Gitai, a company based in Los Angeles, said on Tuesday that its self-driving robotic arm had successfully completed a tech display outside of the International Space Station.
Last year, Sho Nakanose, CEO of Gitai, told TechCrunch that the company wants to cut the cost of work in space by 100 times, similar to how SpaceX and other providers have cut the cost of launch by a huge amount. It will still be a while before autonomous robotic systems can do everything that humans can do. This is especially true here on Earth. But in space, where jobs are expensive and dangerous for humans, robotics can fill the gap.
The company that made the 1.5-meter robotic arm calls it S2. It was sent to the ISS in January on a SpaceX Falcon 9. It was attached to Nanoracks’ Bishop Airlock from the outside before a number of tasks that are necessary for building places to live and work in space were finished. Some of these were putting up a task panel, tightening and loosening small bolts, working with flexible materials, and connecting and disconnecting a flexible electrical wire.
Next up for the company is to service satellites in low Earth orbit and geostationary orbit while they are still in space. Gitai also said in a statement that they are working on robotic satellites that can do jobs related to this market, such as rendezvous, docking, inspection, and de-orbiting.
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The eight-year-old company wants to start providing services in space in 2026. Technology readiness level (TLR) for the arm is now at 7, which is the highest level. TLR is a measure used by NASA to track how mature technology is. A second device from the company, a “inchworm-type” arm, is also at a TRL 7.
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