The project is called RAMA, or “Reconstituting Asteroids into Mechanical Automata,” and it begins with sending what Made In Space has dubbed a “Seed Craft” onto a near-Earth asteroid. There, the machine would harvest materials from the asteroid to use as feedstock for 3D printers and other fabrication technologies, which would construct all of the necessary equipment to turn the space rock into a primitive spacecraft.
With the Seed Craft employing these fabrication technologies to create the energy storage, propulsion, autonomous navigation and other major systems, the asteroid is converted into a craft capable of heading to the closest mining station in one of the gravitationally stable Lagrange Points of space. The idea is that it would be easier to bring the asteroid to a mining site in the Earth-Moon L5 Lagrange point than to fly out to the asteroid and mine it there.
Having received a Phase I award from NASA’s Innovative Advanced Concepts program, Made In Space now has to determine the feasibility of the project, which will see the firm draw out the actual architecture of the technology involved in RAMA.
The newly made asteroid spacecraft would not feature all of the bells and whistles associated with traditional ships, such as rocket engines. Instead, Made In Space envisions using simpler, mechanical systems, such as a catapult-style method for propulsion that would hurl rocks from the surface of the asteroid to propel the craft forward.
Of course, this mission is a long way from execution, with Made In Space planning on a 2030 launch date. This gives the firm plenty of time to pursue RAMA along with its numerous other projects, including the construction of a 3D-printed spacecraft with Enterprise In Space and 3D printing large-scale structures from the International Space Station (ISS). In the meantime, anyone with a wad of dough can order smaller items 3D-printed on the ISS through Made In Space’s commercial Additive Manufacturing Facility recently installed on the station.