Summary (Astrobee) - Draft 1

In the article, “Astrobee Will Find Astronauts’ Lost Socks”, Evan Ackerman (2021) wrote about the Astrobee, a robot built to potentially assist in maintaining the Gateway. 

The Gateway is a space station intended to be a “transit point” for astronauts bound for the Moon and potentially Mars. As such, it is expected that the Gateway will be empty most of the time, and the purpose of the Astrobee is to keep the space station in tip-top shape, alongside “NASA’s Integrated System for Autonomous and Adaptive Caretaking project” (ISAAC). ISAAC combines the “autonomous systems onboard space stations” with the “mobile autonomous or semi-autonomous robots” to respond and solve any issues requiring “physical intervention”.

According to Ackerman (2021), testing has shown that the Astrobee is capable of proficient way-finding, foreign object detection and sending alerts to aid in the removal of foreign objects. The robot is capable of surveying its surroundings to create a “high-resolution multi-sensor 3d map”. It is also able to free itself when trapped, and able to manage during “simulated space-to-ground communication interruptions.” As the Astrobee is not intended to handle objects, it will have to operate with external help, which potentially includes the Robonaut 2 and GITAI’s arm. 

The overall plan for ISAAC is to allow for “increased robotic autonomy”, which will allow for robots to potentially “be the ones doing the literal, and metaphorical, heavy lifting”, especially when space exploration reaches Mars.

Ackerman, E. (2021). Astrobee Will Find Astronauts’ Lost Socks. IEEE Spectrum. https://spectrum.ieee.org/astrobee-nasa-gateway