Based in Los Angeles gitai said Tuesday that its autonomous robotic arm performed a technology demonstration outside the International Space Station.
Gitai CEO Sho Nakanose told TechCrunch in an interview last year that the company aims to reduce labor costs in space by 100 times, in the same way that SpaceX and other suppliers have drastically reduced launch costs. Autonomous robotic systems still have a ways to go before they make human labor obsolete, especially here on Earth; But in space, human labor is expensive (and dangerous), opening the door to a robotic alternative.
The 1.5-meter autonomous robotic arm, which the startup calls S2, launched to the ISS aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 in January. It was mounted externally on Nanoracks’ Bishop Airlock before completing a series of tasks that will be essential to building structures for living and working in space. These included installing a task panel, screwing and unscrewing small bolts, handling flexible material, and connecting and disconnecting a flexible electrical cable to a connector.
Image credits: gitai
In the short term, the company focuses on servicing in-orbit satellites for spacecraft in low Earth orbit and geostationary orbit. Gitai is also developing robotic satellites capable of performing tasks related to this market, such as rendezvous, docking, inspection and deorbiting, they said in a statement.
The startup, founded eight years ago, plans to begin offering in-orbit services in 2026. The arm’s Technology Readiness Level (TLR), a standard used by NASA to chart technology maturity, is now at 7, the level higher, said Gitai. . The startup’s other product, an “inch” arm, is also found on a TRL 7.