As humanity moves closer to becoming a spacefaring species, we will quickly outgrow the small, cylindrical tubes that have defined the first century of space flight. Aurelia Institute is committed to building the coming generations of space habitats—the structures we will inhabit as we travel, work, play, and live in space.

The future lies in self-assembling, adaptive, and reconfigurable structures. Rather than transporting fixed, rigid modules and risking astronaut Extravehicular Activities (EVAs) during construction, we can lower payload weight, reduce assembly complexity, and revolutionize space-structure modularity by relying on in-space manufacturing and self- assembly of large, habitable volumes. Aurelia Institute's first test case for this new method of reconfigurable space habitation is TESSERAE (Tessellated Electromagnetic Space Structures for the Exploration of Reconfigurable, Adaptive Environments). Begun as Aurelia founder Ariel Ekblaw’s PhD Thesis at MIT, TESSERAE’s next phase is now actively underway, as Aurelia Institute iteratively builds and tests the TESSERAE hardware platform towards a future crewed habitat mission. 

Through TESSERAE, Aurelia is working toward geodesic dome habitats, microgravity concert halls, space cathedrals—the next generation of space architecture that will delight, inspire, and protect humanity for our future in the near, and far, reaches of space.