Search NASA⌕ Search

NASA NTRS · 20205000971

Astrobee ISS Free Flyers: Overview and Enabling Technologies

Abstract

The Astrobee robots began operations on the International Space Station (ISS) in April of 2019. These 32-cm-wide, 9-kg, cube-shaped free flyers are capable of autonomously traversing the US Orbital Segment of ISS and performing tasks to assist astronauts in their day-to-day activities. The Astrobee Facility also provides an on-orbit testbed for guest scientists desiring to try new technologies in zero-g. This presentation will provide an overview of the Astrobee system and some of its key enabling technologies, including propulsion, navigation, and human interfaces. Additional information and publications can be found on the Astrobee website: https://www.nasa.gov/astrobee.

Explore related subjects

Keep this discovery

Explore connections, maps & timelines

BibTeXRIS

Maria Gabriele Bualat. Astrobee ISS Free Flyers: Overview and Enabling Technologies. https://ntrs.nasa.gov/citations/20205000971

Cite the original work for its findings. Save a collection to share your selection of sources.

KEEP EXPLORING

Related reports

Kibo Robot Programming Challenge Final Activity Report

On October 8th, 2020 the Kibo Robot Programming Challenge (RPC) Finals Event took place. Student teams from Australia, Indonesia, Japan, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, and UAE were the finalists of the competition and became the first students to ever upload APKs to an Astrobee robot (Bumble) on the ISS. This was the culmination of a joint effort between JAXA’s Int-Ball developing team in Tsukuba, Japan and NASA’s Astrobee Facility team at NASA Ames Research Center\ in California, USA. The collaboration between JAXA and NASA started in late 2017. Throughout this time mutual visits by the engineering and management teams were organized. In July 2019 the Kibo RPC concept was formally defined and the competition started. Hundreds of students across the Asia Pacific region participated and during the final event they did so in real time with the participation of NASA’s astronaut, Chris Cassidy. Chris interacted with the students, JAXA personnel and with the robot during the activity. This report aims to summarize the lessons learned from the several crew and non-crew tended activities, the evaluations performed on ground, the coordination of resources both in the ground and at the International Space Station (ISS) as well as operations. It identifies the issues the teams faced and the solutions put in place to mitigate them.

Astrobee↗