Carnegie Mellon University — HERDS Deployable Structures¶
Kilometer-scale expandable trusses for artificial gravity habitats
Investigated: Session 99, 2026-04-07
Institution & Team¶
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Lead Org | Carnegie Mellon University (AANAPISI) — Pittsburgh, PA |
| PI | Zachary Manchester (Associate Professor, ECE/Robotics Institute, CMU) |
| Co-Is | Mitchell Fogelson (CMU), Sawyer Thomas (CMU), Jeffrey Lipton (Northeastern University) |
| States | MA, PA, WA |
| Domain | Deployable mechanical metamaterials for large space structures |
Zachary Manchester is a rising star in space robotics: - Associate Professor, CMU School of Computer Science (Robotics Institute + ECE) - NSF CAREER Award (Spring 2025) — modeling, simulation, and control for robot-environment interaction in space and underwater - REx Lab (Robotic Exploration Laboratory) at CMU - Known for KickSat (1,000+ femtosatellites, 2011-2014 Kickstarter), spacecraft control algorithms - Google Scholar citations extensive in spacecraft dynamics, trajectory optimization
Jeffrey Lipton (Co-I, Northeastern University): - Mechanical and Industrial Engineering professor, Northeastern - Transformative Robotics Lab - Led the 2025 parabolic flight testing of HERDS - Research spans origami-inspired mechanisms, deployable structures, soft robotics
FO Project¶
182833 — HERDS: High-Expansion-Ratio Deployable Structures¶
- Status: Active (Jan 2025 – Jan 2028)
- TRL: 3 → 6 (target)
- TX: TX12.3.1 Deployables, Docking, and Interfaces
- Destination: Moon and Cislunar
- Period: Jan 2025 – Jan 2028 (3 years)
- Views: 2,454
Technology: HERDS (High-Expansion-Ratio Deployable Structures) uses mechanical metamaterials — specifically a hierarchical combination of pop-up extending trusses (PET) and kresling mechanisms — to achieve 50-100× expansion ratios. A structure that packs into a small volume on a spacecraft can deploy to kilometer-scale lengths while maintaining structural rigidity at high spin rates.
Applications: - Artificial gravity habitats: HERDS designed to support Lunar Gateway-class modules spinning to generate centripetal gravity. Simulations show factor of safety >1.5 using existing launch vehicles. - Large space structures: Solar arrays, antennas, tethered systems - Medical devices: Deployable stretchers, temporary infrastructure - Terrestrial: Concert staging, emergency cellphone towers
Flight heritage: - 2025 parabolic flight (ZERO-G, led by Lipton at Northeastern) — tested hardware deployment in microgravity, refined software. "What sets HERDS apart is that they are safe either deployed or stored flat and have the proper rigidity and stiffness to handle heavy loads like humans." (Northeastern News, Nov 2025)
Publications¶
- IEEE Aerospace Conference 2024 — "High-Expansion-Ratio Deployable Space Structures for Long Duration Space Missions" (Fogelson, Thomas, Manchester, Lipton, Falcon)
- Northeastern News (Nov 2025) — "New deployable structures could help astronauts maintain muscle mass in space"
- CMU Robotics Institute — "In Flight With NASA: CMU Tests Space Tech in Microgravity"
- autoevolution — "High Expansion Ratio Structures Could Be the Secret to Artificial Gravity in Space"
- Media pickup: SpaceDaily, PhysOrg, EduTalkToday
TechPort Footprint¶
| Project | Program | Role | Period |
|---|---|---|---|
| 182833 | FO | Lead | 2025–2028 |
Single TechPort project. This is the team's first NASA project in TechPort. Manchester's prior work was primarily NSF and DARPA funded.
Funding¶
No USASpending contracts found for HERDS, Manchester, or CMU related to this technology. The FO project is likely via cooperative agreement.
Manchester's NSF CAREER Award (2025) funds related work on robot-environment dynamics in space — complementary but separate from HERDS.
Downstream Potential¶
Near-Term (2025-2028)¶
- FO parabolic flights already completed (2025)
- Next: suborbital flight test (likely via TechLeap Prize or dedicated FO allocation)
- Target: TRL 6 by Jan 2028
Medium-Term¶
- Lunar Gateway integration study — HERDS simulations already target Gateway structural requirements
- Artemis surface infrastructure — deployable habitats, solar arrays, communication towers
- CLD (Commercial LEO Destination) — artificial gravity modules for Starlab, Orbital Reef, or similar
Long-Term¶
- Kilometer-scale spinning habitats
- Deep-space transit vehicles with artificial gravity
Commercialization Signals¶
- Multi-institution team (CMU + Northeastern + WA institution) suggests collaborative IP
- No startup formed yet
- Manchester's track record (KickSat) shows entrepreneurial inclination
- The terrestrial applications (staging, emergency infrastructure) could provide earlier revenue
Assessment¶
| Dimension | Rating |
|---|---|
| Technology readiness | Early — TRL 3, parabolic flight completed |
| PI quality | Very high — NSF CAREER, strong publication record, entrepreneurial history |
| Commercial viability | Pre-commercial; no company, but multiple application domains |
| Downstream impact | Too early to assess (project just started 2025) |
| Confidence | Speculative — concept validated in parabolic flight, but years from deployment |
Outcome category: Active Maturation — Early-Stage Academic
Archetype: High-profile academic team entering FO ecosystem. Multi-institution collaboration with strong publication pipeline and media attention. Technology is novel (mechanical metamaterials for space structures) but application timeline is long (artificial gravity habitats are not on any near-term mission manifest).
Time dimension: FO project started Jan 2025. Parabolic flight completed 2025 (fast execution). IEEE paper published 2024 (pre-FO). Target TRL 6 by Jan 2028. Any mission application is 2030+ at earliest.
Key insight: HERDS is the most architecturally ambitious technology in the current FO cohort. If it works at scale, it could enable fundamental changes in space habitat design (spinning artificial gravity). But the gap between "deployable truss tested in parabolic flight" and "kilometer-scale spinning habitat" is enormous. The near-term value is probably in smaller applications: deployable solar arrays, communication towers, EVA equipment — where the 50-100× expansion ratio solves real packaging problems without requiring the full artificial gravity vision.
Open Questions¶
- What was the WA-state collaborating institution? (Project lists MA, PA, WA states)
- Will Manchester/Lipton form a startup to commercialize HERDS?
- What is the planned suborbital flight provider for TRL 6 demonstration?
- Has Gateway program expressed interest in deployable tethered modules?
- How does HERDS compare to other deployable structure approaches (e.g., Nexolve LISA-T booms, NASA HIAD)?
Sources: TechPort 182833; IEEE Aerospace 2024 paper; Northeastern News (Nov 2025); CMU Robotics Institute; CMU SCS News (NSF CAREER, 2025); autoevolution; SpaceDaily; REx Lab project page