CEE Seminar | Dr. Sergio Pellegrino - In-Space Assembly of Large Structures
- When
- Thursday, November 5, 20263:00 PM – 4:00 PM CSTAdd to calendarGoogle Calendar
- Where
- Ryon Engineering BuildingRyon Engineering BuildingOpen in Maps
- Hosted by
- Civil and Environmental Engineering
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About
Today (yesterday)’s technology for large space structures is to build on earth, package for launch, and deploy in orbit. Recent advances in advanced manufacturing and autonomous robotic systems have made it feasible to conceive alternative methods of construction, such as manufacture components in space from raw materials or launch pre-made modular parts and assemble them into a structure. This talk will discuss some of the options, focusing on the challenges posed by two specific examples: a telescope primary mirror built by crawling robots and a reflector antenna assembled by a stationary robotic truss builder. The scalability of these different approaches will be discussed, and a small-scale in-space demonstration that is currently under way will be presented.
Biography:
Sergio Pellegrino is Director of the Booth-Kresa Department of Aerospace, Joyce and Kent Kresa Professor of Aerospace and Civil Engineering at Caltech, JPL Senior Research Scientist and Co-Director of the Caltech Space Solar Power Project. He is an editor of the International Journal of Solids and Structures, a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering and a Fellow of AIAA. Among other awards, he has received a Pioneers’ Award in 2002 from the Space Structures Research Center, University of Surrey, NASA Robert H. Goddard Exceptional Achievement Team Awards in 2009 and 2016, and the IASS Torroja Medal in 2022.