NASA Gives Humanoid Robot to MIT to Develop for Future Space and Mars Exploration

First Posted: Nov 18, 2015 07:59 AM EST

NASA announced that MIT will receive a humanoid robot to test and develop for future space missions to Mars and beyond. The robot could be huge when it comes to future space exploration.

Before exploration happens, though, the robot needs to "learn" how to act in space. Researchers at MIT are planning to develop algorithms for the robot, known as "Valkyrie" or "R5," as part of NASA's upcoming Space Robotics Challenge. This challenge aims to create more dexterous autonomous robots that can help or even take the place of humans in "extreme space" missions.

R5 was initially designed to complete disaster-relief maneuvers. Its main goal now, though, is to prove itself able to deal with deep-space exploration in place of humans if need be.

"Advances in robotics, including human-robotic collaboration, are critical to developing the capabilities required for our journey to Mars," said Steve Jurczyk, one of the researchers, in a news release. "We are excited to engage these university research groups to help NASA with this next big step in robotics technology development."

Creating autonomous robots that can respond to outside stimuli in the environment of space could be a huge leap forward for NASA and space agencies everywhere. With that said, it will be quite some time before this robot is fully developed. When it is, though, it may just be the next step forward when it comes to sending missions to Mars.

Want to learn more? Check out the video below, courtesy of YouTube.