Project

Since the beginning of the world's first astronaut program, one of the most perilous jobs for astronauts has been doing emergency repairs during an EVA (Extravehicular activity). We managed to speak to Dr. Robert Thirsk, former CSA astronaut that holds the Canadian record for the longest spaceflight, as well as the most time spent in space, and he agreed, adding that EVAs could result in anything from decompression sickness to drowning in helmets. Our solution? The Orbot!

It's a swarm robot that fixes the ISS with no human error, adrenaline or panic.

The Orbot is comprised of HSLA steel for the body, as well as solar panels to power it, silicon chips for the hardware of the bot, a non-rigid inflatable device used to plug leaks, rubber micro wedges to allow the Orbot to stick to the ISS, and a Bluetooth communicator to allow the central robot to communicate with all of the Orbots, and a camera to allow the Orbot to detect any leaks, the total cost of an Orbot comes out to be about $400. This is cheap considering the fact that the average cost of a NASA robot is about 1.5 million dollars.

Inspired by the gecko, the Orbot employs the Van Der Waals intramolecular force to create a stable connection between it and any surface. Van der Waals forces include attraction and repulsions between atoms, molecules, and surfaces, as well as other intermolecular forces. They differ from covalent and ionic bonding in that they are caused by correlations in the fluctuating polarizations of nearby particles (a consequence of quantum dynamics )

Included below is a simulation of the movement of the Orbots, as well as a 3D printed model of what we expect the Orbot to look like.

If an Orbot for some reason latches off or floats out into space, then we can recreate one. Not back here on Earth, but right there in space! We are developing a 3D printer that creates Orbots frequently. This will allow more Orbots to be made and more replacements on the go.