DARPA’s Wild Plan for Space Factories Moves Forward: Two Teams Selected for Orbital Demos

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has chosen the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) and the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) to lead the final phase of its NOM4D (Novel Orbital and Moon Manufacturing, Materials, and Mass-efficient Design) program. This initiative, which began in 2022, focuses on advancing in-space manufacturing to overcome the limitations of rocket cargo capacity.

DARPA announced the selection on 10 February, stating that both institutions will conduct small-scale orbital demonstrations to validate new materials and assembly techniques in space.

“As commercial space companies continue to expand access to orbit for U.S. economic and national security needs, a major roadblock for building large-scale structures in orbit remains the size and weight limits imposed by a rocket’s cargo fairing,” DARPA noted in its announcement.

By using lightweight raw materials that can be transformed and assembled in orbit, the agency aims to develop larger, more efficient structures than those traditionally launched from Earth.

Caltech’s Robotic Assembly Experiment

Caltech will test an autonomous robotic construction system in low-Earth orbit in February 2026. This demonstration, in partnership with Momentus, will launch aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 Transporter-16 mission using a Vigoride orbital vehicle.

The experiment will feature a free-flying robotic system constructing a 1.4-meter-diameter circular truss using lightweight composite fiber tubes. Although this structure is not a functional antenna, it serves as a proof-of-concept for future large-scale space-based communications infrastructure.

University of Illinois’ Materials Innovation

The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign team will test an innovative materials process on the International Space Station (ISS) in April 2026. This experiment will be conducted in the Bishop Airlock module, launching aboard NASA’s Commercial Resupply Mission NG-24.

Partnering with Voyager Technologies (formerly Voyager Space), the Illinois team will demonstrate a composite-forming process using carbon fiber. The material starts flat but undergoes a controlled chemical reaction to transform into a reinforced, hardened structure. This method could significantly reduce the volume required to transport building materials to orbit.

“We envision NOM4D technologies enabling other massive structures in orbit, such as refueling stations for commercial or government spacecraft, space-based solar array farms, and many other commercial and national security applications,” DARPA stated.

Additional Research from the University of Florida

A third research team from the University of Florida is also contributing to NOM4D, though it will not participate in the orbital demonstrations. Instead, it is working on laser sheet metal bending techniques, which will be shared with NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center for potential future space manufacturing applications.

DARPA’s Expanding Interest in Lunar Technology

Although DARPA is primarily a Department of Defense agency, it is increasingly involved in lunar technology development. The NOM4D initiative aligns with DARPA’s other projects, such as the Lunar Architecture (LunA-10) study and the Lunar Operating Guidelines for Infrastructure Consortium (LOGIC), both of which focus on long-term lunar infrastructure planning.