This past Thursday, February 24th 2011, marked two distinct milestones for NASA and space exploration: space shuttle Discovery launched for a final time bringing its 27 years and 143 million miles of service to an end while at the same time carrying in her cargo bay Robonaut 2, the first humanoid robot (that we know of) to be deployed into outer space.

To be more specific, Robonaut 2 is only half a humanoid robot, containing an upper torso and a head but lacking hips, legs, or feet… NASA plans to add those in later versions. R2, as the robot is called, has been developed in collaboration with General Motors (the automotive company), and is what NASA expects to be the first of a new generation of robots that will assist humans in space explorations. As such, the deployment of R2 at the ISS will comprise the first wave of various experiments in deploying this type of robots into outer space, tasked with both assisting and collaborating humans in their missions while also carrying out missions that are otherwise too dangerous or laborious for human astronauts. Among these tasks, EVAs, Space Assembly, and General Repairs of ISS’ outer structure are amongst the most cited examples of what they expect to do with R2.

R2 is capable of both teleoperated missions as well as autonomous and semi-autonomous modes. Certainly having dextrous hands capable of using some of the same tools as humans do will go a long way in carrying out these missions and NASA expects to both accomplish and learn a great deals in using robots in such missions in outer space.

A while ago I had a brief email thread with Dr. Firouz Naderi at JPL about the wisdom of the humanoid form-factor for such robots. While the crammed hallways of the ISS are conducive to the humanoid form, I can think of a variety of other form-factors that may be more ideal to the Zero G environment and the types of tasks they are expected to perform – particularly in the longer term roadmap of NASA’s space exploration roadmap. Nevertheless, the fact that NASA is actively investigating the role of robots in space exploration marks a significant milestone not only for NASA but for robotics as well.

No doubt we will be learning a great deal on human-robot interaction given the tightly controlled and scripted experiments that are run on any given day on the ISS. The introduction of robot assistants into the mechanics of running these experiments will go a long way in providing best practices and intuitive interfaces for human-robot collaboration, amongst other lessons. The use of robots also opens up the possibility of experiments that are otherwise too dangerous and/or laborious for human scientists to undertake in the extreme environment of LEO, leading to both direct and indirect scientific research benefits never before possible.

There are other benefits worth mentioning as well.

As robots are a natural at capturing the cultural imagination, putting a visible humanoid robot into space may have the added benefit of getting people interested in not only space exploration, but the incredible scientific research and development that is needed and conducted on an ongoing basis to do so. The interest of the populace is particularly important today as the global economic climate and the domestic political mood are in misalignment with our appetite to invest in such endeavors.

It is indeed worrisome that the current Republican controlled U.S. Congress has publicly gone on the record that cutting funding for NASA is on their agenda. While as a CEO of a for-profit company I am deeply concerned with our national debt, I believe cutting funding to NASA (and any other national organization conducting public R&D for that matter) is extremely short-sighted and carries grave consequences for the longer term viability of our national economy. It is no secret that innovation has been the key driving force of our economy and if we are to remain competitive in the globalized marketplace, it is vitally important that we continue to be a nation of innovation. And without public investments in large-scale abstract and directed research, we will be severely and measurably cutting the very lifeblood that has sustained our economic viability since World War II.

R2 is a great first step… and to the extent it helps to inspire us to ever greater achievements, and inspires an entirely new generation of our youth into science and engineering, I’m all for it, wish it luck, and hope to see it do great things in the very near future.

So bon voyage to R2, Discovery, and her incredible crew of astronaut scientist.

Best,
/F

Space Shuttle Discovery STS-133 Launches for her Final Journey

Stunning video captured on iPhone from airplane