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The resounding answer is: No. While robots are necessary and useful tools for deep space exploration, humans will always be essential to spacefaring. We need to think past the polarity debate of crewed vs. uncrewed programs to recognize that they serve different but complementary purposes, strengthening each other on our exploration of the cosmos.
Even a cursory look at how we have explored new frontiers on Earth will show that humans did so hand-in-hand with machines and other tools. We first ventured into the oceans by swimming. Then we developed ways to bring air with us, followed by ways to move about the water inside of machines. Soon we sent machines to the ocean's greatest depths followed by humans - inside of machines - to the same depths. Now, modern oceanography is a rich tapestry of humans and robotics - with both supplementing the other synergistically as we continue to explore our oceans. The same is true for how space exploration has unfolded.
As such it is no surprise that robots such as Curiosity and Perseverance advance space exploration on Mars by setting the foundation for the future of long-duration missions - by humans. Meanwhile The Pioneers, Voyagers, and New Horizons mission have headed out to the stars - and humans will one day follow.
While robots can work better in many harsh environments - and are "expendable" (humans are preferably not) they are limited in what they can do based on their computers and programming (by humans) or instructions sent to them (also by humans) from Earth. Well-known Mars mission scientist Dr. Stephen Squyres who openly admits his affection for Mars rovers has said that he could do the field geology that a rover does in a month in an afternoon. We use our robotic emissaries to their fullest extent and then follow in the path that our tools have created for us.
The Necessity of Robots and Human Space Exploration
Sending astronauts into space comes with risks. Humans, like most living things, are fragile and vulnerable. Given that life evolved on Earth, terrestrial life forms tend to have a low tolerance for the often harsh space environment. Sending humans into space also means launching consumable resources such water, food, and oxygen. This requires supplies that robots do not consume - and adds expense.
Landing humans on the Moon or Mars requires robotics due to these significant psychological and technological challenges. The support of AI is essential for deep space missions and to reach sustainable space exploration.
In the future, robots and humans will collaborate on the Moon's surface or Mars for scientific research, extracting and analyzing space resources for possible uses and creating sites for human habitation and work.
Currently, NASA uses Canadarm2, a long robotic arm on the International Space Station (ISS), performs maintenance; transport supplies and astronauts; and can catch and berth visiting spacecraft. Another Canadian robot on the ISS named "Dextre" has 2 arms with a variety of joints attached to a human-like torso. Dextre is used to accomplish tasks that require a wide range of fine adjustments and observations. Canadarm2 and Dextre are tools inspired by human physiology. They operate in the harsh environment of space under the control of humans inside the ISS. Together they form a team that allows us to extend our capabilities in space.
There are many additional ways that robots and humans can collaborate in space. We can operate robots more or less in real time on the lunar surface from Earth due to the closeness of the Moon and the short time it takes radio transmissions to travel back and forth. This is not possible deeper in space or on the surface of other worlds due to the great distances and time lags for signals to travel.
As is the case on Earth oceans where a mothership with humans control robots and human operated submersibles below, we will probably adopt a similar approach to studying other worlds as we begin to visit them - in person. We'll send robots with some built in capabilities in advance. And when they reach their limits and human abilities are needed, we'll send humans - again, just as we have explored our world.
To be certain the great distances involved in space exploration will present a great challenge to sending anything out there - robotic or human. Advances in artificial Intelligence will allow us to put more of ourselves into these robots we send - perhaps exceeding our own capabilities in many ways. But not all of them. Again humans explore best when they work in combination with their tools. The better the tools the more impressive the emergent properties of exploration will result. But we are always a part of the equation.
Innovations in Human-Robot Interactions
Until recently, most research on Human-Robot Interactions (HRI) in space exploration centered mainly on space robotics's engineering and information processing (cognitive) aspects. Space robots were often envisioned with advanced cognitive systems like CARACaS that could model, build, continuously plan/re-plan, self-diagnose, and assess novel situations. Ideally, these space robots would assist human crew members with various cognitive and physical tasks but did not directly support social and affective communications with their human team. In recent years, sociable space robots have begun to emerge with the ability to recognize and show social cues - the sort of things that humans do.
For instance, the Astronaut Assistant Robot allows astronauts to use hand gestures to communicate with its interface. It is the first autonomous floating, sphere-shaped interactive companion robot in space, named the Crew Interactive Mobile Companion (CIMON). Designed by NASA and IBM, it can show human-like facial expressions on its screen and, similar to Amazon's Alexa, responds to voice questions or directions without a computer or tablet screen when assisting astronauts in their everyday work.
Aboard space missions, crew members engage in various group activities ranging from critical team cooperation and urgent problem-solving to recreational activities. Crew social dynamics may vary as social roles of the members adapt to different situations. The engagement of "Social robots"' with a crew may be programmed to some extent in advance based on the team's social dynamics such that the programming can adapt to actual experiences that occur during a mission.
Designing a diverse set of robot social roles customized to different group contexts could help to support the mental health of astronauts. We've already seen examples of how AI systems on Earth - when properly utilized - can remarkably mimic and respond to the quirks of various human behaviors. The trick is to enable robotic systems that reduce human stress while improving human safety and efficiency in space. Robotic helpers can also be tools.
Living in space and on other worlds will expose humans to gravitational forces ranging from the microgravity of spaceflight to the fractional gravity on the Moon and Mars. Humans adapt to these changes but having robotic assistants who can augment that adaptation would clearly have value. Using embedded AI in systems that comprise spacesuits and piloted rovers could help alert crew members to counterintuitive factors or hazards that humans do not have a native intuition to anticipate. We now have cars that can drive autonomously (somewhat) and often react faster and more efficiently than humans can. No doubt having that capability as we explore space will be vitally important - especially if crew members are incapacitated.
Robotic systems can also be developed to monitor a crew member's health and responses. Much like the smartwatches and fitness monitors of today, robotic devices can be used in space to track human health, adaptation, and performance. When applied to exercise devices they can augment the ability of the crew to maintain physical fitness, get the right nutrition, and be alerted to things that the crew may not notice about themselves.
Robotic systems can also be used - with privacy abilities - to monitor crew sleep quality, fatigue, and other parameters that indicate stress levels. As we go deeper into space robotics systems can be called upon to provide health intervention. Today there are many surgical procedures that are best done robotically. Even if there is a doctor on a mission, when the crew is millions of miles from home, the nearest expert may be a robot.
As noted before, humans have always used tools to explore - whether it was shoes on their feet, clothing for cold climates, fire, weapons, backpacks to carry food and water - they all served to augment a human's abilities. Robots are tools. Humans first visited the South Pole on wooden sleds. There were no robots on the first trips but there were tools. After the first overland trips to the South Pole, humans did not go back again overland for half a century. And when we did it was with much more sophisticated tools. And we went to stay. Now humans live at the South Pole permanently and robotic telescopes scan the universe. It can be said that our robots are indeed emissaries - tools created by the human mind - that go where humans have yet to go. But humans have a propensity for always going to these places eventually - in person. Space will be no different.
Dylan Taylor is a global business leader, philanthropist, and active pioneer in the space exploration industry. He is the chairman and CEO of Voyager Space, a multi-national space exploration company striving to shape the next generation of space infrastructure.
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