Original subtitles

- [Narrator] Outer space, the ultimate frontier.

A world above us that has fascinated man's imagination

since the beginning of time.

Dark, dangerous, inaccessible, but a world filled

with possibilities since 1957, thanks to Sputnik

and it's world famous robot Beeps, the first

in outer space.

- I believe that this immense genius you know,

to explore and to try to understand what is out

there and how is it functioning.

- [Narrator] For 60 years engineers have sent

hundreds of robots into space.

Although led by the Russians and the Americans,

France has excelled in this area, thanks

to Arianespace and it's astronauts.

Using astronauts however, is dangerous.

So much so that they are being replaced by robots.

- [Translator] We send robots into space because

it costs 100-1000 times less than sending men.

- [Translator 2] The robot is the means we employ

to explore what we cannot absorb ourselves.

- [Narrator] In the 1960's, space exploration

represented an immense challenge, adding great

prestige to the nation's that succeeded.

The present philosophy is completely different.

Aimed at preparing a new world for man.

- [Translator] To save the human race, there is only

one solution, learning to live on other heavenly bodies.

- [Narrator] To accomplish this goal, engineers

are developing incredible robots.

Machines with no fear of cosmic radiation or the

void of outer space or extreme changes in temperature.

Almost immortal robots which never become obsolete.

- A robot it definitely a machine that can be

programmable, that means can be autonomous or not.

- [Translator] Creating a robot that can operate

24/7 is where the difficulties begin.

- The robotic system's with some form of artificial

intelligence, they are appropriate and cheap ways

to do this kind of exploration, to find out what

is going on on other planets.

This will tell us a lot also about our own home.

- [Narrator] In order to better understand our

solar system, we need to send scientific robots

into space.

The first of these are either scout robots, for making

space probes or landers which can touch down

on a star or a planet and make initial on site analysis.

(slow suspenseful music)

The next generation, the rovers are autonomous

super vehicles like Curiosity that can move

around the surface of Mars.

Containing instruments for analysis and exploration

which enable Curiosity to discover the presence

of water on the red planet.

The next step will come from much stranger laboratories

where engineers are developing CoBots

or collaborative robots.

Animal or humanoid robots will be used to assist

astronauts by exploring dangerous areas and building

space stations.

And soon there will be robots for cleaning up

outer space and for helping man to live on another planet.

The countdown has begun for the incredible adventure

of the space robot revolution.

(slow mysterious music)

Throughout history, man has always been an explorer,

an adventurer, crossing continents, navigating oceans,

and flying faster and higher in the sky.

Today, thanks to technological progress, robots

are being sent into space and this conquest

always begin with scout robots.

Very simple but reliable.

Capable of traveling millions of kilometers in space.

(upbeat suspenseful music)

There are two types of scout robots, space probes

or orbiters, equipped with cameras for photographing

the stars above them.

And landers which consist of metal boxes filled

with sensors for analyzing the ground of a comet

like for example, Rosetta and Philae, the two

European mission robots studying the comet Chury.

We head for the limits of outer space.

450 million kilometers from planet Earth.

In the early 1990's, European engineers decided

to send a probe around a comet and to deploy a lander

on its surface.

For a quarter of a century, a thousand people

throughout the world have been working

on the Rosetta program.

An almost impossible mission.

The launching took place on March 2, 2004,

and after a 10 year journey, a robot landed

on a comet for the first time in history.

(applause)

- How exciting!

How unbelievable to be able to dare

to land on a comet.

- We are the first to have done that and that

will stay forever.

- Hollywood is good but Rosetta is better.

(applause)

(upbeat music)

- [Narrator] The French National Center for Space

Studies in Toulouse is home to the SONC, the center

for the navigation and control of the scientific mission

where a special team watches and chaperons

the missions two robots, Rosetta and Philae 24/7.

- [Translator] We send robots into space because

a robot costs between 100-1000 times less than a man.

95% of the missions don't return to Earth.

The only ones that do come back with samples,

and they are very, very rare and so we execute

primarily robotic missions.

- [Narrator] Philae's descent lasted seven hours

and the lander touched down 100 meters

from the projected site.

- [Translator] We weren't able to determine

at what moment we would land and under what

conditions and so there was an electronic brain

onboard capable of making certain decisions

as to the best time to land.

We're giving it a certain degree of autonomy.

- [Narrator] An insufficient degree of autonomy

since the electronics weren't well developed enough

having been created around the year 2000.

At the moment of contact with the comet, Philae's

anchoring harpoons and its boosters did not function

and the robot bounced like a tennis ball once,

then twice, after which it flew above a crater

and bounced a third time before setting down between

two rocks about a kilometer and a half further on.

(slow hypnotic music)

To avoid this kind of problem, millions of miles

from Earth without any possible intervention

by engineers, scientists are now working

on much more precise landings.

We head for the Thales Alenia Space Laboratories

in Turin, Italy where the initial tests of an exceptional

Mars landing scenario are being carried out.

For the first time the robots are equipped with cameras.

The images are analyzed in real time by an algorithm

that indicates without the intervention of an engineer,

the best site for landing.

This technology which is used on Earth for drones

has never been validated for space.

(slow piano music)

- This is very important for future missions

to have a, we can say a new sensor onboard

that is like an eye for us, is a camera.

Up to now, no mission on Mars can use a camera

for landing.

In this way, using a camera and the software,

it will awaken the picture, we can reach much higher

precision in the landing.

Just one shot mission in case of travel, we lose

the mission.

- [Narrator] And millions or perhaps billions

of Euros as well.

In sending landers, space agencies have learned

how to land even if the danger of the crash

is very high.

Scientists therefore, wanted to go a step further

by sending rovers to the moon and to Mars.

All sorts of machines have been imagined to counter

the exceptional constraints of a different gravity

from that of Earth.

Temperatures ranging from -140

to +30 degrees celsius.

Corrosion and radiation.

After the rovers were created, engineers equipped

them with ultra-sophisticated options.

Rovers have thus become portable laboratories

capable of taking samples and observing elements

through a microscope.

The first rovers landed on the moon during the 1970's.

30 years later they landed on Mars.

Since 1997, four rovers have been moving around

the red planet.

(slow hypnotic music)

- [Translator] In the final years of the 20th century,

we began to launch the first martian robots,

including a very important one called Pathfinder.

It was about this high and was already on Mars

in 1997.

Thanks to Pathfinder, we realized that to thoroughly

explore Mars, robots have to move and drive

around the surface.

The terrain was so diverse, we had to see each

rock, each stone to learn where it came from,

how it was created, and why it was there.

This realization encouraged NASA, the leader

in this area, to develop bigger and better rovers,

which in France are called astromobiles.

And so, after Pathfinder came Spirit and Opportunity.

These robots which landed perfectly in 2004,

were designed to function for a few months covering

a distance of a few kilometers.

Opportunity is in fact in operation after more

than 10 years and after having traveled 40 kilometers.

It has therefore surpassed its life expectancy,

making some very fascinating discoveries.

(slow dramatic music)

- [Narrator] Back to Turin in Italy.

Thales Alenia Space is the principal project

manager of Exomars, the first European mission

to the red planet.

With a budget of 1.2 billion euros,

the challenge is immense.

In a few weeks the first robots will be launched

after a two year delay.

- The mission is a very challenging mission.

Sending a robot on Mars is the first time

the Europeans sent a robotic element on another planet.

- [Narrator] The Schiaparelli module should land

on Mars in or late 2016.

Entering the atmosphere at 21,000 kilometers an hour,

after which a parachute will open to slow down

the capsule which will descend at mach two,

twice the speed of sound.

The deceleration will last eight minutes

before landing gently in the Meridianic plane

at less than 15 kilometers an hour.

In 2018, the scenario will be the same but this time

a rover will be released in the direction of Mars

making it the first European astromobile on the planet.

- Other challenging feat is to figure to control the rover

on the soil of Mars.

Because we have not to forget the time delay.

I mean, the signal coming from Mars could take

up to 20 minutes of delay, it means that what

we see on the screen it is 20 minutes late.

SO, when we plan the operation, we have to consider

that what we see is already happened on the soil

of Mars.

In order to have the signal we have a satellite

orbiting around Mars, so the signal has to be

sent from the rover to the satellite,

from the satellite to the ground.

- [Narrator] This is why for Thales Alenia Space's

martian lander engineer Ciro Napolitano is working

on the software which will be installed aboard

the rover in 2018.

- [Translator] We will program this vehicle which

we are going to use to travel around the martian soil.

It was designed to surmount obstacles such as rocks

and to explore the terrain.

This is our control station.

In the center we can see the rover with its wheels.

There are two parameters,

the speed and the angle.

On Mars, this rovers maximum speed will be

5cm per second.

We'll use 3cm per second for testing purposes.

- [Narrator] An extremely slow speed, averaging

180 meters an hour, the rover is therefore

the most expensive and slowest vehicle in the world.

This is perfectly normal since on Mars, it will

be impossible from a distance of 350,000,000 kilometers

from Earth to repair it should it get stuck in the sand

or break down.

The hope is that it will be as effective as Curiosity,

the American super rover which cost 2.5 billion dollars

and which landed on Mars in 2012 after

an eight month journey.

It's the largest of all the rovers designed

by NASA and it's successful landing was hailed

by scientists as well as the American public.

(slow patriotic music)

Curiosity is a very large rover three meters long,

two meters 70 wide, and two meters high.

It has six wheel drive and a nuclear battery

supplying the energy.

It has been traveling around Mars for three years,

making extraordinary discoveries.

- [Translator] We discover a new landscape

that no one's ever seen before, every day.

- It's a geological robot.

- [Translator] We're studying the power of a nuclear

reactor in one square centimeter.

- [Narrator] No less than 7,000 people worked

on the Curiosity robot.

It's four times heavier than NASA's two previous

martian rovers.

- [Translator] And instead of an eight kilo payload,

it will have a 90 kilo payload, that's huge.

It's a scientist's dream.

What makes this object so valuable are the scientific

instruments.

The fact that it's on wheels, that it has antenna's,

a source of energy, and camera's is important,

but the true value for science is it's scientific payload.

- [Narrator] Among the scientific instruments

aboard Curiosity, two are French.

The SAM, a mini laboratory for analyzing the soil

and ChemCam, a laser camera, the only one of its

kind in the world.

- [Translator] It's a technique that enables

us to determine from a distance the composition

of the rocks and the martian soil.

- [Translator] A laser sheds its light on a rock

by creating a plasma or a small 8,000 degree

light, a little spark.

Then with a telescope and by decomposing

the light of this plasma, we can tell if the rock

is made of iron, sulfur, titanium, barium,

lithium, or even hydrogen.

- [Narrator] The ChemCam is the eye that recognizes

the rocks and guides the rover.

After three years of this mission, we fired

more than 250,000 from this rover.

Every day 100 people throughout the world

get together for a huge telephone conference call

in order to organize the robot's work plan.

(slow piano music)

- [Female Over Intercom] We have the kilometer

priorities here and we wanted to see of that

part's clear.

- So when the rising broken rocks we use, rare

opportunity which not miss.

- [Narrator] Tonight in Toulouse, the ChemCam

team is preparing to fire at three particularly

interesting martian stones.

The objective in cooperation with NASA is a 45 minute

series of laser firings.

- [Translator] We're in business now.

We requested three targets, three rocks on which

we'll fire at 30 shots each, making 150 laser firings

three times for each.

We therefore programmed 450 firings, now we have

to refine everything, including the coordinates

of the targets, determining where the sun will be

at the moment we fire, and where the arm is.

It's not a question of firing above, if it's deployed.

The rover's stability, it's incline, the resources

we need in terms of energy and the telemetry

will determine our ability to repatriate the data

generated by the rover.

We'll be working on the resources, security,

and the operation as a whole.

It's not just the Americans, there are about 100

of us here guiding the rover and each of us

gives his instructions.

And we'll try to organize them into a comprehensive

plan to place aboard in the next few hours.

- [Narrator] NASA has given the green light

and so it's time to program ChemCam's

450 laser firings.

- [Female Over Intercom] We have 135.4 meters

until our next (mumbles) update.

- [Translator] Everything is in fact centralized

at NASA in Los Angeles.

We send them our files tonight and they'll put

all the files for all the instruments into a huge

computer.

Once the package is full for the entire date,

the program is sent to the robot on Mars.

It will execute the program sequence when it wakes

up tomorrow morning.

There are only six of us in the world capable

of digging holes on Mars and we're all at the CNES

in Toulouse.

We're fortunate in that we're pioneers, digging the first

holes on a planet we're exploring.

It's the chance of a lifetime.

- [Narrator] A unique chance as well for two other

French teams dealing with the SAM.

This instrument is in fact an ultra sophisticated

laboratory consisting of a spectrometer which

analyzes the molecules, another instrument

for chromatography, which separates them and 74

many ovens.

In short, the SAM analyzes the samples

from the martian soil.

And it's the SAM in fact confirm the presence

of water on Mars.

(slow suspenseful music)

- [Translator] Thanks to all of SAM's instruments,

the laboratory made this discovery.

After heating the soil sample, we understood

and by putting all the data together, we discovered

that at one time on Mars on the site where we are now,

there was a lake.

It wasn't a huge surprise as we were expecting it

but the lake was very shallow and it was a fresh

water lake, no salt, no acid, or mud and so the water

was drinkable.

By lake we mean a dense atmosphere, something which

lasted an indeterminate amount of time with an inviolate

reducer, that's a bit technical, with sources

of carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, sulfur, phosphorous,

all of which could one day create life.

By putting these physical and chemical parameters

together, we can conclude that Mars was once livable.

That is an enormous discovery because only two years

ago I was convinced that the only planet

in the solar system that could sustain life was Earth.

And now I can say of the eight planets, four telluric

and four giant planets that in the history

of our solar system, there were two habitable

planets, probably at the same time, Earth and Mars.

- [Narrator] During future missions to the red

planet, scientists will try to study the subsurface.

The common goal, in fact, of NASA and the Europeans

Space Agency is to dig one or two meters deep

in order to search for traces of life,

elements shelters from the cosmic rays and protected

by the layer of martian soil.

To do so, however, requires an incredibly powerful

drilling machine.

(slow suspenseful music)

We head for California and Honeybee Robotics,

a company that has been working with NASA

for 20 years.

Most of their equipment is aboard American landers

and rovers.

At the moment, they are preparing for the next

Mars mission scheduled for 2020.

By trying to perfect a deep drilling technology

especially designed for Mars.

- So this drill is, has been designed to capture

samples from at least one meter depth on planetary

surface.

It usually was designed for exploration of Mars.

Mars sees a lot of radiation so in order to capture

microbes.

We have to go at least a meter down where they

have been potentially preserved in the subsurface.

- [Narrator] Thanks to this invention, scientists

should be able to obtain rock samples that have

not been exposed to radiation or cosmic rays.

And perhaps find traces of life.

- We set off a drill that captures powder.

At the end of the arm it will have a coring drill

to capture rock samples, put them in a cache

and deposit the cache as the rover traverses the planet.

And when after that mission is done, it's gonna

take a couple of years.

There's gonna be another mission, it's gonna

go in and pick up some of these rock samples,

sort of like bread crumbs that are sitting

on the surface of Mars.

Its gonna catch them, put them on top of a rocket.

That rocket is gonna launch these rocks around

the martian orbit and then there's gonna be another mission.

And that mission is gonna capture these flying rocks

and bring them back to Earth.

We're thinking it's gonna probably take 20 years

before we see those rocks.

- [Translator] For us, the prize is bringing

back the samples from Mars.

Going to Mars, collecting samples which could

prove that life once existed there and bringing

them back to Earth.

And afterwards determining if this life is based

on DNA like ours or not.

Which is a huge question mark.

If we could answer this query, we will have

a different vision of how life first appeared.

The only example we have now is life on Earth.

The day we have a second example we can begin

to generalize on how life appeared in the universe.

- [Narrator] This precious information is obtainable

for us or rather for robots.

Although it will require even more perfected

and more multipurpose machines.

Martian rovers are becoming more and more

sophisticated.

Greatly increasing our knowledge trying to answer

questions such as, does water still flow on Mars?

Could this planet be habitable?

Was it once inhabited?

Questions which have troubled scientists

for years.

To answer them, new kinds of robots will have

to be invented and deployed.

After the rovers which belong to the 2nd family

of space robots, we have co-robots or CoBots,

designed to work for or with man.

A new era is on the horizon representing an unprecedented

cooperation in the history of humanity.

Everything has changed in less than a century on Earth

as well as in space.

The technological revolution has shaken our era

to the point where everything seems possible today,

even in the infinity of the universe.

First there was scout robots, the first space

adventurers.

Then came laboratory robots with rovers that moved

around the planets.

And now the adventure continues with collaborative

robots, CoBots, which space agencies will be sending

to today's objective number one, Mars.

The closest planet to Earth, its twin sister.

Recent discoveries have motivated scientists

even further.

- [Translator] Give me a ticket to Mars

and I'll leave tomorrow.

- [Narrator] Tomorrow of course is not a reality

for man.

Mars is still too far and too dangerous

a destination for astronauts.

No one has up to now been able to master

the technique for such a mission.

Although preparations are under way.

Space agencies throughout the world are working

on the possibilities, although not only for man.

All over our planet, scenarios for living on Mars

are being tested.

According to specialists, in 20 or 30 years,

technology will be advanced enough to send men

to Mars or place them in orbit around Mars,

with the help of new companions, CoBots.

Without which, such missions would be impossible.

(slow dramatic music)

- [Translator] Once we've sent them there,

we'll need robots to perform the menial repetitious

tasks so as not to waste human time and also

for tasks that are too difficult or too dangerous.

- [Narrator] More complex than simple rovers

and more autonomous and intelligent, these

robots will work in perfect harmony with highly

trained astronauts.

- Space is a very tough environment, there's

nothing that is really very good for man's health

so we need to have some machines to go there and do

some parts at least of the exploration.

- In the future, these robots can prepare simple

human tasks and prepare the imminent of humans

on a planetary surface.

- In our lab we work in a very nice interplay between

engineering and biology.

- [Narrator] CoBots resistant to radiation

and extreme temperatures and the void will be able

to work side by side with the astronauts.

Scout CoBots resembling animals or CoBot technicians

capable of preparing the habitation basis represent

an essential step for man's survival in our new

conquest of space, aiming higher and higher still.

Lausanne in Suitzerland is home to the Polytechnic

School which includes five universities, 350

laboratories, and almost 10,000 students from about

a 100 different countries.

There are very few laboratories like this one

in the world where animals are filmed and x-rayed

in order to understand their locomotion techniques.

After which scientists try to try to apply them

to the interior of robots.

- It's very expensive to send something out of space

so that means that you need to embed in these

machines a lot of possibilities to move around,

to recharge the batteries, and to perform better.

So I guess a move to locomotion capability

that any, sorry, that robots inspired by animal

provide us are one of the key factors for space

exploration.

- [Narrator] Another example is this salamander robot.

Amphibians are interesting because they can live

both on land and in water and can adapt to either

environment.

This is exactly what interests Camilo whose

robot copies the way a salamander moves thanks

to 11 motors in the robots spine and 16 others

in its feet.

- SO we have this prowling posture, so basically

we can access some places that other robots cannot.

So for example we can pass underneath very, very,

tiny passages like this.

So, with this posture we can do that kind of things.

At the same time, with the same robot, remember

this move to locomotion capability, this one can

also swim with this carnivore because we have

the whole spine adapt for that thing and we have

the feet for the same reason.

The problem is performance.

If you go to space and you were to travel

10 kilometers in surface of a planet for example,

of course this robot is not the best for doing that.

I guess in that case wheels are better.

But if the wheels can take this robot to some

other place where you can go for a focus task

I guess the robot is perfect.

So I guess the combination of the two robots

are, is the key to really go to space correlation.

In this case for planetary exploration.

- [Narrator] Multi-functional and organically inspired

robots are also being developed in Bremen

at the Center for Robotic Innovation.

This North German city possesses numerous space robot

laboratories, and especially the DFKI,

specializing in artificial intelligence.

Scientists are working on a variety of programs

in cooperation with German and other European

space agencies.

In the laboratories we wanted to humanoid robots

like AILA or animal robots such as iStruct, CREX,

and MANTIS.

Now head for the institutes clean room where project

LIMES is being conducted consisting of tests

on a gigantic praying mantis.

(upbeat music)

- Oh, well.

(laughing)

That's a six-legged walking robot and which

is also calibrated to lift up the front body

to be able to manipulate something with its

front legs and do what they require for planetary

exploration on Mars.

They need systems which are capable to traverse

on very unstructured surfaces and then if they

are able to traverse the surface that they also have

to be able to perform some manipulation tasks

in the area which they calibrated to reach

and so for example to collect samples or also

to maintain or setup infrastructure on the surfaces.

- [Narrator] The project is funded by the German

Space Agency which considers this robot insect

a key to future missions on Mars or the moon.

(upbeat frantic music)

- If you really have to look at MANTIS, then MANTIS

is, I think the only insect which is really capable

to perform more or less precise manipulation tasks.

- [Narrator] The RMC, the German Space Agency's

robotic laboratory is located in Wessling, near Munich.

There are articulated arms everywhere, mounted

on different types of robots, humanoid robots

or rovers.

Specialists are trying to determine the best man robot

interface to command them.

Some prefer the joystick, others the exoskeleton.

The goal is to command these robots in real time

on the lunar or the martian soil.

Robots capable of reproducing the movements

of the astronauts sheltered safely in their base.

Only the scenario is tested here.

For 20 years, DLR engineers have been developing

the technology for robotic arms.

In recent years they have designed a hand with four

fingers since the fifth serves no purpose and is

more expensive to manufacture.

At present they are working on a robot controlled

by another robot.

(upbeat music)

- [Translator] To get ready I use two different

systems.

First, a glove with sensors that enable us

to measure the position of the fingers.

And which will be used to manipulate the hand

by remote control.

I also use a man-machine interface to which I

attach myself and which allows me to send

orders to the robots like the position I want

to reach and also to feel what the robot

feels since this robot will either push or pull

my hand based on what the distant robot feels.

- [Narrator] The energy feedback is what enables

astronauts to command a robot with more finesse,

thus avoiding any equipment damage.

And at the heart of the space vessel or base,

this is essential.

- [Translator] By hitting this pedal, I can feel

the robot moving from a distance.

And I can direct it.

IF I enter into contact with the environment,

I can feel on this robot here an energy feedback

at the level of the wrist, which makes it easy

for me to look for contact with certain objects.

I can feel the force that I apply to this button.

If it's too hard then there's definitely an error

and I can stop it and take the time to think things out.

Conducting a mission outside of the international

space station is very dangerous and costly

and there are several tasks that even a simple

robot can execute such as manipulating the switches

or checking that a valve is shut tight.

It's worth it to be prepared in advance before

the astronaut arrives on the site and that

can save a lot of time.

- [Narrator] Space Justin is scheduled to arrive

at the ISS in 2020 and join Rovina II,

the American robot.

To work with the astronauts, all of the space

agencies prefer to develop robots with a human

shape and the reason is obvious.

- We don't want to scare the humans off.

(laughs)

If we built a robot that looks like it's terminator,

you know, with red glaring eyes and,

metal face, it will be just, a psychological problem

for humans to interact with these kinds of machines,

so, that's why we gave AILA also a female shape

because we had all these human, all these humanoid

robots in the world, they are all strong, terminator

kind of robots and we thought, okay we do it

a different way, we give it a more nicer shape.

- [Narrator] Humanoids are veritable CoBots

or collaborator robots.

They can open up a valve and airlock, press

a button, but they can remain in orbit around

the base at least in the beginning.

It will be necessary to send animal type robots

or rovers which have proven their reliability

on the martian or lunar soil.

Equipped with robotic arms, they can be deployed

for general tasks, building places to live or assembling

structures.

These highly autonomous machines will be able

to learn about the terrain thanks to algorithms

of artificial intelligence.

(slow instrumental music)

We now go to Holland the European Center for Space

Research and Technology.

Situated between Amsterdam and the Hague.

The teams working in the Telerobotics Laboratory

are preparing an experiment unique in the world.

A rover with two arms will be guided by remote

control from the ISS.

The orbital station located 400 kilometers above

our heads.

- So it's preparing the future of exploration

missions that make use of humans in orbit

of planetary bodies and robots on the surface

to project actually the human presence into the robot

onto the surface.

Our technology actually enables robots to do this

remote controlled by humans in a very interactive

and intuitive way.

- [Narrator] Aboard the ISS, Danish astronaut

Andreas Mogensen will be required to use a joystick

with energy feedback to directly command a robot.

The rover has to simply insert a metal tube

into a structure but it's a lot more complicated

than one would think.

- This pin, it only has a tolerance of about

100-150 micrometers to the hole,

so when you try it yourself, you see how easily

it actually jams if you have like a small

misalignment from it then you can't insert it.

In fact, it has to be totally precise.

- [Narrator] For this experiment to be successful

one has to rely on ones senses.

- The innovation of the force feedback is important

because it enables astronauts in orbit to actually

feel what a robot does somewhere else, either

in another location in space or on a planetary

surface and this way he can do tasks very naturally

as if he would be present physically at that site.

So if you imagine handling a raw egg or actually

doing very complex tasks like lacing your shoe

or inserting a connector in the back of your TV set,

these are all tasks that require you to feel

the geometry and what we transmit here is exactly

this feeling, so it helps him to accomplish

this complicated task.

- [Narrator] The experiment reproduces a scenario

which could take place in a few years between

a rover on Mars and a space station orbiting

around the planet.

In the ISS, which navigates at 28,000 kilometers

an hour, the Danish astronaut has less than one

hour to carry out the experiment, with no knowledge

of interface or joystick and who has never piloted

the rover.

(upbeat frantic music)

(applause)

- Our robots actually transmits this sense of touch

to the human operator and with the first time

in the history of space flight to actually extend

this sense of touch over distances between space

and ground or between space and any planetary surface.

- [Narrator] The success of this type of experiment

allows specialists to project themselves into the future

and imagine the construction of bases in outer space.

On Mars for NASA, on the moon for the European

space agency which would like to setup a village

to replace the ISS when it seizes operations in 2024.

(slow dramatic music)

- [Translator] Once we've landed men there it becomes

a habitat.

The work around the habitat entails a minimum

of 10, 15, or 20 tons.

We don't know how to do it but we're working on it.

We think that the first man martian flights

will be flights where man remains in orbit.

In order for man's presence to be effective,

we feel that they should be able to command

robots on the surface in real time by remote control.

We can't do this from Earth because of the distance

which prevents us from telecommanding in real time

like an airplane pilot who can push a button

and immediately activate his joystick.

We've got to be able to do this while orbiting Mars.

- [Narrator] After the CoBots which will assist man

during their extraplanetary missions, a 4th family

of robots will be more and more vital.

Protean robots which can serve as refuse collectors,

skilled workers, or shuttle pilots.

In 10 or 20 years, man will live in outer space

thanks to all sorts of robots.

This is not a Utopian concept but an opportunity

that space agencies and private companies want

to seize since space is becoming a new multi-billion

dollar business.

(slow hectic music)

We've come a long way from the Star Wars era when

the United States and the Soviet Union were the only

nations in outer space.

Today, dozens of space agencies throughout the world

as well as private companies are developing systems

to study the cosmos.

Work on all the planets and send robots and satellites

there.

After the reign of the scout robots, followed by

laboratory rovers and CoBots, there is one final

category, robots whose role it is to cleanup

outer space.

Once completely devoid of debris before the launching

of Sputnik, space has been filling up at an alarming

rate for the past 60 years.

Today, there are a thousand or so satellites

in operation and 900 more to come in the next few months.

In addition to space debris and the billions of meteorites

circulating at the incredible speed of 30,000 kilometers

an hour.

- [Translator] A one millimeter in diameter debris

has the same energy as a bowling ball launched

at a speed of 100 kilometers an hour.

In a long-term if nothing is done, it's possible

that the space infrastructure will become unusable.

- [Narrator] The international community is working

on a global solution to combat this debris which

increases exponentially every year threatening

satellites that are a useful part of our daily lives.

Outer space therefore, will have to be cleaned up

using a new type of robot so that the debris

doesn't fall on our heads one day.

- [Translator] We've cataloged objects of this size

reentering the atmosphere on a daily basis.

Either a large satellite or a large satellite stage

reentering at a rate of one per week.

And when they reenter the atmosphere, they heat

up enormously, slow down and break up.

Does everything burn, no, not everything.

10, 20, or even 40% of the mass can survive and thus

impact the surface of the Earth.

The primary danger of this debris is the possibility

of a human victim.

(upbeat frantic music)

The 2nd and more immediate danger is for a satellite

operator.

If you launch a large satellite there is a 5% risk

of it dying before it's time.

As a result of a collision with space debris,

creating a direct financial impact.

The 3rd danger is in the long-term.

Occasionally, two large objects collide, such as was

the case in 2009 between Kosmos 2251

and Iridium 33.

Such a crash generates about 5,000 large pieces

of debris.

The multiplication of debris due to collisions

makes us a bit wary of the long-term future.

- [Narrator] Dozens of small, less eccentric

projects are being imagined by engineers to gather

the debris and eliminate it.

One such idea is based on the concept of spear fishing.

Another is using navigators with a huge self-folding sail,

then there's the star wars technique with laser fire,

or the bombarding of ions.

There's an even more surprising technique using

flypaper or even deploying a huge net.

Finally, there's the medical technique with a clamp

fixed onto a hunter robot.

Each method has its advantages and disadvantages,

but the most common strategy among manufacturers

is that of a robotic arm mounted on a hunter robot.

This is the technique being developed by the engineers

at Airbus Defense and Space in Bremen.

Equipped with a 3D sensor for seizing all sorts

of stones as if they were lost debris in space,

the robotic arms capacity is being tested

in the Airbus laboratory.

- [Translator] We have fairly similar technologies

for captures in orbit and for seizing objects on a lunar

or martian surface.

Here, we have a 3 dimensional sensor.

We're trying to combine an autonomous and a manual

approach with this system.

Because in any kind of space exploration,

communication time between Earth and distant heavenly

bodies is fairly long.

And so if we try to do it all manually, each operation

will take a very long time.

What we want to do now is have an autonomous system,

meaning that it's capable of selecting objects

on its own, calculating their position and seizing

them, giving us great operational flexibility.

For this experiment, we have a sensor with three pincers

four relatively simple objects like stones.

When we switch to the debris system in orbit,

we need more complex interfaces and we're developing

a system capable of seizing the orbital debris

using a complex geometry.

- [Narrator] At present, there is no international

legislation requiring companies to remove their debris

from outer space.

Cleaning up space however, is becoming necessary

since every year, the increasing amount of debris

threatens satellites in orbit above the Earth.

Robots which cost a total of more than 100 billion

dollars are also threatening this new outer space

business.

One such business, Swiss Space Systems or S3 is located

in the Swiss city of Payerne.

S3 wants to send small satellites into space

for 10 million euros.

Four times cheaper than its competitors.

Their secret lies in reusable technology

with an entirely automatic aircraft and space shuttle.

Once the right altitude is reached, the shuttle

releases a capsule in which satellites have been

installed, the shuttle then makes a gentle landing

without a pilot.

- [Translator)Today the SOAR decides to launch

satellites weighing 250 kilos in heliosynchronous

orbit or SSO, at an altitude of 700 kilometers.

This represents tomorrows satellite market.

They were characterized as small satellites.

Today we're witnessing a paradigm shift

in the area of space satellites.

We're going from huge satellites launched

in geostationary orbit at very high altitudes

like 36,000 kilometers to a range of smaller,

lighter, low orbit, and especially low cost satellites.

- [Narrator] The shuttle should be assembled in 2016

with tests beginning the following year.

By that time, a new rover will have reached the moon.

(upbeat music)

In 2007, Google launched a 30 million dollar

public competition with the goal of sending

a robot to the moon.

A rover capable of moving over an area

of 500 meters, taking high definition photographs

and sending them back to Earth.

Six teams from 13 different countries participated.

This represented an initial challenge before

sending men to the moon once again.

- I think one of the reasons why big companies

are deciding to invest in what we call new space,

new space technologies, is one, because they like

to think big but they also see a solid business plan

and they know that businesses can be developed out of this.

- [Narrator] In America, captains of industry

are investing huge sums since they know that outer

space is today's new Eldorado.

Throughout Europe, Asia, and Africa, men want

to conquer space, walk in the footsteps of Yuri Gagarin

and Neil Armstrong for the beauty of the experience

of course, but mainly for the dollars they can earn.

It's a sound investment.

One euro invested in space will increase by five,

since on the moon, Mars, or the stars, there's iron,

cobalt, nickel, silicate, platinum, as well

as new sources of energy.

Experts estimate that this business will entail

hundreds of billions of dollars.

Further motivation for man to look upwards

in a different manner.

- [Translator] To save the human race there is only

one solution, learning to live on other heavenly bodies.

- [Narrator] In just a few years, the use of outer

space will become part of our daily lives and the wealth

contained in the stars will inexhorbitably compensate

for the depletion of our natural resources on Earth.

People will live and work on the moon, on Mars,

or on orbital space stations.

And this new conquest of the infinite can only

succeed with the help of even more effective

and autonomous super robots.

(slow piano music)