WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — There is a critical barrier to cultivating a sustainable human presence on the moon, Mars and beyond: Delivering materials to build infrastructure is costly and requires more cargo space than is currently available.
AnalySwift LLC , a Purdue University-affiliated company, has received an $899,738 Phase II STTR (Small Business Technology Transfer) award from NASA for a two-year activity to develop a solution: a robotic technology that welds and unwelds thermoplastic composites in space.
Allan Wood, AnalySwift president and CEO, said the activity’s purpose is to enable disassembly and reassembly of large truss structures by unwelding and welding composite joints.
“This capability allows the repurposing of spacecraft components for other missions, achieving multiuse structures and assembling large structures without the limit of launch-fairing dimensions,” he said.
AnalySwift develops cutting-edge engineering software for the rapid yet accurate design and analysis of composite materials structures.
“Our focus will be simulating the advanced materials and structures needed for this activity, including the feasibility of repurposing full-scale truss structures,” Wood said.
Kawai Kwok , associate professor in Purdue’s School of Aeronautics and Astronautics , is the principal investigator. Yu She , assistant professor in Purdue’s Edwardson School of Industrial Engineering , is working on the activity’s robotics component.
The Phase II award follows a Phase I STTR NASA award to AnalySwift in 2024 .
The activity has four objectives:
Kwok will lead a team to develop composite joints that are embedded with a resistance heater made of the same thermoplastic matrix as the adhered composite struts and a thin-film resistor.
“The embedded heater provides in situ heating to bring the thermoplastic matrix to the processing temperature for bonding and debonding the joint-strut interface by mechanical forces,” he said. “Intelligent robotic systems will perform the welding operation and structural reassembly to achieve reconfiguration of a truss.”
Yu She, who will work on the robotics part of the activity, said robots are essential to assemble and repurpose large structures in space because it requires precise and repeatable manipulation.
“My team will develop a dual-arm robotic system that uses vision, tactile sensing, and force and thermal feedback to locate composite joints, activate their embedded heaters, and carefully separate or reconnect the structural components,” he said.
Wood said traditional delivery of materials and structures to space for building infrastructure presents a critical barrier to a sustainable human presence.
“Long-duration crewed missions to the moon, Mars and beyond require infrastructure to be constructed sustainably on these surfaces,” he said.
Wood said there are significant logistical challenges in delivering heavy and large mission-enabling payloads to space due to limited launch capabilities.
“Communication antennas, solar arrays, thermal radiators and telescope mirrors require large-area support structures,” he said. “The fundamental principle of electromagnetic waves dictates that the performance of these devices scales with their aperture.”
Wood said the size demand for these structures easily measures more than tens of meters; current launch fairing diameter is limited to about five meters. Structures for sustained planetary presence are expected to be even larger.
“The mass constraint on launch vehicles is equally restrictive, with the cost of space launch to low Earth orbit ranging from $2,000 per kilogram to $20,000 per kilogram,” he said.
AnalySwift LLC is a provider of composite simulation software, which enables an unprecedented combination of efficiency and accuracy, including multiphysics structural and micromechanics modeling. Drawing on cutting-edge university technology, AnalySwift’s powerful solutions save orders of magnitude in computing time without a loss of accuracy so users can consider more design options and arrive at the best solution more quickly. The technologies deliver the accuracy of detailed 3D finite element analysis at the efficiency of simple engineering models. SwiftComp was developed at Purdue University and licensed from the Purdue Research Foundation. Contact AnalySwift at info@analyswift.com .
The Purdue Innovates Office of Technology Commercialization operates one of the most comprehensive technology transfer programs among leading research universities in the U.S. Services provided by this office support the economic development initiatives of Purdue University and benefit the university’s academic activities through commercializing, licensing and protecting Purdue intellectual property. In fiscal year 2025, the office reported 161 deals executed with 269 technologies licensed, 479 invention disclosures received, and 267 U.S. and international patents received. The office is managed by the Purdue Research Foundation, a private, nonprofit foundation created to advance the mission of Purdue University. Contact otcip@prf.org for more information.
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Media contact: Steve Martin, sgmartin@prf.org