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SELF-AWARE SELF-ASSEMBLY for SPACE ARCHITECTURE: Growth Paradigms for In-Space Manufacturing

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SELF-AWARE SELF-ASSEMBLY for SPACE ARCHITECTURE: Growth Paradigms for In-Space Manufacturing SELF-AWARE SELF-ASSEMBLY for SPACE ARCHITECTURE: Growth Paradigms for In-SpaCe Manufacturing by Ariel Ekblaw B.S., Yale University (2014) M.S., MassaChusetts Institute of TeChnology (2017) Submitted to the Program in Media Arts and Sciences, School of ArChitecture and Planning, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at the MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY September 2020 © MassaChusetts Institute of TeChnology, 2020. All rights reserved Author ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………… Ariel Ekblaw Program in Media Arts and Sciences August 17, 2020 Certified by ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………… Joseph Paradiso Alexander W. Dreyfoos (1954) Professor of Media Arts and Sciences Thesis Supervisor ACCepted by ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………… Tod MaChover ACademic Head, Program in Media Arts and Sciences SELF-AWARE SELF-ASSEMBLY for SPACE ARCHITECTURE: Growth Paradigms for In-Space Manufacturing by Ariel Ekblaw Submitted to the Program in Media Arts and Sciences, School of ArChitecture and Planning, on August 17th, 2020 in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy AbstraCt Humanity stands on the Cusp of interplanetary Civilization. As we prepare to venture into deep space, we faCe what appears to be an irreConcilable Conundrum: at once a majestic domain for human exploration, while also a domain of unrelenting Challenges, posing dangers that are fundamentally at odds with our evolved biology. The field of space arChitecture struggles with not only these environmental Challenges, but also Constrained physical dimensions (e.g., roCket payload fairings), risky astronaut space-walks and limited robotic mobility for assembly, and Capricious budgets as political whims Change. How might we inCorporate the robustness principles and incremental additions of indeterminate-growth living systems into the habitats that will sustain us over time? We begin by exploring how to enable dynamic, self-assembling space structures that are informed by both inorganic and organiC growth processes from complex Earth systems. How can we design, induce, and sCale self-aware self-assembly to grow space arChitecture, natively, in orbit? We answer this Call, for spaCe arChitecture that builds itself, through transformative self-aware self-assembly— adaptive, responsive “living structures” that follow principles of tessellation and self-similarity to sCale elegantly from Common base units to modular space stations to future mega-structures. In an orbiting Context, freed from the Constraints of Earth’s gravity, we Can redefine how space arChitecture is Conceived, designed, assembled, and lived within. These principles are applied aCross all four areas of thesis Contributions: a novel design theory for space arChitecture realized in a portfolio of space structure Concepts; systems engineering mission arChitecture and feasibility analyses for Contextualizing proposed space structures in realistic aerospaCe deployments; physics simulation modeling for habitat-sCale self-assembly dynamics in microgravity; and quasi-stochastic self- assembling tile hardware Creation and evaluation aCross four space environment missions, Culminating in a sucCessful 30-day International SpaCe Station experiment in MarCh 2020. The thesis Contributions Center on the TESSERAE (Tessellated EleCtromagnetic Space Structures for the Exploration of ReConfigurable, Adaptive Environments) platform. Thesis Supervisor: Joseph Paradiso Title: Alexander W. Dreyfoos (1954) Professor of Media Arts and Sciences, MIT Media Lab SELF-AWARE SELF-ASSEMBLY for SPACE ARCHITECTURE: Growth Paradigms for In-Space Manufacturing by Ariel Ekblaw This thesis has been reviewed and approved by the following committee members: Thesis Supervisor ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………… Joe Paradiso Alexander W. Dreyfoos (1954) Professor of Media Arts and Sciences MIT Media Lab Thesis Reader ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………… Dava Newman Apollo Program Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics MIT AeroAstro Thesis Reader ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………… Neri Oxman Associate Professor of Media Arts and Sciences MIT Media Lab Thesis Reader ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………… Danny Hillis Visiting Professor of Media Arts and Sciences MIT Media Lab Acknowledgements This PhD is the outgrowth of many a romantic notion about space exploration—from the intrinsic beauty found in the searCh for new knowledge of our cosmos, to the grand adventures, quests, and missions awaiting humanity as we venture into the far reaChes of our solar system and eventually our galaxy. I am profoundly fortunate to have been guided, encouraged, and supported in this work by many an exCeptional human. This is the least exhaustive seCtion of the thesis, as I have so many more to thank, and so much to be thankful for. To my Committee— To Joe, I owe so much. You have my deepest gratitude for shaping my formative years as a researCher and builder, for providing insightful mentorship aCross a range of technical areas, and for so enthusiastically sharing your love of sCience fiction. You gave me freedom—freedom to Combine the technical rigor of the Responsive Environments group approaCh with far-future design Creativity. This propelled my explorations as I took the PhD into uncharted territory for our future lives in spaCe. We shared a way of thinking from the world of Particle Physics in past lives and yet you also introduced me to a new mode of sCientific and engineering inquiry through the promise of ubiquitous sensing and iterative prototyping. It has been my distinct pleasure to build a “responsive space environment” in your honor. On top of all of this, you supported me unwaveringly in my parallel endeavor at the Lab, as I founded and led the growing MIT SpaCe Exploration Initiative. I am so grateful for your open-mindedness and belief in me as I pursued an unorthodox path through graduate sChool. Dava, you inspire me. I have learned so much from how you approach human spaceflight and how you lead innovative researCh—aCross aCademia, government, and industry—to realize our space exploration future. You helped me take this thesis from a set of unusual, provocative ideas to an aerospace platform with a roadmap of flight tests that have and will Continue to prepare the work for deployment at sCale, in orbit. Thank you for your researCh insight and your encouragement. I am so grateful for your mentorship. Neri, you open my eyes. From teaChing the Course that provoked my first inklings of the thesis researCh, to every one of our researCh Conversations, you show me a way of thinking about the world that fasCinates and intrigues me. I aspire to develop a taste in thinking worthy of your use of the term, guiding the next deCade of my work in space arChitecture. Thank you for always pushing me to explore a realm of creativity, design rigor, and expansive vision—you have so enriched my work. Danny, you motivate me—to follow in your footsteps and build systems at sCale that Can last for Centuries. I am grateful for the depth of your technical advising for this thesis, the wisdom you bring from so many different disCiplines, and the infeCtious, misChievous mindset that working with you inevitably Cultivates for solving problems and applying technological paradigms. To my mentors and researCh collaborators— First and foremost, thank you, Joi Ito, for introducing me to the magiC of the Media Lab. You gave me space to grow, to build an eCosystem of space exploration endeavors in a new pocket of MIT. This powered the PhD and set me on an entirely new trajeCtory. Thank you for this transformative opportunity and for your friendship. Thank you, Maria Zuber, for Championing both the SpaCe Exploration Initiative and my PhD, guiding me throughout the last four years. Radhika Nagpal, while a trick of fate led me to a different lab as an undergraduate REU, I am so lucky to have found my way back to you! I have so greatly enjoyed every minute of our Conversations and am grateful for your expertise and mentorship. To Neil Gershenfeld and the entire CBA, thank you for the How to Make Almost Anything course where the first TESSERAE prototype was born and for the intelleCtual heritage behind programmable matter (with a speCial thanks to ZaCh Fredin for the EPM winding tutorial!). Thank you, Neil, for introducing me to Ara Knaian. Ara, thank you for your incredible 4 generosity in teaChing me the finer points of COMSOL and for the particularly fruitful Collaboration around the ISS flight. Thank you, Aswin Karthik RamaChandran Venkatapathy, for your dediCation to our eleCtronics Collaboration over several years and for so many fantastic Conversations. Please extend my thanks to the TU Dortmund Fraunhofer institute for sharing your time and their researCh resourCes with us. My thanks also go out to the Cyberbotics team and their superb software and engineers, particularly David Mansolino, with whom I had the pleasure of working Closely for the TESSERAE physics simulation. Thank you to visiting student Anastasia Prosina for a summer rich in arChitectural exploration and for your Contributions to the TESSERAE interior design. Thank you, MIT UROPs Elisheva Shuter and Peter Williams, for your early prototyping efforts. Thank you Vince Tolentino, Edward Oo, and Marlena Fauer, for enlightening Conversations on the broader Cultural, art, and architectural influences that humanity would yearn for in space arChitecture. To my colleagues and friends at the
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