First results of robots crawling on a loose net in micro-gravity during a sounding rocket experiment

Several concepts for the construction of large antennas have been proposed and discussed. This paper presents the first results obtained during a sounding rocket experiment of the Furoshiki-type concept: a large net deployed by spacecraft forms the antenna surface, on which small robots either deploy to perform simple tasks on antenna elements or constitute individual elements of a larger retro-directive phase array antenna. The present paper discusses the trade-off of the robotic options and presents results obtained from robots on the flight experiment.