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  • Narrator: In February of 2011,

  • the International Space Station was home to six astronauts

  • and one Robonaut.

  • Not to be mistaken for a spaghetti-legged member

  • of Daft Punk, NASA's Robonaut 2 was actually the first

  • humanoid robot ever sent to space.

  • Clip: And are you sure this guy isn't related to Hal?

  • Narrator: It spent about four years on the space station

  • before it had a hardwire malfunction in 2015,

  • and then another three years lying broken and creepy

  • until NASA retrieved it in 2018.

  • After a round of repairs, it's set to return

  • to the space station later this year,

  • but it might not be alone,

  • NASA has a full slate of other wonderfully weird robots

  • it wants to send to space in the near future,

  • and luckily none of the rest participated in a beefcake

  • photo shoot no one asked for.

  • This is Dragonfly. The first multirotor vehicle from NASA

  • that will ever set foot, er, ski, on another planet.

  • Part robot, part space drone, Dragonfly will make

  • the 759,000-mile eight-year journey to Titan,

  • Saturn's largest moon.

  • Rivers, lakes, and seas across its surface are filled

  • with not water, but liquid methane and ethane.

  • Titan is the only place in the solar system besides Earth

  • with standing bodies of liquid. But there are places

  • along the surface that contain evidence of past liquid water

  • and the complex molecules key to producing life,

  • that's what Dragonfly is after.

  • During a 2.5 year mission, the rotorcraft will land

  • in the Shangri-La dune fields and make its way

  • to the Selk impact crater where scientists believe

  • the ingredients for the recipe for life once existed.

  • The coolest part? Titan has the capacity for life

  • as we know it, and life as we don't.

  • The evidence of water shows habitable conditions

  • for life-forms similar to those on Earth,

  • but the liquid methane and ethane could also be home

  • to life, just nothing we've ever seen before.

  • Dragonfly will focus on both in order to better understand

  • the origin of life in the universe.

  • It's set to launch in 2026 but won't arrive until 2034.

  • LEMUR is more like the mother of robots than its own thing,

  • but we're counting it anyway.

  • LEMUR stands for Limbed Excursion Mechanical Utility Robot,

  • it's got four limbs and was originally conceived

  • as a repair robot for the International Space Station.

  • It uses 16 fingers covered in hundreds of tiny fishhooks,

  • plus a sprinkle of artificial intelligence

  • to scale walls and avoid obstacles.

  • The original project ended in 2019,

  • but technology from LEMUR is being used in other robots

  • that still have the potential for space travel.

  • The Ice Worm could be the name of a terrible superhero,

  • but in this case it's a little squiggly robot.

  • It's derived from a single LEMUR limb and it moves

  • by scrunching and un-scrunching, just like an inchworm.

  • It's part of a family of projects in development

  • to explore Saturn's and Jupiter's icy moons.

  • The worm drills into the ice, end over end in order

  • to climb or stabilize itself while collecting samples.

  • It also inherited its mama's AI, which helps it navigate

  • by learning from past slipups.

  • Another LEMUR kid is the RoboSimian.

  • Originally designed as a disaster-relief robot,

  • this humanoid bot has the same four limbs as LEMUR,

  • but its feet are a little different.

  • Instead of grippy feet, the robot, nicknamed King Louie,

  • has wheels made with piano wire that help it roll

  • over uneven ground.

  • That's especially helpful in icy environments

  • like Saturn's moon Enceladus, which is what it's being

  • developed for now.

  • RoboSimian can walk, crawl, inch, and even slide

  • on its belly like a penguin. All to meet the challenges

  • presented by silty, breakable ground.

  • Some micro-climbers use LEMUR's fishhook technology

  • to cling to rough surfaces; others use gecko-like adhesive

  • to climb smooth walls.

  • All of them are pocket-sized vehicles strong enough

  • to survive 9-foot drops.

  • The gecko-inspired tech relies on van der Waals forces,

  • which are basically what happens when you stick a balloon

  • to your head with static electricity,

  • but on a molecular level.

  • NASA hopes to use these little guys to repair spacecraft

  • or explore hard-to-reach spots on the moon,

  • or Mars, or anywhere really.

  • Arguably the most famous robot on its way to Mars

  • is the Mars 2020 Rover.

  • It's about the size of a car: 10 feet long, 7 feet tall,

  • and 2,314 pounds of pure robot.

  • It's based on Curiosity, the NASA rover that landed

  • on Mars in 2012.

  • Relying on a proven system cuts down on costs and risks.

  • The new rover will continue to search for past and present

  • habitable conditions and signs of life.

  • But it's bringing to the table a new drill

  • that can bore holes in the surface and store the soil

  • and rock samples for later use.

  • Potentially a transport from Mars back to Earth

  • so they can be studied in labs,

  • but the rover won't be roving all alone.

  • Inside the Mars Rover will be a little MOXIE,

  • or the Mars Oxygen In-Situ Resource Utilization Experiment.

  • Its job is to prove it can make oxygen on Mars

  • for fuel and breathing - like a happy little robot plant.

  • Mars' atmosphere is made up of about 96% carbon dioxide,

  • no good for humans.

  • This car-battery-sized version of MOXIE will only be able

  • to produce about 10 grams of oxygen per hour.

  • Future oxygen generators will need to be about 100 times

  • larger for manned missions.

  • Introducing the Mars Chopper.

  • The small, solar-powered helicopter will, fingers crossed,

  • be the first in history to prove heavier-than-air vehicles

  • can fly on other planets, and that's basically

  • its sole purpose.

  • Just like MOXIE, it will act as a proof of concept

  • for future missions.

  • The challenge is that Mars' atmosphere has 1% the density

  • of Earth's, making it nearly impossible

  • for helicopters to fly at all.

  • So far it's passed a number of important tests

  • that give scientists hope that they'll be able

  • to defy the laws of physics.

  • But even if it can't fly, the chopper will basically

  • be the parrot to the Mars Rover's pirate.

  • Engineers are developing grippers that will allow the copter

  • to cling to cliffsides,

  • a lot like a bird perches on a branch,

  • and surprise, it's another LEMUR baby.

  • Its feet use the same fishhook technology

  • as the four-limbed bot.

  • There's one more robot already up in space

  • that needs to "bee" included.

  • It's called Astrobee, and I think that's reason enough

  • for why we have to mention them.

  • There are three Astrobees:

  • Honey, Queen, and Bumble, obviously.

  • Bumble and Honey shot up to the Space Station in April 2019,

  • and Queen followed regally in July.

  • The free-floating cubes were designed

  • to alleviate some of the more routine tasks

  • that astronauts complete daily,

  • like taking inventory or moving cargo.

  • But they'll also be competing

  • with Robonaut 2 for the title

  • of Weirdest Robot in the International Space Station.

Narrator: In February of 2011,

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