Robots in Space: U.S. Missions and Technology Requirementsinto the Next Century

  • Authors:

  • Charles R. Weisbin;David B. Lavery;Guillermo Rodriguez

  • Affiliations:

  • Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, 4800 Oak Grove Drive, Pasadena, California 91109-8099/ U.S.A/ E-mail: Charles.R.Weisbin&commat/pjpl.nasa.gov;Office of Space Access and Technology, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Washington, D.C. 20546-0001/ U.S.A./ E-mail: Dave.Lavery&commat/hq.nasa.gov;Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, 4800 Oak Grove Drive, Pasadena, California 91109-8099/ U.S.A/ E-mail: Guillermo.Rodriguez&commat/jpl.nasa.gov

  • Venue:
  • Autonomous Robots
  • Year:
  • 1997

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Abstract

The Telerobotics Program of the National Aeronautics and SpaceAdministration (NASA) Office of Space Science is developinginnovative telerobotics technologies to enable or support a widerange of space missions over the next decade and beyond. Thesetechnologies fall into four core application areas: landers, surfacevehicles (rovers), and aerovehicles for solar system exploration andscience; rovers for commercially supported lunar activities;free-flying and platform-attached robots for in-orbit servicing andassembly; and robots supporting in-orbit biotechnology andmicrogravity experiments. Such advanced robots will enable missionsto explore Mars, Venus, and Saturn‘s moon Titan, as well as probes tosample comets and asteroids. They may also play an important role incommercially funded exploration of large regions on Earth‘s Moon, aswell as the eventual development of a human-supporting LunarOutpost. In addition, in-orbit servicing of satellites and maintenanceof large platforms like the International Space Station will requireextensive robotics capabilities.