Jonathan Barlow from the NASA Ames Research Center joins me to talk about Astrobee—the free-flying robots on the International Space Station that test new technologies, sensors, and operations, and assist astronauts and mission controllers alike. Jonathan is the Astrobee Lead Engineer and has been with the program since the beginning, so we go way back to its origins and talk in-depth about what the robots are up to today on the ISS.

This episode of Main Engine Cut Off is brought to you by 43 executive producers—Simon, Lauren, Kris, Pat, Matt, Jorge, Ryan, Donald, Lee, Chris, Warren, Bob, Russell, Moritz, Joel, Jan, David, Joonas, Robb, Tim Dodd (the Everyday Astronaut!), Frank, Julian and Lars from Agile Space, Matt, The Astrogators at SEE, Chris, Aegis Trade Law, Fred, Hemant, Dawn Aerospace, Andrew, Harrison, Benjamin, SmallSpark Space Systems, Schultzy, and seven anonymous—and 818 other supporters.

Topics

• What is Astrobee? | NASA
• Astrobee - Four Years in Video | NASA Image and Video Library
• NASA Celebrates Three Years of Astrobees Buzzing on Space Station | NASA
• Meet ISAAC, Integrating Robots with the Space Stations of the Future | NASA
• Astrobee Space-Bots Mark a New Milestone in Human-Robot Teamwork | NASA
• NPS, NASA Team Up on “Astrobatics” Project to Advance Spacecraft Robotics - Naval Postgraduate School
• Artemis 1 Launch Events - Off-Nominal

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• Music by Max Justus
• Artwork photo by ESA