Advancing AI and Robotics in Space Missions
Not many people can say that their job is one they have set their sights on since they were five years old.
But for Nora Al Matrooshi, her childhood dream will become a reality when she embarks on her first space mission — making her the first Emirati woman in space.
Driven by her mantra “do what makes you happy,” Nora completed her two-year training course at NASA’s Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center in Houston two years ago and is now the first female Emirati astronaut.
“I’m very excited,” she told Technology Magazine at GITEX Europe in Berlin. “This is something I’ve wanted for a very long time and I’ve trained very hard. It’s a dream come true to be able to go to space.”
No stranger to the magnitude of the journey ahead of her, mechanical engineer Nora’s training means she has been immersed in a world where technology is constantly advancing.
“Technologies are changing every day. Part of our role as astronauts is to test out these technologies,” she explains. “We’re aiming to go to the Moon, we’re aiming to go to Mars, so new technologies are being built and tested by astronauts all over the world at NASA, JAXA and ESA. It’s exciting to see these developments and to be able to test them out.”
Fellow astronaut Hazza Al Mansouri — who made history as the first Emirati in space in 2019 — echoes Nora’s fascination with the tech revolution in orbit. He is quick, however, to emphasise that although astronauts have a firm focus on tech, there is very much a human element to space-accelerated technological advancements, noting humankind is core to space exploration.
“When I was on board the ISS, I did a couple of experiments,” he shares. “We take part in so many experiments onboard the station, including using us as test subjects and testing new systems.”
One said system is the Crew Interactive Mobile companion — more commonly known as CIMON. The floating head-shaped AI robot is part of European Space Agency (ESA) experiments and interacts with astronauts. This, Hazza explains, gives those space-borne “a psychological interaction between astronaut and the machine” on long-duration missions.
AI is also being used in automation in space, with the upcoming Lunar Gateway — a planned international space station orbiting the Moon — set to rely heavily on autonomous systems and AI as it won’t be permanently inhabited. These technologies will, as a result, reduce the workload on astronauts and make deep space missions more feasible.
As well as this, the BioFabrication Facility (BFF) on the ISS is being used to explore the potential of 3D bioprinting in microgravity. It allows for the printing of complex 3D structures using bioinks and living cells, with the potential to create functional human tissues and even organs in the future.
Hazza hopes that, with the capabilities of technology rapidly advancing, once seemingly impossible missions — like going to the Moon, which takes three years — will happen in his lifetime.
“We’re constantly inventing new technologies and things that will help us down the road,” he says. “With the private sector on board, it makes it more accessible and easier to go to space.”
So will technology eliminate the need for astronauts all together?
“Human intelligence and the feeling of understanding things as a human brain is still better than a machine,” Hazza says. “The eye of a scientist looking can analyse in a different way to a machine itself. AI is reaching a very high level, but our brains are still more complex.”
To read the full article in the magazine, click HERE.