Robots in Space: Exploring the Benefits and Examples

Running head: ROBOTS IN SPACE
ROBOTS IN SPACE
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Author Note

1ROBOTS IN SPACE
Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................2
Discussion..................................................................................................................................2
Brief history...........................................................................................................................2
About space robots.................................................................................................................3
Robotic arms..........................................................................................................................3
How the robots are used in space...........................................................................................4
Robotic outer space airplanes.................................................................................................5
How can robots in space help.................................................................................................6
Buoyant rover.........................................................................................................................7
Manned Space robots.............................................................................................................7
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................8
References..................................................................................................................................9

2ROBOTS IN SPACE
Introduction
For exploring the difficult environment of space, robots have played an important
role. Other than the earth, the moon is the only celestial body that has been explored by
human beings. Advancement and rapid research in robotics is allowing scientists to explore
the effects of robots in space to gather more information. Robots in space can provide a lot of
benefits that human s cannot such as robots do not get tired, bored or get distracted. They can
operate in airless environments and their data is quite accurate if the equipment is working
properly. In many ways, robots are quite dominant in space than humans. Their sizes can vary
in shape as well as size. The sensors are used to collect information they all have similar
components such as radio communication unit, sensors, actuators, controllers and power
supplies. The sensors are used to collect information for the environment, the information s
processed by the controller and command signals are transmitted to the actuators. The
information is executed by converting the signal from the actuators. The following research
paper discusses about robots in space and evaluates some of its examples.
Discussion
Brief history
In the years from 1966 to 1968, a number of spacecrafts was sent to the moon due to
the space age between America and Russia. The surveyor spacecrafts were controlled from
the Mission control with the help of remote control signals and the images were received by
the earth sensors to analyze. Sometimes, solid Samples were brought back using an external
claw that was attached to the robots. The Apollo missions were planned accordingly by the
US in response to this mission (Kostavelis et al. 2014)

3ROBOTS IN SPACE
The first robot in space was the Lunokhod 1 rover which has sent by the Soviet Union
to investigate the existence of extra-terrestrial life. In 1970, the space lunar rover landed on
the moon and was manually controlled by Soviet Technologists (Rus and Tolley 2015). One
of the crucial function of the robot was if it detected an anomaly, it will automatically turn
around and wait until further instructions are provided.
About space robots
The machines which automate and perform our job is called as robots. The study of
robots is known as Robotics. In the last decade, the robots have been used by several space
organizations such as NASA and SpaceX. Large objects can be moved around through
spacecraft with the help of Space Robotic Arms. The Robotic spacecraft are used to venture
into unknown regions of space in the name of science.
Robotic arms
Figure 1: Rover
(Source: Chen and Tomizuka 2014)