos Berríos

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			3 months ago


STMD Game Changing Development HomeAutomated Reconfigurable...
 Game Changing DevelopmentAboutProjectsNews
 Automated Reconfigurable Mission Adaptive Digital Assembly Systems The ARMADAS project is developing software and hardware that will be able to autonomously assemble materials to make a variety of functional structures such as habitat structures, large antennae arrays, and even a spaceport.
 More GCD Projects about Automated Reconfigurable Mission Adaptive Digital Assembly Systems
 Lead Center Ames Research Center
 Introduced October 2017
 PRINCIPAL TECHNOLOGIST Gerald SandersJulie KleinhenzDenise Podolski
 Project Manager Peter ZellKenneth Cheung
 Robot Team Builds High-Performance Digital Structure for NASA
 Greater than the sum of its parts: NASA tests the capability of a system that includes simple robots, structural building... Read the Story
 NASA needs the capability to build large-scale solar power, communications, and habitat systems on other planets to support future deep space exploration. The ability  to autonomously assemble these types of structures in space instead of sending large pre-assembled hardware from Earth is critical to sustainable future exploration of Moon, the Red planet, and beyond. The Automated Reconfigurable Mission Adaptive Digital Assembly Systems (ARMADAS) project is developing software and hardware that will be able to autonomously assemble materials to make a variety of functional structures such as habitat structures, large antennae arrays, and even a spaceport. The team recently developed “builder robots” capable of autonomously working together and assembling small modular units, called “voxels,” to make a large variety of structures. These robots are barely larger than the voxels they work with, and take advantage of the regularity of these structures to build very large and precise assemblies without large positioning or measurement systems. The project’s special algorithms enable the robots to plan a path, specific movements, and a build sequence through a wireless network. The project will ultimately develop a small satellite-sized payload that automatically unpacks and assembles into functioning systems, such as a small habitat module and array/antenna, using onboard robotic assemblers. The ARMADAS team will perform a ground demonstration in 2021 in which the robots will autonomously build a structure made of hundreds of parts. The ARMADAS technology could eventually be used to build real infrastructure on the lunar surface. Illustration showing a team of small robots constructing a large solar array on the lunar surface.This concept shows a team of robots, working autonomously, constructing a solar array on the lunar surface using modular components. Because the angle of the Sun is perpetually low at future Artemis exploration destinations near the South Pole of the Moon, powering a lunar base station with sunlight requires solar panels to be arrayed vertically and high enough to avoid shadows from the lunar terrain. The robots walk on and climb through the open lattice wall structure as they build it. Also shown here is a robotically-built railway system that enables supply of modular components – in this case structural building blocks and solar panels – for the robotic job site. It also functions as conduit for electrical power and data service.NASA
 Illustration showing small robots disassembling and reassembling landing pads on the Moon.This artist’s concept shows landing pads being autonomously reconfigured by robots while cargo is being offloaded from a lander onto a robotically built rail system. Future lunar supply spacecraft will need landing pads with ejecta shields to avoid kicking up dust and debris that can damage space systems. Landers may serve as permanent facilities at landing sites, and infrastructure such as these shields can be repurposed. Here robots are disassembling the ejecta shield (foreground) and reassembling it in a new location (left background).NASA
 Illustration of a large lunar cave containing several box-shaped facilities connected by walkways, and crew in spacesuits.Artist’s concept of an autonomously optimized, assembled, and maintained lunar cave habitat and laboratory complex. Lunar caves could protect astronauts from the most difficult environmental factors governing life and work on the Moon – space radiation, micrometeoroid impacts, and extreme temperature changes. The mechanical metamaterial structures shown in this concept are constructed by simple robots using lightweight and strong building blocks. Desired performance can be achieved using building blocks made from a wide variety of materials, including ones made from lunar soil. The structures support the cave for safety and serve to isolate the facility from moonquakes, which happen often and can last for hours. The system connects to other autonomous surface activities via a robotically assembled rail system.NASA
 Illustration of an astronaut in a spacesuit standing on the lunar surface near structures being built by small robots.This artist’s concept shows the autonomous assembly of critical infrastructure needed for a long-duration human presence on the Moon. Here robots are using modular building blocks to construct structures (left, center) that can protect crew, science facilities, or equipment from space radiation and micrometeoroids. Robots are building a large antenna atop a tower (right) as part of a lunar communications network.NASA
 ARMADAS The use of simplified robots and a modular approach to structures allows for cross cutting utility across diverse tasks and applications. Distributed coordinated autonomous mobile robotics, as demonstrated by ARMADAS, moves system complexity from mechanisms onto software and algorithms, using teams of robots that deliver more complexity with robust operations at a lower cost than common general purpose robotic agents. Learn More
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 **PARTNERS :** Academic partners University of Houston and MIT are collaborating to develop robotic planning and scheduling methods for the project. Other government agencies are providing funding to the ARMADAS team for complementary work including non-structural functional modules for various applications. Architectural metal fabrication company, Zahner, of Kansas City, Mo., is performing research on fabricating next-generation voxels for the ARMADAS project. Carbon fiber reinforced polymer ARMADAS building block (‘voxel’) components in stowable ‘flat-pack’ configuration.Carbon fiber reinforced polymer ARMADAS building block (‘voxel’) components in stowable ‘flat-pack’ configuration.NASA
 ARMADAS project representing the Game Changing Development Program at NASA’s Technology Day on the Hill with research scientist Dr. Christine Gregg discussing in-space construction with astronaut Randy Bresnik.ARMADAS project representing the Game Changing Development Program at NASA’s Technology Day on the Hill with research scientist Dr. Christine Gregg discussing in-space construction with astronaut Randy Bresnik.
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