GoKawiilCaltech's ASTRA robot assembles antenna frame sections in orbit for the first time
Caltech's ASTRA robot, a roughly one-cubic-meter device with a gantry arm, motorized dispensers and 11 cameras, has assembled part of an antenna frame while in low Earth orbit by pulling composite tubes and aluminum joints from onboard dispensers. The full antenna requires 11 sections spanning 1.4 meters, but only three are complete so far, with the mission ending in December before the frame is finished.