Designing the Mission Behind Manufacturing in Orbit.
An orbital factory is more than a manufacturing machine. It is a connected system of materials, transport, spacecraft, production processes and quality checks.
Dr Richard Arundal’s doctoral thesis, A General Tool To Assist With On Orbit Manufacturing, investigates how those elements can be brought together in an early-stage mission model. Its central contribution is the On Orbit Manufacturing System Architecture Tool: OOMSAT.
Turning Requirements into a Mission Model
Developed in MATLAB, OOMSAT runs a sequence of linked calculations. Starting from user requirements, it connects logistics and spacecraft mass budgets with manufacturing stages, finishing, validation, storage and preliminary cost modelling.
A synchronisation routine, OOMSYNC, runs the modules in order so that outputs from one stage become inputs to the next. Engineers can change assumptions and re-run the model to compare alternative scenarios.
Examining the Assumptions
The research varies individual parameters to examine their influence on the model’s outputs. It distinguishes user requirements, inputs requiring specialist expertise and parameters marked as needing significant future work.
This makes the maturity of the model important. OOMSAT is an initial, high-level research tool containing simplified calculations and placeholder assumptions. Its outputs support exploration and further investigation; they do not establish a validated mission cost or a flight-ready design.
Two Products, One Adaptable Approach
The first case study follows structural pipe manufacture, connecting material processing and product dimensions to the wider orbital manufacturing system.
The second adapts the model for Horizon Drive Capacitors associated with exploratory Quantised Inertia research. It draws on Richard’s work with Dr Mike McCulloch, including apparatus development, manual capacitor construction and physical testing. The manufacturing case study demonstrates how modules can be changed for a different product. It should not be read as confirmation of the proposed propulsion mechanism.
What the Research Contributes
The contribution is a modular way to connect spacecraft engineering and manufacturing processes, test assumptions and compare early concepts. The thesis also identifies routes for further development, including more detailed process models, antenna-reflector manufacture and integration with specialist orbital-trajectory analysis.
From Research to Collaboration
The work brings together systems thinking, software development, parameter analysis and practical experimentation. For a related engineering question or research collaboration, contact Arundal Astronautics.