Space Robotics for On Orbit Servicing, Astronaut Assistance, and Planetary Exploration

Abstract

The more information we gained in the last decades about our solar system, the planets, their moons, asteroids or comets, the stronger the interest became, to land on these bodies, explore and analyse their geology, or even find signs of live in some of these fascinating but hostile worlds. Robots of increasing complexity are being developed today to autonomously move around and analyse samples the same way a geologist or biologist would do on Earth. But also, in near earth orbits robots will play an increasing role by servicing satellites, removing dangerous space debris or assisting astronauts during their daily work in space. Robots should relieve humans from dangerous or monotonous tasks, increase their working efficiency and allow them to concentrate on the challenging scientific and engineering work. In this talk I will give an overview on the state of the art of space robotics, the latest Space Robotics activities at DLR, as well as on the perspectives of the coming years.