For Starship to go to #Mars , you’ve got to get #Starship tankers on orbit and perfect orbital refueling. #SpaceX will have to perfect the #robots that will help build spacecraft #LandingPads and human #habitats on the Martian surface, prospect for water underground, and convert the water and carbon dioxide captured from the atmosphere into vast reservoirs of super-cooled oxygen and methane for the Starships’ return voyage to Earth. https://www.forbes.com/sites/kevinholdenplatt/2025/03/11/spacexs-starship-plan-to-land-first-humans-on-mars-but-not-till-2031

We need #spacecraft that can approach ageing #satellites and dock with them, using #robots to repair , refuel and upgrade them. We’ll also need a way to reuse and recycle satellites when their working lives are over. Different types of trash require different removal techniques, with many ideas coming from the #fishing industry https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-space-junk-crisis-needs-a-recycling-revolution/

#ChangE8 2028 : “Through data sharing and task delegation, the #robots will work together like a team, achieving objectives that would be impossible for independent robots to complete” https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3296324/change-8-moon-mission-first-get-robotic-boost-chinas-private-sector

Some useful payload for greenhouses on #Mars ? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVcQp-WQbF0

"No #astronauts have ever viewed Earth from the vantage point of a polar orbit. Such orbits are favored by commercial photo-reconnaissance satellites because they fly over the entire planet as it rotates beneath them." https://www.cbsnews.com/news/spacex-to-launch-bitcoin-entrepreneur-and-three-crewmates-on-flight-around-earths-poles/

Maybe they see more than the #HiRes cams with their

#China has made it a goal to have mass production of humanoid #robots by 2025 and wants global leadership in the sector by 2027.
#Leju Robot presented its #Kuavo , which runs on an operating system derived from #Huawei’s #OpenHarmony, the #OpenSource version of #HarmonyOS https://www.scmp.com/tech/policy/article/3269500/chinas-laws-robotics-shanghai-publishes-first-humanoid-robot-guidelines

“#Astronauts need far more maintenance than #robots , simply because their journeys and surface operations require air, water, food, living space, and protection against harmful radiation ”. Merely going back to the #moon will simply look routine, despite the $90bn cost of the #Artemis programme. https://www.theguardian.com/science/2022/nov/20/from-apollo-to-artemis-50-years-on-is-it-time-to-go-back-to-the-moon

Poll of the American #Astronomical Society : 36 percent said a manned #Moon mission had “great scientific value,” and 35 percent said it had “little scientific value.” And unmanned, #robotic missions to the Moon? Sixty-six percent of space #scientists said they would have “great scientific value.” https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/what-you-didnt-know-about-apollo-11-mission-fifty-years-ago-180972165/

"Human beings don't serve any useful function in space . They radiate heat, they're very expensive to keep alive and unlike robotic missions, they have a natural desire to come back, so that anything involving human beings is enormously expensive." https://www.space.com/4357-nobel-laureate-disses-nasa-manned-spaceflight.html

“I see on the part of the president and the administrators of #NASA… an infantile fixation on putting people into space, which has little or no #scientific value.” https://www.thespacereview.com/article/1037/1

Objectives of ten or 20 years from now, like building #lunar settlements, exploring mineral deposits on the #Moon and efficiently repairing #SpaceStation modules can only be achieved using #robotics. Due to possible disruptions in normal operations, like a small #meteor shower damaging the #robot, or hacking carried by a hostile group or state, humans must be ready to step in.
Modern #spacesuits will be a key foundation of this collaborative relationship. https://www.astronomy.com/space-exploration/the-upgrades-to-spacesuits-that-need-to-be-made-sooner-rather-than-later/

#Moon scouts will all be #robotic, designed to build a foundation for #astronauts to follow about two years later. There is need for transporting large masses of equipment and materials from #Earth. An #IntuitiveMachines lander is set to reach the Moon later this year. #NASA’s #JPL will release a “swarm” of robot-explorers equipped with stereo cameras and charged with creating photorealistic #3D maps of the #lunar terrain https://www.forbes.com/sites/kevinholdenplatt/2024/04/27/robot-explorers-futuristic-spacex-starships-set-to-transform-the-moon/

Breaking the full-size #humanoid speed world record (the previous record was about 2.5m/s) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=83ShvgtyFAg

Soon on the #moon ? "The #Chinese firm shows its first humanoid to achieve a linear walking speed of 3.3m/s" https://interestingengineering.com/innovation/unitree-world-record-fastest-humanoid-robot

#SpaceLogistics & #SpaceMaintenance will most likely be dominated by #SpaceRobot https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/annual-professional-service-robots-installed-by-area | https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/domain-notable-artificial-intelligence-systems

1) Build a feature-complete electromechanical humanoid.
2) Perform human-like manipulation.
3) Integrate humanoids into the labor force.

The robots are coming for our jobs https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2024/03/huge-funding-round-makes-figure-big-techs-favorite-humanoid-robot-company/

“The case for sending humans into #space gets weaker and weaker every year as #robots get cleverer and more sophisticated,. They can do the #science and assemble large structures in space and are much, much cheaper to operate in space. We don’t need humans to do #research in space.” https://www.theguardian.com/science/2023/oct/29/international-space-station-25-years

#spaceMIRA is the first surgical #robot aboard the #SpaceStation and one of the first times remote surgery tasks have been tested in #space . During the surgical demonstration, the signal latency ranged from two-thirds to three-fourths of a second gap. “You have to wait a little bit for the movement to happen, it’s definitely slower movements than you’re used to in the operating room” https://news.unl.edu/newsrooms/today/article/surgical-robot-passes-space-test-with-flying-colors/

Jan 30, 2024 The first #surgical #robot on the #ISS and one of the first times #RemoteSurgery tasks are tested in #space in an experiment to take place in coming weeks https://engineering.unl.edu/news/240130/mira_farritor_launch/