A robot just built a structure autonomously in space for the 1st time ever

A robot just played Tinkertoys in space, assembling the first satellite structure ever made without a human touching the controls.

The DARPA-funded project saw a robotic "truss builder" create a reflective antenna using Kapton film, composite fiber tubes and aluminum joints. The implications are huge for future missions, potentially opening up new possibilities to build — or fix — satellites in the final frontier.

"This is the first time that a structure has been autonomously constructed in space," Sergio Pellegrino, an aerospace and civil engineering professor at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), said in a statement on Nov. 5.