Aerospace faculty earn NIAC award to study self-assembling space technology

Auburn aerospace engineering faculty members have received a $125,000 NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts, or NIAC, award to explore the technology to enable kilometer-sized antenna arrays for radio astronomy that self-assemble in space. These enormous antenna arrays could, among many applications, uncover new information about the Cosmic Dark Ages, a period of time after the Big Bang before the universe’s first stars were born.

The project is led by assistant professors Davide Guzzetti and Russell Mailen and is titled “Flat Fabrication of Progressively Self-Assembling Space Systems.” Together they are studying the feasibility of technology that could allow for the compact packaging of kilometer-sized antennas for radio astronomy that autonomously transform into the operative configuration once in orbit.

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