Space Robot Revolution (2015) - full transcript
What do space robots look like? Why and how can they lead space missions successfully? To what extent will they collaborate with astronauts or take their place? Find out what is in ...
[Narrator] Outer space,
the ultimate frontier.
A world above us that has
fascinated man's imagination
Since the beginning of time.
Dark, dangerous, inaccessible,
but a world filled
with possibilities since
1957, thanks to Sputnik
and it's world famous
robot Beeps, the first
in outer space.
I believe that this
immense genius you know,
to explore and to try to
understand what is out
there and how is it functioning.
[Narrator] For 60
years engineers have sent
hundreds of robots into space.
Although led by the
Russians and the Americans,
France has excelled in this area, thanks
to Arianespace and it's astronauts.
Using astronauts however, is dangerous.
So much so that they are
being replaced by robots.
[Translator] We send
robots into space because
it costs 100-1000 times
less than sending men.
[Translator 2] The robot
is the means we employ
to explore what we
cannot absorb ourselves.
[Narrator] In the
1960's, space exploration
represented an immense
challenge, adding great
prestige to the nation's that succeeded.
The present philosophy
is completely different.
Aimed at preparing a new world for man.
[Translator] To save the
human race, there is only
one solution, learning to
live on other heavenly bodies.
[Narrator] To accomplish
this goal, engineers
are developing incredible robots.
Machines with no fear of
cosmic radiation or the
void of outer space or extreme
changes in temperature.
Almost immortal robots
which never become obsolete.
A robot it definitely
a machine that can be
programmable, that means
can be autonomous or not.
[Translator] Creating
a robot that can operate
24/7 is where the difficulties begin.
The robotic system's with
some form of artificial
intelligence, they are
appropriate and cheap ways
to do this kind of
exploration, to find out what
is going on on other planets.
This will tell us a lot
also about our own home.
[Narrator] In order
to better understand our
solar system, we need to
send scientific robots
into space.
The first of these are either
scout robots, for making
space probes or landers
which can touch down
on a star or a planet and
make initial on site analysis.
(slow suspenseful music)
The next generation, the
rovers are autonomous
super vehicles like
Curiosity that can move
around the surface of Mars.
Containing instruments for
analysis and exploration
which enable Curiosity
to discover the presence
of water on the red planet.
The next step will come from
much stranger laboratories
where engineers are developing CoBots
or collaborative robots.
Animal or humanoid robots
will be used to assist
astronauts by exploring
dangerous areas and building
space stations.
And soon there will be
robots for cleaning up
outer space and for helping
man to live on another planet.
The countdown has begun for
the incredible adventure
of the space robot revolution.
(slow mysterious music)
Throughout history, man has
always been an explorer,
an adventurer, crossing
continents, navigating oceans,
and flying faster and higher in the sky.
Today, thanks to
technological progress, robots
are being sent into
space and this conquest
always begin with scout robots.
Very simple but reliable.
Capable of traveling millions
of kilometers in space.
(upbeat suspenseful music)
There are two types of
scout robots, space probes
or orbiters, equipped with
cameras for photographing
the stars above them.
And landers which consist
of metal boxes filled
with sensors for analyzing
the ground of a comet
like for example, Rosetta
and Philae, the two
European mission robots
studying the comet Chury.
We head for the limits of outer space.
450 million kilometers from planet Earth.
In the early 1990's,
European engineers decided
to send a probe around a
comet and to deploy a lander
on its surface.
For a quarter of a
century, a thousand people
throughout the world have been working
on the Rosetta program.
An almost impossible mission.
The launching took place on March 2, 2004,
and after a 10 year
journey, a robot landed
on a comet for the first time in history.
(applause)
How exciting!
How unbelievable to be able to dare
to land on a comet.
We are the first to
have done that and that
will stay forever.
Hollywood is good but Rosetta is better.
(applause)
(upbeat music)
[Narrator] The French
National Center for Space
Studies in Toulouse is home
to the SONC, the center
for the navigation and control
of the scientific mission
where a special team watches and chaperons
the missions two robots,
Rosetta and Philae 24/7.
[Translator] We send
robots into space because
a robot costs between 100-1000
times less than a man.
95% of the missions don't return to Earth.
The only ones that do
come back with samples,
and they are very, very
rare and so we execute
primarily robotic missions.
[Narrator] Philae's
descent lasted seven hours
and the lander touched down 100 meters
from the projected site.
[Translator] We
weren't able to determine
at what moment we would
land and under what
conditions and so there
was an electronic brain
on board capable of
making certain decisions
as to the best time to land.
We're giving it a certain
degree of autonomy.
[Narrator] An insufficient
degree of autonomy
since the electronics
weren't well developed enough
having been created around the year 2000.
At the moment of contact
with the comet, Philae's
anchoring harpoons and its
boosters did not function
and the robot bounced
like a tennis ball once,
then twice, after which
it flew above a crater
and bounced a third time
before setting down between
two rocks about a kilometer
and a half further on.
(slow hypnotic music)
To avoid this kind of
problem, millions of miles
from Earth without any
possible intervention
by engineers, scientists are now working
on much more precise landings.
We head for the Thales
Alenia Space Laboratories
in Turin, Italy where the
initial tests of an exceptional
Mars landing scenario
are being carried out.
For the first time the robots
are equipped with cameras.
The images are analyzed in
real time by an algorithm
that indicates without the
intervention of an engineer,
the best site for landing.
This technology which is
used on Earth for drones
has never been validated for space.
(slow piano music)
This is very important
for future missions
to have a, we can say a new sensor on board
that is like an eye for us, is a camera.
Up to now, no mission
on Mars can use a camera
for landing.
In this way, using a
camera and the software,
it will awaken the picture,
we can reach much higher
precision in the landing.
Just one shot mission in
case of travel, we lose
the mission.
[Narrator] And millions
or perhaps billions
of Euros as well.
In sending landers, space
agencies have learned
how to land even if
the danger of the crash
is very high.
Scientists therefore,
wanted to go a step further
by sending rovers to the moon and to Mars.
All sorts of machines have
been imagined to counter
the exceptional constraints
of a different gravity
from that of Earth.
Temperatures ranging from -140
to +30 degrees celsius.
Corrosion and radiation.
After the rovers were
created, engineers equipped
them with ultra-sophisticated options.
Rovers have thus become
portable laboratories
capable of taking samples
and observing elements
through a microscope.
The first rovers landed on
the moon during the 1970's.
30 years later they landed on Mars.
Since 1997, four rovers
have been moving around
the red planet.
(slow hypnotic music)
[Translator] In the final
years of the 20th century,
we began to launch the
first martian robots,
including a very important
one called Pathfinder.
It was about this high
and was already on Mars
in 1997.
Thanks to Pathfinder, we
realized that to thoroughly
explore Mars, robots
have to move and drive
around the surface.
The terrain was so
diverse, we had to see each
rock, each stone to
learn where it came from,
how it was created, and why it was there.
This realization
encouraged NASA, the leader
in this area, to develop
bigger and better rovers,
which in France are called astromobiles.
And so, after Pathfinder
came Spirit and Opportunity.
These robots which
landed perfectly in 2004,
were designed to function
for a few months covering
a distance of a few kilometers.
Opportunity is in fact
in operation after more
than 10 years and after
having traveled 40 kilometers.
It has therefore surpassed
its life expectancy,
making some very fascinating discoveries.
(slow dramatic music)
[Narrator] Back to Turin in Italy.
Thales Alenia Space is
the principal project
manager of Exomars, the
first European mission
to the red planet.
With a budget of 1.2 billion euros,
the challenge is immense.
In a few weeks the first
robots will be launched
after a two year delay.
The mission is a very
challenging mission.
Sending a robot on Mars is the first time
the Europeans sent a robotic
element on another planet.
[Narrator] The Schiaparelli
module should land
on Mars in or late 2016.
Entering the atmosphere at
21,000 kilometers an hour,
after which a parachute
will open to slow down
the capsule which will
descend at mach two,
twice the speed of sound.
The deceleration will last eight minutes
before landing gently
in the Meridianic plane
at less than 15 kilometers an hour.
In 2018, the scenario will
be the same but this time
a rover will be released
in the direction of Mars
making it the first European
astromobile on the planet.
Other challenging feat is
to figure to control the rover
on the soil of Mars.
Because we have not to
forget the time delay.
I mean, the signal coming
from Mars could take
up to 20 minutes of
delay, it means that what
we see on the screen
it is 20 minutes late.
SO, when we plan the
operation, we have to consider
that what we see is already
happened on the soil
of Mars.
In order to have the
signal we have a satellite
orbiting around Mars,
so the signal has to be
sent from the rover to the satellite,
from the satellite to the ground.
[Narrator] This is why
for Thales Alenia Space's
martian lander engineer
Ciro Napolitano is working
on the software which
will be installed aboard
the rover in 2018.
[Translator] We will
program this vehicle which
we are going to use to travel
around the martian soil.
It was designed to surmount
obstacles such as rocks
and to explore the terrain.
This is our control station.
In the center we can see
the rover with its wheels.
There are two parameters,
the speed and the angle.
On Mars, this rovers maximum speed will be
5cm per second.
We'll use 3cm per second
for testing purposes.
[Narrator] An extremely
slow speed, averaging
180 meters an hour, the rover is therefore
the most expensive and
slowest vehicle in the world.
This is perfectly normal
since on Mars, it will
be impossible from a distance
of 350,000,000 kilometers
from Earth to repair it should
it get stuck in the sand
or break down.
The hope is that it will be
as effective as Curiosity,
the American super rover
which cost 2.5 billion dollars
and which landed on Mars in 2012 after
an eight month journey.
It's the largest of
all the rovers designed
by NASA and it's successful
landing was hailed
by scientists as well
as the American public.
(slow patriotic music)
Curiosity is a very large
rover three meters long,
two meters 70 wide, and two meters high.
It has six wheel drive
and a nuclear battery
supplying the energy.
It has been traveling
around Mars for three years,
making extraordinary discoveries.
[Translator] We discover a new landscape
that no one's ever seen before, every day.
It's a geological robot.
[Translator] We're studying
the power of a nuclear
reactor in one square centimeter.
[Narrator] No less
than 7,000 people worked
on the Curiosity robot.
It's four times heavier
than NASA's two previous
martian rovers.
[Translator] And instead
of an eight kilo payload,
it will have a 90 kilo
payload, that's huge.
It's a scientist's dream.
What makes this object so
valuable are the scientific
instruments.
The fact that it's on wheels,
that it has antenna's,
a source of energy, and
camera's is important,
but the true value for science
is it's scientific payload.
[Narrator] Among the
scientific instruments
aboard Curiosity, two are French.
The SAM, a mini laboratory
for analyzing the soil
and ChemCam, a laser
camera, the only one of its
kind in the world.
[Translator] It's a
technique that enables
us to determine from a
distance the composition
of the rocks and the martian soil.
[Translator] A laser
sheds its light on a rock
by creating a plasma
or a small 8,000 degree
light, a little spark.
Then with a telescope and by decomposing
the light of this plasma,
we can tell if the rock
is made of iron, sulfur, titanium, barium,
lithium, or even hydrogen.
[Narrator] The ChemCam
is the eye that recognizes
the rocks and guides the rover.
After three years of
this mission, we fired
more than 250,000 from this rover.
Every day 100 people throughout the world
get together for a huge
telephone conference call
in order to organize
the robot's work plan.
(slow piano music)
- [Female Over Intercom]
We have the kilometer
priorities here and we
wanted to see of that
part's clear.
So when the rising
broken rocks we use, rare
opportunity which not miss.
[Narrator] Tonight in
Toulouse, the ChemCam
team is preparing to fire
at three particularly
interesting martian stones.
The objective in cooperation
with NASA is a 45 minute
series of laser firings.
[Translator] We're in business now.
We requested three targets,
three rocks on which
we'll fire at 30 shots each,
making 150 laser firings
three times for each.
We therefore programmed
450 firings, now we have
to refine everything,
including the coordinates
of the targets, determining
where the sun will be
at the moment we fire,
and where the arm is.
It's not a question of firing
above, if it's deployed.
The rover's stability,
it's incline, the resources
we need in terms of
energy and the telemetry
will determine our ability
to repatriate the data
generated by the rover.
We'll be working on the
resources, security,
and the operation as a whole.
It's not just the Americans,
there are about 100
of us here guiding the
rover and each of us
gives his instructions.
And we'll try to organize
them into a comprehensive
plan to place aboard
in the next few hours.
[Narrator] NASA has
given the green light
and so it's time to program ChemCam's
450 laser firings.
- [Female Over Intercom]
We have 135.4 meters
until our next (mumbles) update.
[Translator] Everything
is in fact centralized
at NASA in Los Angeles.
We send them our files
tonight and they'll put
all the files for all the
instruments into a huge
computer.
Once the package is full
for the entire date,
the program is sent to the robot on Mars.
It will execute the program
sequence when it wakes
up tomorrow morning.
There are only six of
us in the world capable
of digging holes on Mars
and we're all at the CNES
in Toulouse.
We're fortunate in that we're
pioneers, digging the first
holes on a planet we're exploring.
It's the chance of a lifetime.
[Narrator] A unique
chance as well for two other
French teams dealing with the SAM.
This instrument is in fact
an ultra sophisticated
laboratory consisting
of a spectrometer which
analyzes the molecules, another instrument
for chromatography, which
separates them and 74
many ovens.
In short, the SAM analyzes the samples
from the martian soil.
And it's the SAM in fact
confirm the presence
of water on Mars.
(slow suspenseful music)
[Translator] Thanks to
all of SAM's instruments,
the laboratory made this discovery.
After heating the soil
sample, we understood
and by putting all the data
together, we discovered
that at one time on Mars on
the site where we are now,
there was a lake.
It wasn't a huge surprise
as we were expecting it
but the lake was very
shallow and it was a fresh
water lake, no salt, no
acid, or mud and so the water
was drinkable.
By lake we mean a dense
atmosphere, something which
lasted an indeterminate amount
of time with an inviolate
reducer, that's a bit
technical, with sources
of carbon, hydrogen,
nitrogen, sulfur, phosphorous,
all of which could one day create life.
By putting these physical
and chemical parameters
together, we can conclude
that Mars was once livable.
That is an enormous discovery
because only two years
ago I was convinced that the only planet
in the solar system that
could sustain life was Earth.
And now I can say of the
eight planets, four telluric
and four giant planets that in the history
of our solar system,
there were two habitable
planets, probably at the
same time, Earth and Mars.
[Narrator] During
future missions to the red
planet, scientists will try
to study the subsurface.
The common goal, in fact,
of NASA and the Europeans
Space Agency is to dig
one or two meters deep
in order to search for traces of life,
elements shelters from the
cosmic rays and protected
by the layer of martian soil.
To do so, however, requires
an incredibly powerful
drilling machine.
(slow suspenseful music)
We head for California
and Honeybee Robotics,
a company that has been working with NASA
for 20 years.
Most of their equipment
is aboard American landers
and rovers.
At the moment, they are
preparing for the next
Mars mission scheduled for 2020.
By trying to perfect a
deep drilling technology
especially designed for Mars.
So this drill is, has
been designed to capture
samples from at least one
meter depth on planetary
surface.
It usually was designed
for exploration of Mars.
Mars sees a lot of radiation
so in order to capture
microbes.
We have to go at least
a meter down where they
have been potentially
preserved in the subsurface.
[Narrator] Thanks to
this invention, scientists
should be able to obtain
rock samples that have
not been exposed to
radiation or cosmic rays.
And perhaps find traces of life.
We set off a drill that captures powder.
At the end of the arm it
will have a coring drill
to capture rock samples,
put them in a cache
and deposit the cache as the
rover traverses the planet.
And when after that
mission is done, it's gonna
take a couple of years.
There's gonna be another
mission, it's gonna
go in and pick up some
of these rock samples,
sort of like bread crumbs that are sitting
on the surface of Mars.
Its gonna catch them, put
them on top of a rocket.
That rocket is gonna
launch these rocks around
the martian orbit and then
there's gonna be another mission.
And that mission is gonna
capture these flying rocks
and bring them back to Earth.
We're thinking it's gonna
probably take 20 years
before we see those rocks.
[Translator] For us,
the prize is bringing
back the samples from Mars.
Going to Mars, collecting
samples which could
prove that life once
existed there and bringing
them back to Earth.
And afterwards determining
if this life is based
on DNA like ours or not.
Which is a huge question mark.
If we could answer this
query, we will have
a different vision of
how life first appeared.
The only example we have
now is life on Earth.
The day we have a second
example we can begin
to generalize on how life
appeared in the universe.
[Narrator] This precious
information is obtainable
for us or rather for robots.
Although it will require
even more perfected
and more multipurpose machines.
Martian rovers are becoming more and more
sophisticated.
Greatly increasing our
knowledge trying to answer
questions such as, does
water still flow on Mars?
Could this planet be habitable?
Was it once inhabited?
Questions which have troubled scientists
for years.
To answer them, new
kinds of robots will have
to be invented and deployed.
After the rovers which
belong to the 2nd family
of space robots, we have
co-robots or CoBots,
designed to work for or with man.
A new era is on the horizon
representing an unprecedented
cooperation in the history of humanity.
Everything has changed in
less than a century on Earth
as well as in space.
The technological revolution
has shaken our era
to the point where everything
seems possible today,
even in the infinity of the universe.
First there was scout
robots, the first space
adventurers.
Then came laboratory robots
with rovers that moved
around the planets.
And now the adventure
continues with collaborative
robots, CoBots, which space
agencies will be sending
to today's objective number one, Mars.
The closest planet to
Earth, its twin sister.
Recent discoveries have
motivated scientists
even further.
[Translator] Give me a ticket to Mars
and I'll leave tomorrow.
[Narrator] Tomorrow of
course is not a reality
for man.
Mars is still too far and too dangerous
a destination for astronauts.
No one has up to now been able to master
the technique for such a mission.
Although preparations are under way.
Space agencies throughout
the world are working
on the possibilities,
although not only for man.
All over our planet,
scenarios for living on Mars
are being tested.
According to specialists,
in 20 or 30 years,
technology will be
advanced enough to send men
to Mars or place them
in orbit around Mars,
with the help of new companions, CoBots.
Without which, such missions
would be impossible.
(slow dramatic music)
[Translator] Once we've sent them there,
we'll need robots to perform
the menial repetitious
tasks so as not to waste
human time and also
for tasks that are too
difficult or too dangerous.
[Narrator] More complex
than simple rovers
and more autonomous and intelligent, these
robots will work in
perfect harmony with highly
trained astronauts.
Space is a very tough
environment, there's
nothing that is really
very good for man's health
so we need to have some
machines to go there and do
some parts at least of the exploration.
In the future, these
robots can prepare simple
human tasks and prepare
the imminent of humans
on a planetary surface.
In our lab we work in a
very nice interplay between
engineering and biology.
[Narrator] CoBots resistant to radiation
and extreme temperatures
and the void will be able
to work side by side with the astronauts.
Scout CoBots resembling
animals or CoBot technicians
capable of preparing the
habitation basis represent
an essential step for
man's survival in our new
conquest of space, aiming
higher and higher still.
Lausanne in Suitzerland
is home to the Polytechnic
School which includes
five universities, 350
laboratories, and almost
10,000 students from about
a 100 different countries.
There are very few
laboratories like this one
in the world where animals
are filmed and x-rayed
in order to understand
their locomotion techniques.
After which scientists
try to try to apply them
to the interior of robots.
It's very expensive to
send something out of space
so that means that you
need to embed in these
machines a lot of
possibilities to move around,
to recharge the batteries,
and to perform better.
So I guess a move to locomotion capability
that any, sorry, that
robots inspired by animal
provide us are one of
the key factors for space
exploration.
[Narrator] Another example
is this salamander robot.
Amphibians are interesting
because they can live
both on land and in water
and can adapt to either
environment.
This is exactly what
interests Camilo whose
robot copies the way a
salamander moves thanks
to 11 motors in the
robots spine and 16 others
in its feet.
SO we have this prowling
posture, so basically
we can access some places
that other robots cannot.
So for example we can pass
underneath very, very,
tiny passages like this.
So, with this posture we
can do that kind of things.
At the same time, with
the same robot, remember
this move to locomotion
capability, this one can
also swim with this
carnivore because we have
the whole spine adapt for
that thing and we have
the feet for the same reason.
The problem is performance.
If you go to space and you were to travel
10 kilometers in surface
of a planet for example,
of course this robot is not
the best for doing that.
I guess in that case wheels are better.
But if the wheels can
take this robot to some
other place where you
can go for a focus task
I guess the robot is perfect.
So I guess the combination
of the two robots
are, is the key to really
go to space correlation.
In this case for planetary exploration.
[Narrator] Multi-functional
and organically inspired
robots are also being developed in Bremen
at the Center for Robotic Innovation.
This North German city
possesses numerous space robot
laboratories, and especially the DFKI,
specializing in artificial intelligence.
Scientists are working
on a variety of programs
in cooperation with
German and other European
space agencies.
In the laboratories we
wanted to humanoid robots
like AILA or animal robots
such as iStruct, CREX,
and MANTIS.
Now head for the institutes
clean room where project
LIMES is being conducted
consisting of tests
on a gigantic praying mantis.
(upbeat music)
Oh, well.
(laughing)
That's a six-legged
walking robot and which
is also calibrated to
lift up the front body
to be able to manipulate
something with its
front legs and do what
they require for planetary
exploration on Mars.
They need systems which
are capable to traverse
on very unstructured
surfaces and then if they
are able to traverse the
surface that they also have
to be able to perform
some manipulation tasks
in the area which they calibrated to reach
and so for example to
collect samples or also
to maintain or setup
infrastructure on the surfaces.
[Narrator] The project
is funded by the German
Space Agency which
considers this robot insect
a key to future missions
on Mars or the moon.
(upbeat frantic music)
If you really have to
look at MANTIS, then MANTIS
is, I think the only insect
which is really capable
to perform more or less
precise manipulation tasks.
[Narrator] The RMC,
the German Space Agency's
robotic laboratory is located
in Wessling, near Munich.
There are articulated
arms everywhere, mounted
on different types of
robots, humanoid robots
or rovers.
Specialists are trying to
determine the best man robot
interface to command them.
Some prefer the joystick,
others the exoskeleton.
The goal is to command
these robots in real time
on the lunar or the martian soil.
Robots capable of
reproducing the movements
of the astronauts sheltered
safely in their base.
Only the scenario is tested here.
For 20 years, DLR engineers
have been developing
the technology for robotic arms.
In recent years they have
designed a hand with four
fingers since the fifth
serves no purpose and is
more expensive to manufacture.
At present they are working
on a robot controlled
by another robot.
(upbeat music)
[Translator] To get
ready I use two different
systems.
First, a glove with sensors that enable us
to measure the position of the fingers.
And which will be used
to manipulate the hand
by remote control.
I also use a man-machine
interface to which I
attach myself and which allows me to send
orders to the robots
like the position I want
to reach and also to feel what the robot
feels since this robot
will either push or pull
my hand based on what
the distant robot feels.
[Narrator] The energy
feedback is what enables
astronauts to command a
robot with more finesse,
thus avoiding any equipment damage.
And at the heart of the
space vessel or base,
this is essential.
[Translator] By hitting
this pedal, I can feel
the robot moving from a distance.
And I can direct it.
IF I enter into contact
with the environment,
I can feel on this robot
here an energy feedback
at the level of the
wrist, which makes it easy
for me to look for contact
with certain objects.
I can feel the force that
I apply to this button.
If it's too hard then
there's definitely an error
and I can stop it and take
the time to think things out.
Conducting a mission
outside of the international
space station is very dangerous and costly
and there are several
tasks that even a simple
robot can execute such as
manipulating the switches
or checking that a valve is shut tight.
It's worth it to be
prepared in advance before
the astronaut arrives on the site and that
can save a lot of time.
[Narrator] Space Justin
is scheduled to arrive
at the ISS in 2020 and join Rovina II,
the American robot.
To work with the
astronauts, all of the space
agencies prefer to develop
robots with a human
shape and the reason is obvious.
We don't want to scare the humans off.
(laughs)
If we built a robot that
looks like it's terminator,
you know, with red glaring eyes and,
metal face, it will be just,
a psychological problem
for humans to interact with
these kinds of machines,
so, that's why we gave
AILA also a female shape
because we had all these
human, all these humanoid
robots in the world, they
are all strong, terminator
kind of robots and we
thought, okay we do it
a different way, we give
it a more nicer shape.
[Narrator] Humanoids
are veritable CoBots
or collaborator robots.
They can open up a
valve and airlock, press
a button, but they can
remain in orbit around
the base at least in the beginning.
It will be necessary to
send animal type robots
or rovers which have
proven their reliability
on the martian or lunar soil.
Equipped with robotic
arms, they can be deployed
for general tasks, building
places to live or assembling
structures.
These highly autonomous
machines will be able
to learn about the terrain
thanks to algorithms
of artificial intelligence.
(slow instrumental music)
We now go to Holland the
European Center for Space
Research and Technology.
Situated between Amsterdam and the Hague.
The teams working in the
Telerobotics Laboratory
are preparing an experiment
unique in the world.
A rover with two arms
will be guided by remote
control from the ISS.
The orbital station located
400 kilometers above
our heads.
So it's preparing the
future of exploration
missions that make use of humans in orbit
of planetary bodies and
robots on the surface
to project actually the
human presence into the robot
onto the surface.
Our technology actually
enables robots to do this
remote controlled by humans
in a very interactive
and intuitive way.
[Narrator] Aboard the
ISS, Danish astronaut
Andreas Mogensen will be
required to use a joystick
with energy feedback to
directly command a robot.
The rover has to simply
insert a metal tube
into a structure but it's
a lot more complicated
than one would think.
This pin, it only has
a tolerance of about
100-150 micrometers to the hole,
so when you try it
yourself, you see how easily
it actually jams if you have like a small
misalignment from it
then you can't insert it.
In fact, it has to be totally precise.
[Narrator] For this
experiment to be successful
one has to rely on ones senses.
The innovation of the
force feedback is important
because it enables astronauts
in orbit to actually
feel what a robot does
somewhere else, either
in another location in
space or on a planetary
surface and this way he
can do tasks very naturally
as if he would be present
physically at that site.
So if you imagine handling
a raw egg or actually
doing very complex tasks
like lacing your shoe
or inserting a connector
in the back of your TV set,
these are all tasks
that require you to feel
the geometry and what we
transmit here is exactly
this feeling, so it
helps him to accomplish
this complicated task.
[Narrator] The experiment
reproduces a scenario
which could take place
in a few years between
a rover on Mars and a
space station orbiting
around the planet.
In the ISS, which navigates
at 28,000 kilometers
an hour, the Danish
astronaut has less than one
hour to carry out the
experiment, with no knowledge
of interface or joystick
and who has never piloted
the rover.
(upbeat frantic music)
(applause)
Our robots actually
transmits this sense of touch
to the human operator
and with the first time
in the history of space
flight to actually extend
this sense of touch over
distances between space
and ground or between space
and any planetary surface.
[Narrator] The success
of this type of experiment
allows specialists to project
themselves into the future
and imagine the construction
of bases in outer space.
On Mars for NASA, on the
moon for the European
space agency which would
like to setup a village
to replace the ISS when it
seizes operations in 2024.
(slow dramatic music)
[Translator] Once we've
landed men there it becomes
a habitat.
The work around the
habitat entails a minimum
of 10, 15, or 20 tons.
We don't know how to do it
but we're working on it.
We think that the first
man martian flights
will be flights where
man remains in orbit.
In order for man's
presence to be effective,
we feel that they should
be able to command
robots on the surface in
real time by remote control.
We can't do this from Earth
because of the distance
which prevents us from
telecommanding in real time
like an airplane pilot
who can push a button
and immediately activate his joystick.
We've got to be able to do
this while orbiting Mars.
[Narrator] After the
CoBots which will assist man
during their extraplanetary
missions, a 4th family
of robots will be more and more vital.
Protean robots which can
serve as refuse collectors,
skilled workers, or shuttle pilots.
In 10 or 20 years, man
will live in outer space
thanks to all sorts of robots.
This is not a Utopian
concept but an opportunity
that space agencies and
private companies want
to seize since space is
becoming a new multi-billion
dollar business.
(slow hectic music)
We've come a long way from
the Star Wars era when
the United States and the
Soviet Union were the only
nations in outer space.
Today, dozens of space
agencies throughout the world
as well as private companies
are developing systems
to study the cosmos.
Work on all the planets and
send robots and satellites
there.
After the reign of the
scout robots, followed by
laboratory rovers and
CoBots, there is one final
category, robots whose
role it is to cleanup
outer space.
Once completely devoid of
debris before the launching
of Sputnik, space has been
filling up at an alarming
rate for the past 60 years.
Today, there are a
thousand or so satellites
in operation and 900 more to
come in the next few months.
In addition to space debris
and the billions of meteorites
circulating at the incredible
speed of 30,000 kilometers
an hour.
[Translator] A one
millimeter in diameter debris
has the same energy as
a bowling ball launched
at a speed of 100 kilometers an hour.
In a long-term if nothing
is done, it's possible
that the space infrastructure
will become unusable.
[Narrator] The international
community is working
on a global solution to
combat this debris which
increases exponentially
every year threatening
satellites that are a useful
part of our daily lives.
Outer space therefore,
will have to be cleaned up
using a new type of
robot so that the debris
doesn't fall on our heads one day.
[Translator] We've
cataloged objects of this size
reentering the atmosphere
on a daily basis.
Either a large satellite
or a large satellite stage
reentering at a rate of one per week.
And when they reenter
the atmosphere, they heat
up enormously, slow down and break up.
Does everything burn, no, not everything.
10, 20, or even 40% of the
mass can survive and thus
impact the surface of the Earth.
The primary danger of this
debris is the possibility
of a human victim.
(upbeat frantic music)
The 2nd and more immediate
danger is for a satellite
operator.
If you launch a large
satellite there is a 5% risk
of it dying before it's time.
As a result of a collision
with space debris,
creating a direct financial impact.
The 3rd danger is in the long-term.
Occasionally, two large
objects collide, such as was
the case in 2009 between Kosmos 2251
and Iridium 33.
Such a crash generates
about 5,000 large pieces
of debris.
The multiplication of
debris due to collisions
makes us a bit wary of
the long-term future.
[Narrator] Dozens of
small, less eccentric
projects are being imagined
by engineers to gather
the debris and eliminate it.
One such idea is based on
the concept of spear fishing.
Another is using navigators
with a huge self-folding sail,
then there's the star wars
technique with laser fire,
or the bombarding of ions.
There's an even more
surprising technique using
flypaper or even deploying a huge net.
Finally, there's the medical
technique with a clamp
fixed onto a hunter robot.
Each method has its
advantages and disadvantages,
but the most common
strategy among manufacturers
is that of a robotic arm
mounted on a hunter robot.
This is the technique being
developed by the engineers
at Airbus Defense and Space in Bremen.
Equipped with a 3D sensor
for seizing all sorts
of stones as if they were
lost debris in space,
the robotic arms capacity is being tested
in the Airbus laboratory.
[Translator] We have
fairly similar technologies
for captures in orbit and for
seizing objects on a lunar
or martian surface.
Here, we have a 3 dimensional sensor.
We're trying to combine
an autonomous and a manual
approach with this system.
Because in any kind of space exploration,
communication time between
Earth and distant heavenly
bodies is fairly long.
And so if we try to do it
all manually, each operation
will take a very long time.
What we want to do now is
have an autonomous system,
meaning that it's capable
of selecting objects
on its own, calculating
their position and seizing
them, giving us great
operational flexibility.
For this experiment, we have
a sensor with three pincers
four relatively simple
objects like stones.
When we switch to the
debris system in orbit,
we need more complex
interfaces and we're developing
a system capable of
seizing the orbital debris
using a complex geometry.
[Narrator] At present,
there is no international
legislation requiring companies
to remove their debris
from outer space.
Cleaning up space however,
is becoming necessary
since every year, the
increasing amount of debris
threatens satellites in
orbit above the Earth.
Robots which cost a total
of more than 100 billion
dollars are also threatening
this new outer space
business.
One such business, Swiss
Space Systems or S3 is located
in the Swiss city of Payerne.
S3 wants to send small
satellites into space
for 10 million euros.
Four times cheaper than its competitors.
Their secret lies in reusable technology
with an entirely automatic
aircraft and space shuttle.
Once the right altitude
is reached, the shuttle
releases a capsule in
which satellites have been
installed, the shuttle
then makes a gentle landing
without a pilot.
([Translator)Today the
SOAR decides to launch
satellites weighing 250
kilos in heliosynchronous
orbit or SSO, at an
altitude of 700 kilometers.
This represents tomorrows
satellite market.
They were characterized
as small satellites.
Today we're witnessing a paradigm shift
in the area of space satellites.
We're going from huge satellites launched
in geostationary orbit
at very high altitudes
like 36,000 kilometers
to a range of smaller,
lighter, low orbit, and
especially low cost satellites.
[Narrator] The shuttle
should be assembled in 2016
with tests beginning the following year.
By that time, a new rover
will have reached the moon.
(upbeat music)
In 2007, Google launched
a 30 million dollar
public competition with
the goal of sending
a robot to the moon.
A rover capable of moving over an area
of 500 meters, taking high
definition photographs
and sending them back to Earth.
Six teams from 13 different
countries participated.
This represented an
initial challenge before
sending men to the moon once again.
I think one of the
reasons why big companies
are deciding to invest in
what we call new space,
new space technologies,
is one, because they like
to think big but they also
see a solid business plan
and they know that businesses
can be developed out of this.
[Narrator] In America,
captains of industry
are investing huge sums
since they know that outer
space is today's new Eldorado.
Throughout Europe, Asia,
and Africa, men want
to conquer space, walk in
the footsteps of Yuri Gagarin
and Neil Armstrong for the
beauty of the experience
of course, but mainly for
the dollars they can earn.
It's a sound investment.
One euro invested in space
will increase by five,
since on the moon, Mars,
or the stars, there's iron,
cobalt, nickel, silicate,
platinum, as well
as new sources of energy.
Experts estimate that
this business will entail
hundreds of billions of dollars.
Further motivation for man to look upwards
in a different manner.
[Translator] To save the
human race there is only
one solution, learning to
live on other heavenly bodies.
[Narrator] In just a few
years, the use of outer
space will become part of our
daily lives and the wealth
contained in the stars will
inexhorbitably compensate
for the depletion of our
natural resources on Earth.
People will live and work
on the moon, on Mars,
or on orbital space stations.
And this new conquest
of the infinite can only
succeed with the help
of even more effective
and autonomous super robots.
(slow piano music)
the ultimate frontier.
A world above us that has
fascinated man's imagination
Since the beginning of time.
Dark, dangerous, inaccessible,
but a world filled
with possibilities since
1957, thanks to Sputnik
and it's world famous
robot Beeps, the first
in outer space.
I believe that this
immense genius you know,
to explore and to try to
understand what is out
there and how is it functioning.
[Narrator] For 60
years engineers have sent
hundreds of robots into space.
Although led by the
Russians and the Americans,
France has excelled in this area, thanks
to Arianespace and it's astronauts.
Using astronauts however, is dangerous.
So much so that they are
being replaced by robots.
[Translator] We send
robots into space because
it costs 100-1000 times
less than sending men.
[Translator 2] The robot
is the means we employ
to explore what we
cannot absorb ourselves.
[Narrator] In the
1960's, space exploration
represented an immense
challenge, adding great
prestige to the nation's that succeeded.
The present philosophy
is completely different.
Aimed at preparing a new world for man.
[Translator] To save the
human race, there is only
one solution, learning to
live on other heavenly bodies.
[Narrator] To accomplish
this goal, engineers
are developing incredible robots.
Machines with no fear of
cosmic radiation or the
void of outer space or extreme
changes in temperature.
Almost immortal robots
which never become obsolete.
A robot it definitely
a machine that can be
programmable, that means
can be autonomous or not.
[Translator] Creating
a robot that can operate
24/7 is where the difficulties begin.
The robotic system's with
some form of artificial
intelligence, they are
appropriate and cheap ways
to do this kind of
exploration, to find out what
is going on on other planets.
This will tell us a lot
also about our own home.
[Narrator] In order
to better understand our
solar system, we need to
send scientific robots
into space.
The first of these are either
scout robots, for making
space probes or landers
which can touch down
on a star or a planet and
make initial on site analysis.
(slow suspenseful music)
The next generation, the
rovers are autonomous
super vehicles like
Curiosity that can move
around the surface of Mars.
Containing instruments for
analysis and exploration
which enable Curiosity
to discover the presence
of water on the red planet.
The next step will come from
much stranger laboratories
where engineers are developing CoBots
or collaborative robots.
Animal or humanoid robots
will be used to assist
astronauts by exploring
dangerous areas and building
space stations.
And soon there will be
robots for cleaning up
outer space and for helping
man to live on another planet.
The countdown has begun for
the incredible adventure
of the space robot revolution.
(slow mysterious music)
Throughout history, man has
always been an explorer,
an adventurer, crossing
continents, navigating oceans,
and flying faster and higher in the sky.
Today, thanks to
technological progress, robots
are being sent into
space and this conquest
always begin with scout robots.
Very simple but reliable.
Capable of traveling millions
of kilometers in space.
(upbeat suspenseful music)
There are two types of
scout robots, space probes
or orbiters, equipped with
cameras for photographing
the stars above them.
And landers which consist
of metal boxes filled
with sensors for analyzing
the ground of a comet
like for example, Rosetta
and Philae, the two
European mission robots
studying the comet Chury.
We head for the limits of outer space.
450 million kilometers from planet Earth.
In the early 1990's,
European engineers decided
to send a probe around a
comet and to deploy a lander
on its surface.
For a quarter of a
century, a thousand people
throughout the world have been working
on the Rosetta program.
An almost impossible mission.
The launching took place on March 2, 2004,
and after a 10 year
journey, a robot landed
on a comet for the first time in history.
(applause)
How exciting!
How unbelievable to be able to dare
to land on a comet.
We are the first to
have done that and that
will stay forever.
Hollywood is good but Rosetta is better.
(applause)
(upbeat music)
[Narrator] The French
National Center for Space
Studies in Toulouse is home
to the SONC, the center
for the navigation and control
of the scientific mission
where a special team watches and chaperons
the missions two robots,
Rosetta and Philae 24/7.
[Translator] We send
robots into space because
a robot costs between 100-1000
times less than a man.
95% of the missions don't return to Earth.
The only ones that do
come back with samples,
and they are very, very
rare and so we execute
primarily robotic missions.
[Narrator] Philae's
descent lasted seven hours
and the lander touched down 100 meters
from the projected site.
[Translator] We
weren't able to determine
at what moment we would
land and under what
conditions and so there
was an electronic brain
on board capable of
making certain decisions
as to the best time to land.
We're giving it a certain
degree of autonomy.
[Narrator] An insufficient
degree of autonomy
since the electronics
weren't well developed enough
having been created around the year 2000.
At the moment of contact
with the comet, Philae's
anchoring harpoons and its
boosters did not function
and the robot bounced
like a tennis ball once,
then twice, after which
it flew above a crater
and bounced a third time
before setting down between
two rocks about a kilometer
and a half further on.
(slow hypnotic music)
To avoid this kind of
problem, millions of miles
from Earth without any
possible intervention
by engineers, scientists are now working
on much more precise landings.
We head for the Thales
Alenia Space Laboratories
in Turin, Italy where the
initial tests of an exceptional
Mars landing scenario
are being carried out.
For the first time the robots
are equipped with cameras.
The images are analyzed in
real time by an algorithm
that indicates without the
intervention of an engineer,
the best site for landing.
This technology which is
used on Earth for drones
has never been validated for space.
(slow piano music)
This is very important
for future missions
to have a, we can say a new sensor on board
that is like an eye for us, is a camera.
Up to now, no mission
on Mars can use a camera
for landing.
In this way, using a
camera and the software,
it will awaken the picture,
we can reach much higher
precision in the landing.
Just one shot mission in
case of travel, we lose
the mission.
[Narrator] And millions
or perhaps billions
of Euros as well.
In sending landers, space
agencies have learned
how to land even if
the danger of the crash
is very high.
Scientists therefore,
wanted to go a step further
by sending rovers to the moon and to Mars.
All sorts of machines have
been imagined to counter
the exceptional constraints
of a different gravity
from that of Earth.
Temperatures ranging from -140
to +30 degrees celsius.
Corrosion and radiation.
After the rovers were
created, engineers equipped
them with ultra-sophisticated options.
Rovers have thus become
portable laboratories
capable of taking samples
and observing elements
through a microscope.
The first rovers landed on
the moon during the 1970's.
30 years later they landed on Mars.
Since 1997, four rovers
have been moving around
the red planet.
(slow hypnotic music)
[Translator] In the final
years of the 20th century,
we began to launch the
first martian robots,
including a very important
one called Pathfinder.
It was about this high
and was already on Mars
in 1997.
Thanks to Pathfinder, we
realized that to thoroughly
explore Mars, robots
have to move and drive
around the surface.
The terrain was so
diverse, we had to see each
rock, each stone to
learn where it came from,
how it was created, and why it was there.
This realization
encouraged NASA, the leader
in this area, to develop
bigger and better rovers,
which in France are called astromobiles.
And so, after Pathfinder
came Spirit and Opportunity.
These robots which
landed perfectly in 2004,
were designed to function
for a few months covering
a distance of a few kilometers.
Opportunity is in fact
in operation after more
than 10 years and after
having traveled 40 kilometers.
It has therefore surpassed
its life expectancy,
making some very fascinating discoveries.
(slow dramatic music)
[Narrator] Back to Turin in Italy.
Thales Alenia Space is
the principal project
manager of Exomars, the
first European mission
to the red planet.
With a budget of 1.2 billion euros,
the challenge is immense.
In a few weeks the first
robots will be launched
after a two year delay.
The mission is a very
challenging mission.
Sending a robot on Mars is the first time
the Europeans sent a robotic
element on another planet.
[Narrator] The Schiaparelli
module should land
on Mars in or late 2016.
Entering the atmosphere at
21,000 kilometers an hour,
after which a parachute
will open to slow down
the capsule which will
descend at mach two,
twice the speed of sound.
The deceleration will last eight minutes
before landing gently
in the Meridianic plane
at less than 15 kilometers an hour.
In 2018, the scenario will
be the same but this time
a rover will be released
in the direction of Mars
making it the first European
astromobile on the planet.
Other challenging feat is
to figure to control the rover
on the soil of Mars.
Because we have not to
forget the time delay.
I mean, the signal coming
from Mars could take
up to 20 minutes of
delay, it means that what
we see on the screen
it is 20 minutes late.
SO, when we plan the
operation, we have to consider
that what we see is already
happened on the soil
of Mars.
In order to have the
signal we have a satellite
orbiting around Mars,
so the signal has to be
sent from the rover to the satellite,
from the satellite to the ground.
[Narrator] This is why
for Thales Alenia Space's
martian lander engineer
Ciro Napolitano is working
on the software which
will be installed aboard
the rover in 2018.
[Translator] We will
program this vehicle which
we are going to use to travel
around the martian soil.
It was designed to surmount
obstacles such as rocks
and to explore the terrain.
This is our control station.
In the center we can see
the rover with its wheels.
There are two parameters,
the speed and the angle.
On Mars, this rovers maximum speed will be
5cm per second.
We'll use 3cm per second
for testing purposes.
[Narrator] An extremely
slow speed, averaging
180 meters an hour, the rover is therefore
the most expensive and
slowest vehicle in the world.
This is perfectly normal
since on Mars, it will
be impossible from a distance
of 350,000,000 kilometers
from Earth to repair it should
it get stuck in the sand
or break down.
The hope is that it will be
as effective as Curiosity,
the American super rover
which cost 2.5 billion dollars
and which landed on Mars in 2012 after
an eight month journey.
It's the largest of
all the rovers designed
by NASA and it's successful
landing was hailed
by scientists as well
as the American public.
(slow patriotic music)
Curiosity is a very large
rover three meters long,
two meters 70 wide, and two meters high.
It has six wheel drive
and a nuclear battery
supplying the energy.
It has been traveling
around Mars for three years,
making extraordinary discoveries.
[Translator] We discover a new landscape
that no one's ever seen before, every day.
It's a geological robot.
[Translator] We're studying
the power of a nuclear
reactor in one square centimeter.
[Narrator] No less
than 7,000 people worked
on the Curiosity robot.
It's four times heavier
than NASA's two previous
martian rovers.
[Translator] And instead
of an eight kilo payload,
it will have a 90 kilo
payload, that's huge.
It's a scientist's dream.
What makes this object so
valuable are the scientific
instruments.
The fact that it's on wheels,
that it has antenna's,
a source of energy, and
camera's is important,
but the true value for science
is it's scientific payload.
[Narrator] Among the
scientific instruments
aboard Curiosity, two are French.
The SAM, a mini laboratory
for analyzing the soil
and ChemCam, a laser
camera, the only one of its
kind in the world.
[Translator] It's a
technique that enables
us to determine from a
distance the composition
of the rocks and the martian soil.
[Translator] A laser
sheds its light on a rock
by creating a plasma
or a small 8,000 degree
light, a little spark.
Then with a telescope and by decomposing
the light of this plasma,
we can tell if the rock
is made of iron, sulfur, titanium, barium,
lithium, or even hydrogen.
[Narrator] The ChemCam
is the eye that recognizes
the rocks and guides the rover.
After three years of
this mission, we fired
more than 250,000 from this rover.
Every day 100 people throughout the world
get together for a huge
telephone conference call
in order to organize
the robot's work plan.
(slow piano music)
- [Female Over Intercom]
We have the kilometer
priorities here and we
wanted to see of that
part's clear.
So when the rising
broken rocks we use, rare
opportunity which not miss.
[Narrator] Tonight in
Toulouse, the ChemCam
team is preparing to fire
at three particularly
interesting martian stones.
The objective in cooperation
with NASA is a 45 minute
series of laser firings.
[Translator] We're in business now.
We requested three targets,
three rocks on which
we'll fire at 30 shots each,
making 150 laser firings
three times for each.
We therefore programmed
450 firings, now we have
to refine everything,
including the coordinates
of the targets, determining
where the sun will be
at the moment we fire,
and where the arm is.
It's not a question of firing
above, if it's deployed.
The rover's stability,
it's incline, the resources
we need in terms of
energy and the telemetry
will determine our ability
to repatriate the data
generated by the rover.
We'll be working on the
resources, security,
and the operation as a whole.
It's not just the Americans,
there are about 100
of us here guiding the
rover and each of us
gives his instructions.
And we'll try to organize
them into a comprehensive
plan to place aboard
in the next few hours.
[Narrator] NASA has
given the green light
and so it's time to program ChemCam's
450 laser firings.
- [Female Over Intercom]
We have 135.4 meters
until our next (mumbles) update.
[Translator] Everything
is in fact centralized
at NASA in Los Angeles.
We send them our files
tonight and they'll put
all the files for all the
instruments into a huge
computer.
Once the package is full
for the entire date,
the program is sent to the robot on Mars.
It will execute the program
sequence when it wakes
up tomorrow morning.
There are only six of
us in the world capable
of digging holes on Mars
and we're all at the CNES
in Toulouse.
We're fortunate in that we're
pioneers, digging the first
holes on a planet we're exploring.
It's the chance of a lifetime.
[Narrator] A unique
chance as well for two other
French teams dealing with the SAM.
This instrument is in fact
an ultra sophisticated
laboratory consisting
of a spectrometer which
analyzes the molecules, another instrument
for chromatography, which
separates them and 74
many ovens.
In short, the SAM analyzes the samples
from the martian soil.
And it's the SAM in fact
confirm the presence
of water on Mars.
(slow suspenseful music)
[Translator] Thanks to
all of SAM's instruments,
the laboratory made this discovery.
After heating the soil
sample, we understood
and by putting all the data
together, we discovered
that at one time on Mars on
the site where we are now,
there was a lake.
It wasn't a huge surprise
as we were expecting it
but the lake was very
shallow and it was a fresh
water lake, no salt, no
acid, or mud and so the water
was drinkable.
By lake we mean a dense
atmosphere, something which
lasted an indeterminate amount
of time with an inviolate
reducer, that's a bit
technical, with sources
of carbon, hydrogen,
nitrogen, sulfur, phosphorous,
all of which could one day create life.
By putting these physical
and chemical parameters
together, we can conclude
that Mars was once livable.
That is an enormous discovery
because only two years
ago I was convinced that the only planet
in the solar system that
could sustain life was Earth.
And now I can say of the
eight planets, four telluric
and four giant planets that in the history
of our solar system,
there were two habitable
planets, probably at the
same time, Earth and Mars.
[Narrator] During
future missions to the red
planet, scientists will try
to study the subsurface.
The common goal, in fact,
of NASA and the Europeans
Space Agency is to dig
one or two meters deep
in order to search for traces of life,
elements shelters from the
cosmic rays and protected
by the layer of martian soil.
To do so, however, requires
an incredibly powerful
drilling machine.
(slow suspenseful music)
We head for California
and Honeybee Robotics,
a company that has been working with NASA
for 20 years.
Most of their equipment
is aboard American landers
and rovers.
At the moment, they are
preparing for the next
Mars mission scheduled for 2020.
By trying to perfect a
deep drilling technology
especially designed for Mars.
So this drill is, has
been designed to capture
samples from at least one
meter depth on planetary
surface.
It usually was designed
for exploration of Mars.
Mars sees a lot of radiation
so in order to capture
microbes.
We have to go at least
a meter down where they
have been potentially
preserved in the subsurface.
[Narrator] Thanks to
this invention, scientists
should be able to obtain
rock samples that have
not been exposed to
radiation or cosmic rays.
And perhaps find traces of life.
We set off a drill that captures powder.
At the end of the arm it
will have a coring drill
to capture rock samples,
put them in a cache
and deposit the cache as the
rover traverses the planet.
And when after that
mission is done, it's gonna
take a couple of years.
There's gonna be another
mission, it's gonna
go in and pick up some
of these rock samples,
sort of like bread crumbs that are sitting
on the surface of Mars.
Its gonna catch them, put
them on top of a rocket.
That rocket is gonna
launch these rocks around
the martian orbit and then
there's gonna be another mission.
And that mission is gonna
capture these flying rocks
and bring them back to Earth.
We're thinking it's gonna
probably take 20 years
before we see those rocks.
[Translator] For us,
the prize is bringing
back the samples from Mars.
Going to Mars, collecting
samples which could
prove that life once
existed there and bringing
them back to Earth.
And afterwards determining
if this life is based
on DNA like ours or not.
Which is a huge question mark.
If we could answer this
query, we will have
a different vision of
how life first appeared.
The only example we have
now is life on Earth.
The day we have a second
example we can begin
to generalize on how life
appeared in the universe.
[Narrator] This precious
information is obtainable
for us or rather for robots.
Although it will require
even more perfected
and more multipurpose machines.
Martian rovers are becoming more and more
sophisticated.
Greatly increasing our
knowledge trying to answer
questions such as, does
water still flow on Mars?
Could this planet be habitable?
Was it once inhabited?
Questions which have troubled scientists
for years.
To answer them, new
kinds of robots will have
to be invented and deployed.
After the rovers which
belong to the 2nd family
of space robots, we have
co-robots or CoBots,
designed to work for or with man.
A new era is on the horizon
representing an unprecedented
cooperation in the history of humanity.
Everything has changed in
less than a century on Earth
as well as in space.
The technological revolution
has shaken our era
to the point where everything
seems possible today,
even in the infinity of the universe.
First there was scout
robots, the first space
adventurers.
Then came laboratory robots
with rovers that moved
around the planets.
And now the adventure
continues with collaborative
robots, CoBots, which space
agencies will be sending
to today's objective number one, Mars.
The closest planet to
Earth, its twin sister.
Recent discoveries have
motivated scientists
even further.
[Translator] Give me a ticket to Mars
and I'll leave tomorrow.
[Narrator] Tomorrow of
course is not a reality
for man.
Mars is still too far and too dangerous
a destination for astronauts.
No one has up to now been able to master
the technique for such a mission.
Although preparations are under way.
Space agencies throughout
the world are working
on the possibilities,
although not only for man.
All over our planet,
scenarios for living on Mars
are being tested.
According to specialists,
in 20 or 30 years,
technology will be
advanced enough to send men
to Mars or place them
in orbit around Mars,
with the help of new companions, CoBots.
Without which, such missions
would be impossible.
(slow dramatic music)
[Translator] Once we've sent them there,
we'll need robots to perform
the menial repetitious
tasks so as not to waste
human time and also
for tasks that are too
difficult or too dangerous.
[Narrator] More complex
than simple rovers
and more autonomous and intelligent, these
robots will work in
perfect harmony with highly
trained astronauts.
Space is a very tough
environment, there's
nothing that is really
very good for man's health
so we need to have some
machines to go there and do
some parts at least of the exploration.
In the future, these
robots can prepare simple
human tasks and prepare
the imminent of humans
on a planetary surface.
In our lab we work in a
very nice interplay between
engineering and biology.
[Narrator] CoBots resistant to radiation
and extreme temperatures
and the void will be able
to work side by side with the astronauts.
Scout CoBots resembling
animals or CoBot technicians
capable of preparing the
habitation basis represent
an essential step for
man's survival in our new
conquest of space, aiming
higher and higher still.
Lausanne in Suitzerland
is home to the Polytechnic
School which includes
five universities, 350
laboratories, and almost
10,000 students from about
a 100 different countries.
There are very few
laboratories like this one
in the world where animals
are filmed and x-rayed
in order to understand
their locomotion techniques.
After which scientists
try to try to apply them
to the interior of robots.
It's very expensive to
send something out of space
so that means that you
need to embed in these
machines a lot of
possibilities to move around,
to recharge the batteries,
and to perform better.
So I guess a move to locomotion capability
that any, sorry, that
robots inspired by animal
provide us are one of
the key factors for space
exploration.
[Narrator] Another example
is this salamander robot.
Amphibians are interesting
because they can live
both on land and in water
and can adapt to either
environment.
This is exactly what
interests Camilo whose
robot copies the way a
salamander moves thanks
to 11 motors in the
robots spine and 16 others
in its feet.
SO we have this prowling
posture, so basically
we can access some places
that other robots cannot.
So for example we can pass
underneath very, very,
tiny passages like this.
So, with this posture we
can do that kind of things.
At the same time, with
the same robot, remember
this move to locomotion
capability, this one can
also swim with this
carnivore because we have
the whole spine adapt for
that thing and we have
the feet for the same reason.
The problem is performance.
If you go to space and you were to travel
10 kilometers in surface
of a planet for example,
of course this robot is not
the best for doing that.
I guess in that case wheels are better.
But if the wheels can
take this robot to some
other place where you
can go for a focus task
I guess the robot is perfect.
So I guess the combination
of the two robots
are, is the key to really
go to space correlation.
In this case for planetary exploration.
[Narrator] Multi-functional
and organically inspired
robots are also being developed in Bremen
at the Center for Robotic Innovation.
This North German city
possesses numerous space robot
laboratories, and especially the DFKI,
specializing in artificial intelligence.
Scientists are working
on a variety of programs
in cooperation with
German and other European
space agencies.
In the laboratories we
wanted to humanoid robots
like AILA or animal robots
such as iStruct, CREX,
and MANTIS.
Now head for the institutes
clean room where project
LIMES is being conducted
consisting of tests
on a gigantic praying mantis.
(upbeat music)
Oh, well.
(laughing)
That's a six-legged
walking robot and which
is also calibrated to
lift up the front body
to be able to manipulate
something with its
front legs and do what
they require for planetary
exploration on Mars.
They need systems which
are capable to traverse
on very unstructured
surfaces and then if they
are able to traverse the
surface that they also have
to be able to perform
some manipulation tasks
in the area which they calibrated to reach
and so for example to
collect samples or also
to maintain or setup
infrastructure on the surfaces.
[Narrator] The project
is funded by the German
Space Agency which
considers this robot insect
a key to future missions
on Mars or the moon.
(upbeat frantic music)
If you really have to
look at MANTIS, then MANTIS
is, I think the only insect
which is really capable
to perform more or less
precise manipulation tasks.
[Narrator] The RMC,
the German Space Agency's
robotic laboratory is located
in Wessling, near Munich.
There are articulated
arms everywhere, mounted
on different types of
robots, humanoid robots
or rovers.
Specialists are trying to
determine the best man robot
interface to command them.
Some prefer the joystick,
others the exoskeleton.
The goal is to command
these robots in real time
on the lunar or the martian soil.
Robots capable of
reproducing the movements
of the astronauts sheltered
safely in their base.
Only the scenario is tested here.
For 20 years, DLR engineers
have been developing
the technology for robotic arms.
In recent years they have
designed a hand with four
fingers since the fifth
serves no purpose and is
more expensive to manufacture.
At present they are working
on a robot controlled
by another robot.
(upbeat music)
[Translator] To get
ready I use two different
systems.
First, a glove with sensors that enable us
to measure the position of the fingers.
And which will be used
to manipulate the hand
by remote control.
I also use a man-machine
interface to which I
attach myself and which allows me to send
orders to the robots
like the position I want
to reach and also to feel what the robot
feels since this robot
will either push or pull
my hand based on what
the distant robot feels.
[Narrator] The energy
feedback is what enables
astronauts to command a
robot with more finesse,
thus avoiding any equipment damage.
And at the heart of the
space vessel or base,
this is essential.
[Translator] By hitting
this pedal, I can feel
the robot moving from a distance.
And I can direct it.
IF I enter into contact
with the environment,
I can feel on this robot
here an energy feedback
at the level of the
wrist, which makes it easy
for me to look for contact
with certain objects.
I can feel the force that
I apply to this button.
If it's too hard then
there's definitely an error
and I can stop it and take
the time to think things out.
Conducting a mission
outside of the international
space station is very dangerous and costly
and there are several
tasks that even a simple
robot can execute such as
manipulating the switches
or checking that a valve is shut tight.
It's worth it to be
prepared in advance before
the astronaut arrives on the site and that
can save a lot of time.
[Narrator] Space Justin
is scheduled to arrive
at the ISS in 2020 and join Rovina II,
the American robot.
To work with the
astronauts, all of the space
agencies prefer to develop
robots with a human
shape and the reason is obvious.
We don't want to scare the humans off.
(laughs)
If we built a robot that
looks like it's terminator,
you know, with red glaring eyes and,
metal face, it will be just,
a psychological problem
for humans to interact with
these kinds of machines,
so, that's why we gave
AILA also a female shape
because we had all these
human, all these humanoid
robots in the world, they
are all strong, terminator
kind of robots and we
thought, okay we do it
a different way, we give
it a more nicer shape.
[Narrator] Humanoids
are veritable CoBots
or collaborator robots.
They can open up a
valve and airlock, press
a button, but they can
remain in orbit around
the base at least in the beginning.
It will be necessary to
send animal type robots
or rovers which have
proven their reliability
on the martian or lunar soil.
Equipped with robotic
arms, they can be deployed
for general tasks, building
places to live or assembling
structures.
These highly autonomous
machines will be able
to learn about the terrain
thanks to algorithms
of artificial intelligence.
(slow instrumental music)
We now go to Holland the
European Center for Space
Research and Technology.
Situated between Amsterdam and the Hague.
The teams working in the
Telerobotics Laboratory
are preparing an experiment
unique in the world.
A rover with two arms
will be guided by remote
control from the ISS.
The orbital station located
400 kilometers above
our heads.
So it's preparing the
future of exploration
missions that make use of humans in orbit
of planetary bodies and
robots on the surface
to project actually the
human presence into the robot
onto the surface.
Our technology actually
enables robots to do this
remote controlled by humans
in a very interactive
and intuitive way.
[Narrator] Aboard the
ISS, Danish astronaut
Andreas Mogensen will be
required to use a joystick
with energy feedback to
directly command a robot.
The rover has to simply
insert a metal tube
into a structure but it's
a lot more complicated
than one would think.
This pin, it only has
a tolerance of about
100-150 micrometers to the hole,
so when you try it
yourself, you see how easily
it actually jams if you have like a small
misalignment from it
then you can't insert it.
In fact, it has to be totally precise.
[Narrator] For this
experiment to be successful
one has to rely on ones senses.
The innovation of the
force feedback is important
because it enables astronauts
in orbit to actually
feel what a robot does
somewhere else, either
in another location in
space or on a planetary
surface and this way he
can do tasks very naturally
as if he would be present
physically at that site.
So if you imagine handling
a raw egg or actually
doing very complex tasks
like lacing your shoe
or inserting a connector
in the back of your TV set,
these are all tasks
that require you to feel
the geometry and what we
transmit here is exactly
this feeling, so it
helps him to accomplish
this complicated task.
[Narrator] The experiment
reproduces a scenario
which could take place
in a few years between
a rover on Mars and a
space station orbiting
around the planet.
In the ISS, which navigates
at 28,000 kilometers
an hour, the Danish
astronaut has less than one
hour to carry out the
experiment, with no knowledge
of interface or joystick
and who has never piloted
the rover.
(upbeat frantic music)
(applause)
Our robots actually
transmits this sense of touch
to the human operator
and with the first time
in the history of space
flight to actually extend
this sense of touch over
distances between space
and ground or between space
and any planetary surface.
[Narrator] The success
of this type of experiment
allows specialists to project
themselves into the future
and imagine the construction
of bases in outer space.
On Mars for NASA, on the
moon for the European
space agency which would
like to setup a village
to replace the ISS when it
seizes operations in 2024.
(slow dramatic music)
[Translator] Once we've
landed men there it becomes
a habitat.
The work around the
habitat entails a minimum
of 10, 15, or 20 tons.
We don't know how to do it
but we're working on it.
We think that the first
man martian flights
will be flights where
man remains in orbit.
In order for man's
presence to be effective,
we feel that they should
be able to command
robots on the surface in
real time by remote control.
We can't do this from Earth
because of the distance
which prevents us from
telecommanding in real time
like an airplane pilot
who can push a button
and immediately activate his joystick.
We've got to be able to do
this while orbiting Mars.
[Narrator] After the
CoBots which will assist man
during their extraplanetary
missions, a 4th family
of robots will be more and more vital.
Protean robots which can
serve as refuse collectors,
skilled workers, or shuttle pilots.
In 10 or 20 years, man
will live in outer space
thanks to all sorts of robots.
This is not a Utopian
concept but an opportunity
that space agencies and
private companies want
to seize since space is
becoming a new multi-billion
dollar business.
(slow hectic music)
We've come a long way from
the Star Wars era when
the United States and the
Soviet Union were the only
nations in outer space.
Today, dozens of space
agencies throughout the world
as well as private companies
are developing systems
to study the cosmos.
Work on all the planets and
send robots and satellites
there.
After the reign of the
scout robots, followed by
laboratory rovers and
CoBots, there is one final
category, robots whose
role it is to cleanup
outer space.
Once completely devoid of
debris before the launching
of Sputnik, space has been
filling up at an alarming
rate for the past 60 years.
Today, there are a
thousand or so satellites
in operation and 900 more to
come in the next few months.
In addition to space debris
and the billions of meteorites
circulating at the incredible
speed of 30,000 kilometers
an hour.
[Translator] A one
millimeter in diameter debris
has the same energy as
a bowling ball launched
at a speed of 100 kilometers an hour.
In a long-term if nothing
is done, it's possible
that the space infrastructure
will become unusable.
[Narrator] The international
community is working
on a global solution to
combat this debris which
increases exponentially
every year threatening
satellites that are a useful
part of our daily lives.
Outer space therefore,
will have to be cleaned up
using a new type of
robot so that the debris
doesn't fall on our heads one day.
[Translator] We've
cataloged objects of this size
reentering the atmosphere
on a daily basis.
Either a large satellite
or a large satellite stage
reentering at a rate of one per week.
And when they reenter
the atmosphere, they heat
up enormously, slow down and break up.
Does everything burn, no, not everything.
10, 20, or even 40% of the
mass can survive and thus
impact the surface of the Earth.
The primary danger of this
debris is the possibility
of a human victim.
(upbeat frantic music)
The 2nd and more immediate
danger is for a satellite
operator.
If you launch a large
satellite there is a 5% risk
of it dying before it's time.
As a result of a collision
with space debris,
creating a direct financial impact.
The 3rd danger is in the long-term.
Occasionally, two large
objects collide, such as was
the case in 2009 between Kosmos 2251
and Iridium 33.
Such a crash generates
about 5,000 large pieces
of debris.
The multiplication of
debris due to collisions
makes us a bit wary of
the long-term future.
[Narrator] Dozens of
small, less eccentric
projects are being imagined
by engineers to gather
the debris and eliminate it.
One such idea is based on
the concept of spear fishing.
Another is using navigators
with a huge self-folding sail,
then there's the star wars
technique with laser fire,
or the bombarding of ions.
There's an even more
surprising technique using
flypaper or even deploying a huge net.
Finally, there's the medical
technique with a clamp
fixed onto a hunter robot.
Each method has its
advantages and disadvantages,
but the most common
strategy among manufacturers
is that of a robotic arm
mounted on a hunter robot.
This is the technique being
developed by the engineers
at Airbus Defense and Space in Bremen.
Equipped with a 3D sensor
for seizing all sorts
of stones as if they were
lost debris in space,
the robotic arms capacity is being tested
in the Airbus laboratory.
[Translator] We have
fairly similar technologies
for captures in orbit and for
seizing objects on a lunar
or martian surface.
Here, we have a 3 dimensional sensor.
We're trying to combine
an autonomous and a manual
approach with this system.
Because in any kind of space exploration,
communication time between
Earth and distant heavenly
bodies is fairly long.
And so if we try to do it
all manually, each operation
will take a very long time.
What we want to do now is
have an autonomous system,
meaning that it's capable
of selecting objects
on its own, calculating
their position and seizing
them, giving us great
operational flexibility.
For this experiment, we have
a sensor with three pincers
four relatively simple
objects like stones.
When we switch to the
debris system in orbit,
we need more complex
interfaces and we're developing
a system capable of
seizing the orbital debris
using a complex geometry.
[Narrator] At present,
there is no international
legislation requiring companies
to remove their debris
from outer space.
Cleaning up space however,
is becoming necessary
since every year, the
increasing amount of debris
threatens satellites in
orbit above the Earth.
Robots which cost a total
of more than 100 billion
dollars are also threatening
this new outer space
business.
One such business, Swiss
Space Systems or S3 is located
in the Swiss city of Payerne.
S3 wants to send small
satellites into space
for 10 million euros.
Four times cheaper than its competitors.
Their secret lies in reusable technology
with an entirely automatic
aircraft and space shuttle.
Once the right altitude
is reached, the shuttle
releases a capsule in
which satellites have been
installed, the shuttle
then makes a gentle landing
without a pilot.
([Translator)Today the
SOAR decides to launch
satellites weighing 250
kilos in heliosynchronous
orbit or SSO, at an
altitude of 700 kilometers.
This represents tomorrows
satellite market.
They were characterized
as small satellites.
Today we're witnessing a paradigm shift
in the area of space satellites.
We're going from huge satellites launched
in geostationary orbit
at very high altitudes
like 36,000 kilometers
to a range of smaller,
lighter, low orbit, and
especially low cost satellites.
[Narrator] The shuttle
should be assembled in 2016
with tests beginning the following year.
By that time, a new rover
will have reached the moon.
(upbeat music)
In 2007, Google launched
a 30 million dollar
public competition with
the goal of sending
a robot to the moon.
A rover capable of moving over an area
of 500 meters, taking high
definition photographs
and sending them back to Earth.
Six teams from 13 different
countries participated.
This represented an
initial challenge before
sending men to the moon once again.
I think one of the
reasons why big companies
are deciding to invest in
what we call new space,
new space technologies,
is one, because they like
to think big but they also
see a solid business plan
and they know that businesses
can be developed out of this.
[Narrator] In America,
captains of industry
are investing huge sums
since they know that outer
space is today's new Eldorado.
Throughout Europe, Asia,
and Africa, men want
to conquer space, walk in
the footsteps of Yuri Gagarin
and Neil Armstrong for the
beauty of the experience
of course, but mainly for
the dollars they can earn.
It's a sound investment.
One euro invested in space
will increase by five,
since on the moon, Mars,
or the stars, there's iron,
cobalt, nickel, silicate,
platinum, as well
as new sources of energy.
Experts estimate that
this business will entail
hundreds of billions of dollars.
Further motivation for man to look upwards
in a different manner.
[Translator] To save the
human race there is only
one solution, learning to
live on other heavenly bodies.
[Narrator] In just a few
years, the use of outer
space will become part of our
daily lives and the wealth
contained in the stars will
inexhorbitably compensate
for the depletion of our
natural resources on Earth.
People will live and work
on the moon, on Mars,
or on orbital space stations.
And this new conquest
of the infinite can only
succeed with the help
of even more effective
and autonomous super robots.
(slow piano music)