An Australian-led consortium has secured federal funding to develop an artificial intelligence-driven design and rapid manufacturing system for spacecraft, aiming to compress hardware production timelines from months to days.
The two-year initiative, titled Optimised Generative AI Design for Mass-Manufacturable Spacecraft, is led by Space Machines Company (SMC) in partnership with the University of Technology Sydney (UTS), the Advanced Manufacturing Readiness Facility (AMRF) at Bradfield City, and engineering firm Fordyno. The project has been awarded Cooperative Research Centres Projects grant funding from the Australian Government, with total investment, including partner contributions, reaching about $6 million.
The partners plan to build a machine-learning system capable of generating optimal spacecraft primary structures in response to changing mission and payload requirements. This generative design capability will be integrated with additive manufacturing and robotic assembly processes at AMRF, targeting build-test-iterate cycles of roughly three weeks and physical hardware production within days.
UTS will develop the generative design algorithms, drawing on expertise in topology optimization. Fordyno will focus on structural analysis and design-for-manufacture, translating AI-generated concepts into buildable spacecraft structures. The final milestone is at least one flight-qualified Optimus Viper primary structure validated to launch standards, along with a commercial version of the software and validated manufacturing procedures intended to support higher-rate spacecraft production.