Reflective Journal Blog Post

When I first made my proposal I just knew I wanted to study man-made objects in space from propulsion, solar systems, re-entry, spacecraft materials, and many others. With continued research on my topic, I have been able to narrow down to robotics in space, and have grown more excited about the topic than ever. I've found some really cool projects in development concerning autonomous programming for robots including the ability to intercept and course-correct orbital satellites, calculate a path through rocky terrain on Mars, and potentially even construct structures in space. In my proposal I wasn't quite sure what area of space robotics I wanted to research. Putting a search in ebsco for "space robotics" came up with a wealth of stuff, so I've narrowed my topic down to first why we need robots in space, the robots we have functioning now, and what applications we can use robotics in. A very large problem right now is "space junk". NASA's Orbital Debris website states that "[a]pproximately 19,000 objects larger than 10 cm are known to exist. The estimated population of particles between 1 and 10 cm in diameter is approximately 500,000. The number of particles smaller than 1 cm probably exceeds tens of millions". Also when we paired up today to talk about our project I got a lot of really good questions from my partner to further explore, so I've been able to define my topic a lot better. Another thing I want to talk about is how people interact with robots, known as teleoperation. Someone literally controls the robot from Earth or a spacestation, and is able to manipulate the environment just as if the operator had been there. This has incredibility fascinating potential to be "the next big thing" in space technology development. It reminds me of the book "Ender's Game" by Orson Scott Card where children were controlling fighter planes in space in what they thought a "game" but were really piloting actual craft in a war against bug-like extraterrestrials. I can imagine thousands of avid video-gamers would love to get their hands on the controller of some of the world's most advanced technology. I sure would like to.