Small Satellite Mission Design for Robotic Assembly and Reconfiguration of Mechanical Metamaterials

In-space assembly is crucial for constructing large-scale structures for future space missions. Future lunar base construction and Martian missions may necessitate various structures, including astronaut shelters, communication towers, structural reinforcement for natural features like caves, and even landing pads. The NASA Automated Reconfigurable Mission Adaptive Digital Assembly Systems (ARMADAS) project seeks to provide an autonomous robotic solution to meet these diverse mission objectives. The project utilizes discrete lattice building blocks that offer high mechanical performance and a repeatable structure, specifically designed for autonomous robotic assembly. The robots, designed to live and work on this lattice structure, are capable of transporting, assembling, dissasembling, and fastening voxels, autonomously, to build and reconfigure a desired structure. In this work, we present the mission overview for a scaled-down ARMADAS system and detailed system requirements for a 27U CubeSat mission that would allow for a successful space mission demonstration and raise the Technology Readiness Level of the ARMADAS system.