In-space assembly, robotics and teleoperation

Key results

Assembly approaches

• Earth-built modules, bolted in orbit.
• Coastal Ron's first generation is 100% assembled from Earth-made components: 8 m sealed modules, bolted, no welding. Later generations use space-fabricated parts Coastal Ron, 2022-10-13.
• Ship finished materials and assemble robotically Coastal Ron, 2015-10-08. "Build complex things on Earth, simple things in space" JohnFornaro, 2022-11-27.
• Build heavy parts on Earth and assemble in space A_M_Swallow, 2015-09-04. Space isn't ready for full manufacturing Coastal Ron, 2015-09-04.
• Mass-produced repeated modules.
• mikelepage: a torus is easy to mass-produce, with self-similar modules berthed end to end. A bola needs in-orbit assembly of large volumes, and crew time is costly mikelepage, 2024-07-16; mikelepage, 2024-07-20.
• A 30–50 person station built on a terrestrial production line and sold 100 times is more viable than one 3000–5000 person settlement mikelepage, 2023-04-27.
• mikelepage's mating sequence: (1) probe/drogue alignment, (2) structural soft-mate of the full 14 × 6 m cross-section, (3) UBM berthing of pressurized modules, (4) hard-mate structural latch mikelepage, 2024-07-31.
• InterestedEngineer: ~50–60 standard modules self-assembling by RCS InterestedEngineer, 2023-06-02. Coastal Ron: that is a "logistic nightmare" to add to a rotating structure Coastal Ron, 2023-06-05; InterestedEngineer, 2023-06-06.
• Skeleton-first. Twark_Main: a 3D grid of prefab tension beams with robotic berthing; Starship segments ≤ ~20 × 20 × 20 ft Twark_Main, 2024-07-16; Twark_Main, 2022-11-09.
• Construction shacks.
• lamontagne's LEO construction shack: 2 counter-rotating habitat rings (~200 people, 0.4 g, 3 rpm) on tracks inside a fixed structure lamontagne, 2022-10-26.
• A ring-shaped shack that "extrudes" the larger station, an idea from Reaction Engines/Adrian Mann lamontagne, 2022-11-17.
• BIS Armstrong factory: a fixed hub and two counter-rotating 200 m rings, 1 g at 3 rpm; separation processes work better in gravity lamontagne, 2023-10-02.
• Coastal Ron: no build-while-spinning for a 100 m station; use a circular "production line" with a construction shack Coastal Ron, 2023-06-08.
• Build under AG. Baton first, then spokes, then ring JohnFornaro, 2023-06-06.
• Build trusses inside an inflated shell (shirt-sleeve assembly) Paul451, 2015-10-23. Inflate the tube after the truss to avoid whipping Asteroza, 2015-10-23.

Robotics

• "The best assembly machine is no assembly machine": climbing cranes and Canadarms attached to the structure Twark_Main, 2024-07-31. Three-legged Canadarm-type robots, or two Canadarms joined at the elbow Twark_Main, 2024-08-01.
• Named systems:
• SpiderFab, Archinaut ULISSES, GSAL (Gateway, patent pending) Asteroza, 2015-10-22; LMT, 2019-02-27.
• Dextre-class telerobotics LMT, 2018-07-16.
• Made In Space vacuum 3D printer; McDonnell Douglas beam builder Kansan52, 2015-09-03.
• Robotic winding of epoxy-wetted carbon fibre over a printed base layer alexterrell, 2015-09-04.
• ThinkOrbital robotic EBW Habitant, 2025-10-17.
• Orbital Reef plus the Genesis Single Person Spacecraft; Optimus with a cold-gas pack; multi-robot microgravity work (Xin 2024) LMT, 2024-08-09.
• Welding and forming: friction stir, helical pipe mills, spiral-wound tubes from 4 mm stainless rolls, EBW, cold welding (disputed). See materials rsdavis9, 2023-06-11; DanClemmensen, 2023-06-11.
• 3D printing large structures misses where the cost is Paul451, 2022-11-09.
• Self-replicating factories. A robotic meta-factory; i4is Principium 33 JohnFornaro, 2023-01-06; lamontagne, 2023-01-07.

Teleoperation and VR

• VR-teleoperated "spider" robots instead of EVAs, with a parasol sunshade during assembly SpinGravity, 2014-11-30.
• Robotic miners and constructors with telepresence change the economics Stormbringer, 2015-10-08. Better EVA, or robotics and telepresence, is an ISS lesson RanulfC, 2015-02-20.
• Telerobotic assembly of LMT's Terrestation LMT, 2018-07-11. The Armstrong factory uses teleoperation lamontagne, 2023-10-02.
• LEO industry is better as zero-g teleoperated work rakaydos, 2024-03-25.
• VR design reviews of station interiors are covered in virtual reality.

Assembly durations

• Coastal Ron: his Mars-g station takes ~1 year to assemble with current technology once Starship is operational Coastal Ron, 2023-01-18.
• JohnFornaro: thrive experiments over ~20 years, full build 20–40 years JohnFornaro, 2023-06-09.
• lamontagne: a concept takes a few hundred to 1000 hours, detailed design 1–2 years lamontagne, 2022-10-13.

Open questions

• How much EVA or crew time does a Starship-module torus actually need?
• Can robotic berthing of 100 t modules be made routine?

Related pages

• Growth and staging · Cables vs trusses · Seals and joints

Sources

Forum posts

• SpinGravity, 2014-11-30 (reply #264, 1 like): VR-teleoperated spider robots. Post.
• RanulfC, 2015-02-20 (reply #309): ISS lessons. Post.
• Kansan52, 2015-09-03 (reply #597): Beam builder. Post.
• A_M_Swallow, 2015-09-04 (reply #618, 1 like): Heavy parts on Earth. Post.
• alexterrell, 2015-09-04 (reply #621): 3D print + fibre winding. Post.
• Coastal Ron, 2015-09-04 (reply #622, 1 like): Not ready for manufacturing. Post.
• Stormbringer, 2015-10-08 (reply #681): Telepresence economics. Post.
• Coastal Ron, 2015-10-08 (reply #683): Ship finished materials. Post.
• Asteroza, 2015-10-22 (reply #717): SpiderFab. Post.
• Paul451, 2015-10-23 (reply #724): Shirt-sleeve assembly. Post.
• Asteroza, 2015-10-23 (reply #725): Inflate after truss. Post.
• LMT, 2018-07-11 (reply #908): Telerobotic assembly. Post.
• LMT, 2018-07-16 (reply #941, 1 like): Dextre-class telerobotics. Post.
• LMT, 2019-02-27 (reply #1313): Archinaut; GSAL. Post.
• Coastal Ron, 2022-10-13 (reply #2039): 1st gen Earth-made, bolted. Post.
• lamontagne, 2022-10-13 (reply #2068, 1 like): Design effort. Post.
• lamontagne, 2022-10-26 (reply #2211): Construction shack on track. Post.
• Paul451, 2022-11-09 (reply #2336, 1 like): 3D printing misses cost. Post.
• Twark_Main, 2022-11-09 (reply #2337): Robotically stick-built skeleton. Post.
• lamontagne, 2022-11-17 (reply #2415): Extrusion construction shack. Post. Attachments: Extrusion construction.jpg.
• JohnFornaro, 2022-11-27 (reply #2465): Complex on Earth. Post. Attachments: Ring-SK-009-Solar-Thermal-Rocket-Concept.jpg, Ring-SK-010-Orbits-&-Parabola.jpg, Ring-SK-009-Solar-Thermal-Rocket-Concept.pdf, Ring-SK-010-Orbits-&-Parabola.pdf.
• JohnFornaro, 2023-01-06 (reply #2788): Meta-factory. Post.
• lamontagne, 2023-01-07 (reply #2791): Self-replicating factory. Post. Attachments: The-Self-Replicating-Factory-a-work-in-progress-Principium33-print-2105280923.pdf, srf.png.
• Coastal Ron, 2023-01-18 (reply #2973): ~1 yr assembly. Post.
• mikelepage, 2023-04-27 (reply #3641, 1 like): Production-line stations sold 100× (1 like). Post. Attachments: sci-fi.png.
• InterestedEngineer, 2023-06-02 (reply #3765): Self-assembling modules. Post.
• Coastal Ron, 2023-06-05 (reply #3790, 1 like): Logistics nightmare. Post.
• JohnFornaro, 2023-06-06 (reply #3791): Baton → spokes → ring. Post. Attachments: Ring-SK-014-Assembly-Sequence-II.jpg.
• InterestedEngineer, 2023-06-06 (reply #3792): Design for iteration. Post.
• Coastal Ron, 2023-06-08 (reply #3797): No build-while-spinning. Post.
• JohnFornaro, 2023-06-09 (reply #3819): 20–40 yr build. Post. Attachments: Ring-SK-204-Assembly-Sequence-III.jpg, Ring-SK-204-Assembly-Sequence-III.pdf.
• rsdavis9, 2023-06-11 (reply #3830): Spiral-wound tube welder. Post.
• DanClemmensen, 2023-06-11 (reply #3836): Weld Starship bodies. Post.
• lamontagne, 2023-10-02 (reply #4099, 3 likes): Armstrong factory (3 likes). Post. Attachments: Armstrong1.jpg, Armstrong factory3.jpg.
• rakaydos, 2024-03-25 (reply #4609, 2 likes): Zero-g teleoperated industry (2 likes). Post.
• mikelepage, 2024-07-16 (reply #4648, 1 like): Torus easy to mass-produce. Post.
• Twark_Main, 2024-07-16 (reply #4649): Prefab tension-beam grid. Post.
• mikelepage, 2024-07-20 (reply #4652, 1 like): Semi-autonomous berthing (1 like). Post.
• mikelepage, 2024-07-31 (reply #4673): Four-step mating sequence. Post.
• Twark_Main, 2024-07-31 (reply #4675): Climbing cranes. Post.
• Twark_Main, 2024-08-01 (reply #4681): Three-legged robots. Post.
• LMT, 2024-08-09 (reply #4728): Robotics references. Post. Attachments: Orbital Reef and SPS.jpg, optimus gen2 hands.png.
• Habitant, 2025-10-17 (reply #5010): ThinkOrbital EBW. Post.

External references

• Tethers Unlimited SpiderFab; Made In Space Archinaut; ThinkOrbital.
• Xin et al. (2024), multi-robot microgravity assembly.
• i4is Principium 33, "Self-Replicating Factory".