SpiderFab: An Architecture for Self-Fabricating Space Systems

On-orbit fabrication of spacecraft components can enable space programs to escape the volumetric limitations of launch shrouds and create systems with extremely large apertures and very long baselines in order to deliver higher resolution, higher bandwidth, and higher SNR data. This paper will present results of efforts to investigated the value proposition and technical feasibility of adapting several of the many rapidly-evolving additive manufacturing and robotics technologies to the purpose of enabling space systems to fabricate and integrate significant parts of themselves on-orbit. We will first discuss several case studies for the value proposition for on-orbit fabrication of space structures, including one for a starshade designed to enhance the capabilities for optical imaging of exoplanets by the proposed New World Observer mission, and a second for a long-baseline phased array radar system. We will then summarize recent work adapting and evolving additive manufacturing techniques and robotic assembly technologies to enable automated on-orbit fabrication of large, complex, three-dimensional structures such as trusses, antenna reflectors, and shrouds.