Robotics on Mars

 

I while ago, I was presenting at an AI conference. During a robotics session, one of the speakers from an ivy league university said that we would consider robotics a mature field if a robotic soccer team beats the best human team at a #FIFA world championship. Today, I would suggest a different yardstick for robotics. We will need a robotic team to build an infrastructure on Mars before the first missions arrive. Robert Zubrin, in his books and talks, designed in great detail the early missions to Mars. An energy source and fuel production machinery will have to be installed and operational at a minimum. Any human-crewed mission that lands on Mars will have to refuel to be able to return. We are talking about tones of methane and oxygen that automated systems will need to produce and store on the red planet. There is a lot of exciting research in this field. However, it is time to start prototyping cyber-physical systems now.

#cyberphysical #mars #marstinfrastructure #marssociety #zubrin #ai #robotics