The Caltech-run, DARPA-funded ASTRA project just built a structure autonomously in orbit — a spaceflight first. (Image credit: Caltech/DARPA)

A robot just played Tinkertoys in space, assembling the first satellite structure ever made without a human touching the controls.

The DARPA-funded project saw a robotic "truss builder" create a reflective antenna using Kapton film, composite fiber tubes and aluminum joints. The implications are huge for future missions, potentially opening up new possibilities to build — or fix — satellites in the final frontier.

"This is the first time that a structure has been autonomously constructed in space ," Sergio Pellegrino, an aerospace and civil engineering professor at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), said in a statement on Nov. 5 .

The need for such spacecraft will likely rise substantially in the future, as companies assemble giant megaconstellations for cell-phone communications, AI compute and other purposes.…