Self-Assembling Space Architecture - TESSERAE

Artist’s animation of a futuristic TESSERAE habitat that self-assembles in orbit, forms a multi-module space station, and can also be transported to the surface. Based on the real-life research project out of the MIT Space Exploration Initiative and Dr. Ariel Ekblaw’s PhD Thesis. To learn more: TESSERAE (Tessellated Electromagnetic Space Structures for the Exploration of Reconfigurable, Adaptive Environments). The name and nature of the structure hearken to the small, colored tiles used in Roman mosaics, where many standard pieces, or “tesserae,” interlock to create the image. We make this reference to ancient history, while designing an artifact of our space exploration future, to tie architectural elements together across scales and across millennia. Rendering courtesy of TU Dortmund Fraunhofer Institute as part of a collaboration with MIT Media Lab SEI. Collaborator credit: Aswin Karthik Ramachandran Venkatapathy. Artist credit: David Knozowski.