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AAReST was a really neat project by Caltech and University of Surrey (UK) to experiment with a self-assembling space telescope mirror. There are some interesting articles and papers about it circa 2015, but nothing since then.

Curious to know if it is going to get launched.

Some links:

http://weebau.com/satellite/A/aarest.htm

https://directory.eoportal.org/web/eoportal/satellite-missions/a/aarest

jgalak
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  • Now I'm interested too! Sometimes investigations and projects will morph into different applications as more is learned, or the results (and sometimes even the investigators) are incorporated into new projects. – uhoh Nov 21 '17 at 00:52
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    Somewhat related http://madeinspace.us/archinaut/ and also this and this video. – uhoh Nov 21 '17 at 05:06

2 Answers2

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Based on the research papers published related to the AAReST Mission and this recent paper by Surrey Space Center, it can be said that various subsystems for the mission are being developed and the mission is set to launch in 2018 or later.

Demonstrating in-space docking of small satellites is the key to in-space assembly and this mission is a stepping stone to achieve the same. There is another such mission which focuses on a Universal Docking Port(UDP) mechanism by NASA and Tyvak, called CPOD, which is also set to launch in 2018. Check out this and this

Aaditya Ravindran
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Most subsystems are in the final stages of their development. A new collaboration with the an Indian university, IIST was reached a few years back for the realization of AAReST mission. IIST will be developing the satellite bus for one of the two Mirror-Sats aboard AAReST. The core team of AAReST has met a few months back in India to discuss the progress. The launch is expected next year(2020) from Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh, India, aboard the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) of the Indian Space Research Organization(ISRO).

Vijay
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    This is great news! Can you add one or two supporting links to your answer so that it can be verified and readers can read further? Thanks and Welcome to Space! – uhoh Jun 12 '19 at 09:55