At TED2025, Media Lab alum Ariel Ekblaw—now the founding CEO of Media Lab spinoff Aurelia Institute—discussed the promise of self-assembling architectures for building habitats, factories, and other structures in space. To that end, Aurelia Institute has been testing a system called TESSERAE. Based on Dr. Ekblaw’s PhD research, TESSERAE uses electropermanent magnets to click modular tiles together into complex structures, which could be used not only for housing in space, but to build laboratories and manufacturing facilities that could take advantage of the unique characteristics of microgravity to produce materials that can’t be made on Earth.
- Login
- Register
Work for a Member company and need a Member Portal account? Register here with your company email address.
Article