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Terry Fong: The whole Astrobee system, these three
free-flying robots are going to help us learn really
how to improve the way that humans can live
and work in space.
By having robot partners to do work alongside
and independent of humans.
And they're a critical part of what I think we need
long-term to establish a human presence in deep space.
Terry Fong: The Astrobee system plays
a key role for NASA.
We're interested in understanding how robots
can support human exploration, allowing people
to better live and work in space.
It's really clear that robots are a key part of that.
They address a critical gap, that is, how to do
things that humans just don't have time to do.
How to do work that can only be done when robots
are there and humans aren't present.
Terry Fong: One of the most exciting things about
Astrobee is that it's not a finished product,
it's just a starting point.
We designed the system so you can add new software
and new hardware to it, that researchers at
universities and companies and frankly anyone
could contribute to the development of
new robotic capabilities for the future.
Jose Benavides: The reason we are launching
three Astrobee units onto the Space Station is
to enable all kinds of research that requires
more than one unit.
So, for example, automated docking; getting two
spacecraft to dock with each other requires two.
Formation flight; being able to control
three free-flying spacecraft in close proximity
with each other requires three units.
So, we also are catering to researchers interested
in collaborative robotics, getting multiple robots
to work together to accomplish tasks
on the Space Station.
Cargo transfer, mobile camera work, sensor surveys,
all of these things can benefit from having
multiple Astrobees on Space Station.
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