ANA parent invests in Japanese space construction firm

Technology will help create structures in space uninhibited by the constraints of rocket fairings.
All Nippon Airways parent ANA Holdings has made in investment in Space Quarters, which is developing new space construction technologies.

ANA Holdings is making the investment through its ANA Future Frontier Fund but does not reveal the size of its financial commitment.

The company notes that as access to space has improved in recent years, the size of “space stations and orbital facilities” is constrained by the dimensions of rocket fairings. This complicates the construction of large “habitation, communication, and energy facilities in space.”

Japan-based Space Quarters is developing a robotic construction capability that can retrieve, position, and join structural components in orbit using electron beam welding.

“Space Quarters has significantly miniaturized and reduced the weight of this technology for space use, and in March 2026 successfully demonstrated stable welding of both metal materials and lunar regolith (lunar soil) building materials in simulated microgravity and lunar gravity environments aboard an aircraft,” says ANA Holdings.

According to its web site, Space Quarters aims to transport building materials into space in a “compact, stowed state.” After this, it will assemble them in orbit or on the lunar surface, aiming for “highly versatile shapes and functions.”

Space Quarters is aiming for a 2028 demonstration of electron beam welding aboard the International Space Station’s Kibo experiment module.

The post ANA parent invests in Japanese space construction firm first appeared on FlightGlobal.

Source: www.flightglobal.com — article syndicated from the publisher’s feed; all rights remain with the original publisher.