A space walking robot could build a giant telescope in space
The Hubble Space Telescope was carried to space inside the space shuttle Discovery and then released into low-Earth orbit. The James Webb Space Telescope was squeezed inside the nose cone of an Ariane 5 rocket and then launched. ...
However, the ISS was assembled in space with components launched at different times. Could it be a model for building future space telescopes and other space facilities?
The universe has a lot of dark corners that need to be peered into. That's why we're driven to build more powerful telescopes, which means larger mirrors. However, it becomes increasingly difficult to launch them into space inside rocket nose cones. Since we don't have space shuttles anymore, this leads us to a natural conclusion: assemble our space telescopes in space using powerful robots.
New research published in the journal Acta Astronautica examines the viability of using walking robots to build space telescopes.
The research is titled "The new era of walking manipulators in space: Feasibility and operational assessment of assembling a 25 m Large Aperture Space Telescope in orbit." The lead author is Manu Nair from the Lincoln Center for Autonomous Systems in the U.K.
"This research is timely given the constant clamor for high-resolution astronomy and Earth observation within the space community and serves as a baseline for future missions with telescopes of much larger aperture, missions requiring assembly of space stations, and solar-power generation satellites, to list a few," the authors write.
Artist impression of the James Webb Space Telescope. Its design and construction were made more complicated and expensive because it had to fit into the nosecone of the rocket that launched it. Assembling telescopes in space could be an improvement. Credit: ESA
An illustration of the E-walker. The robot has seven degrees of freedom, meaning it has seven independent motions. Credit: Mini Rai, University of Lincoln
This figure shows how LAST would be constructed. 342 Primary Mirror Units make up the 18 Primary Mirror Segments, adding up to a 25-meter primary mirror. (b) shows how the center of each PMU is found, and (c) shows a PMU and its connectors. Credit: Nair et al. 2024
This figure summarizes the 11 mission ConOps developed for LAST. (a) shows assembly with a single E-walker, (b) shows partially shared responsibilities among the E-walkers, (c) shows equally shared responsibilities between E-walkers, and (d) shows assembly carried out in two separate units, which is the safer assembly option. Credit: Nair et al. 2024