Ever since the controversial claim made by Elon Musk, for sending a million people to Mars by 2050 made it to the headlines in January 2020, many rocket-science scholars have been busy identifying the degree of achievability of that statement. But, be it for setting up a colony on Mars or collecting samples off the moon’s surface, when it comes to space applications, humans alone aren’t cut for the job for obvious adaptability and risk factors. Not only is choosing a robot for space missions a safer way, but it’s also at least 50x more economical. If we look at the numbers, the first-ever manned space program i.e. the Apollo program, which was completed successfully in 1972, put a dent of $25.4 billion in the state’s account back in 1973, which is equivalent to ~$165 billion in today’s time(according to the 2021 US dollar index). However, if we replace humans with machines and talk about one of the most recent missions by NASA, the Perseverance Rover which took flight in July 2020, had a total expenditure of around $2.5 billion to $2.7 billion. What we should also notice here is that the Apollo program was to explore the moon.
Hence, the distance in case of the Apollo mission is 384,400 km while in case of the Perseverance rover, we are looking at a planet that is a minimum of 54.6 million kilometers away. The cost savings are thus unimaginable because if we compare the given metrics, it turns out that for the Apollo mission, the cost per km is close to $400K while for the Perseverance rover, it is as less as $49.
Though technology has evolved much since the Apollo program and conducting a manned mission to the moon today would cost much less than it did back then but even so, manned missions cannot be conducted without essential supplies like oxygen, water, food, etc, which eventually add up to the weight of the spacecraft and thus make the trip costlier. The biggest and the most apparent advantage though, in case of having a rover on board rather than a human is, no one’s life is on the line and all the possible catastrophes en route are just visible on a big screen at the control station. Hence, the goal of innovators in space exploration will always be to move the needle more towards robotics and automation and reduce direct human intervention as much as possible.
Though the kind of terrains that need to be explored in space is vast, the operations that need to be performed by space robots are very much alike in every case. Hence, based on the type of operations they perform, space robots can be widely categorized into two categories.
1. Remotely Operated Vehicles (ROVs or Landers), which are employed for performing operations like terrain exploration, collecting samples, and reconnaissance. They can also take pictures and detect changes in the environment like variations in temperature.
NASA’s ‘Curiosity’ and ‘Perseverance’ are some common examples of rovers.
2. Space Manipulators, which are basically robotic arms that assist in maintenance, repair, assembly, and inspection. These are also used in loading/offloading of objects within the space shuttle. Three of the most widely known space manipulators are:
1. Canadarm1 (49.8 feet long arms)
2. Canadarm2 (57.7 feet long arms)
3. Special Purpose Dexterous Manipulator (SPDM) or Dextre (11 feet long arms)
Future space missions will be longer:
A typical one-way trip to the International Space Station (ISS) takes about 2 days, a trip to the moon is a minimum of 3 days, and a trip to the closest planet is several months. As both the tendency and the need to explore deeper parts of space will keep rising gradually, the duration of space missions will also increase. Manned space missions with longer durations will again pose the challenge of making essential supplies available to the crew for a longer period of time and thus it will surface as an additional complexity in weight reduction for the engineers.
|
Points/Objects in Space |
Time taken for a one-way trip from Earth(in days) |
|
International Space Station |
2 |
|
Moon |
3-7 |
|
Lagrange Points and other stable lunar orbits |
8-10 |
|
Mars |
180-270 |
Table: Time taken to travel to different points/objects in space from Earth.
Points/objects further than Mars would require at least 6 months to travel to according to the current technology. The complexity of the mission will also increase with distance. Hence, reliance on machines would be inevitable.
1.Performance in extreme conditions and the risk of equipment failure:
The equatorial temperature on the moon ranges from a boiling 250 degrees Fahrenheit to a chilly -130 degrees Fahrenheit. The poles are even colder. The average temperature on the surface of Mars according to reports is about -80 degrees Fahrenheit. The atmospheric pressure on Mars is as low as 0.095 psi, as compared to the pressure of about 14.7 psi on Earth.
Conditions as extreme as these are difficult for humans to withstand for prolonged periods even with the most advanced space suits. Robots on the other hand can be built specifically to operate under such conditions and they can be designed to be completely immune to such environments even when subjected to prolonged periods of exposure.
Furthermore, though extremely inconvenient; in case of any unexpected equipment failure leading to complete inoperability, space agencies would prefer leaving a robot out in space over a human any day.
1.Algorithms & Avionics: The nervous system of the robots
The functioning and precision of operations performed by robots depend directly on the software, avionics, and algorithms. Some of the current requirements in the software standards for space robots are better visualization capabilities, advanced robotic user interface, and increased ability to automate the operations of the space robots. The need for improved algorithms is more in rovers and other remotely operated space vehicles, rather than manipulation robots.
2.Manoeuverability and Manipulation: The ultimate goal
The ability of space robots to access extreme terrains like steep slopes, lava tubes, deep crevasses, etc. must be improved for better sample collection.
The biggest challenge while developing manipulation capabilities for any robot is to make them imitate human movements as flawlessly as possible and this can be achieved by implementing complex and coordinated systems involving actuators, sensors, and embedded controllers which are tailored for manipulation.
One important thing to be kept in mind while mapping the opportunities related to space is, there are only a handful of countries that are active and have been able to reach a significant stage of development when it comes to space missions. Though a lot of countries want to have a notable position in space exploration and research, the complexity of space missions is why only a few countries have succeeded on that front. The table below shows some of the most active countries in this field:
Table 2: Space agencies that have completed successful space launches
Source: worldpopulationreview
As of December 2022, only 3 economies have successfully executed manned space missions and the US is still the only country to have walked on the moon.
Also, the distribution of efforts being put into space exploration is more on the government side. Due to factors both economic and experiential, not many companies from the private sector have made significant progress in this field. Even so, recent developments in this space by private-sector players have been indicative of their goal of increasing penetration in this domain. Some very recent developments have been listed below.
Despite only a handful of countries being active in this ‘space’, the opportunities for space robotics to grow are huge. In fact, according to a report by Stratview Research, the space robotics market will be as huge as $3.16 bn in 2023 and following a steady growth curve, it will reach as high as $4.75 bn in 2027.
Some key factors contributing to the growth of the space robotics market are as follows:
1. Huge no. of ongoing and upcoming space programs.
2. Increasing budget for space programs in major economies.
3. An endless space to explore.
Huge no. of ongoing and upcoming space programs:
The year 2023 is the tentative launch year for 14+ Planetary Events and Missions by various space agencies according to NASA. A similar no. of missions is already set to launch in 2024 as well and once the current missions/launches are over, the space agencies will likely announce more such missions for the next terms, thus creating a continuous demand for space-mission-related equipment and services, and thus space robots.
Fig 1. Upcoming Planetary Events and Missions (Tentative)
Source: NASA
The no. of tentative launches after 2026 might seem a bit low but as soon as the 2023-2024 programs are launched successfully, the agencies can announce new programs with tentative launch times after 2028.
Increasing budget for space programs in major economies:
Top economies like the US, China, and the European Union are increasing their space expenditure every year. Other major economies like France, Russia, Japan, Germany, India, etc. which also have a considerable budget for space programs, are trying to come up with more efficient and economic ways of conducting space missions. For instance, in November 2013, the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) successfully launched a Mars Orbiter with a mere expenditure of $74 million, making it the most economic Mars mission ever.
Fig. 2: Government expenditure on space programs in 2020 and 2021 by major countries
Source: Euroconsult
The unexpected pandemic led to a reduction in the budget allocated for space programs by many countries too in 2021 but the reduction wasn’t very significant for any of the countries.
Even though the oldest space agency (i.e. the Russian Federation Space Agency (RFSA), now ROSCOSMOS) was established around 100 years ago, humans have just begun to discover space, barely scratching the surface. Ever since the launch of the Sputnik on October 4, 1957 by the USSR, the thirst for exploring the mysteries of space has been unquenchable. But even after so many years into space exploration, we’ve only managed to ‘discover’ less than 10% of the vast, mysterious space.
As discussed already, humans aren’t the best choice for space missions for several reasons and so, robots turn out to be our only reliance, with an endless universe of mysteries ahead of them and thus endless opportunities.
Authored by Stratview Research, and published on Robotics247.com.
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