Sharing an opportunity that may interest people working on manipulation, autonomy, and motion planning. NASA’s Space Roboticist Challenge (part of the Fly Foundational Robots mission) is opening access to a 7-Degree-of-Freedom (7-DoF) robotic arm operating in low Earth orbit.
U.S.-based researchers can propose a short, focused experiment to run on the arm. It is an active system in microgravity, not a simulation.
How it works:
- Phase 1: submit a white paper proposing the experiment (up to 15 teams advance).
- Phase 2: simulation and validation at NASA Goddard with NASA engineers. Teams that pass may receive an offer of on-orbit experiment time.
Eligibility: open to U.S. citizens and permanent residents at eligible U.S. institutions (PIs, post-docs, professors, and qualified graduate students with faculty sponsorship).
Deadlines: register by September 23, 2026; white papers due October 2, 2026.
Details and registration: https://spaceroboticistchallenge.com
Questions: SpaceRoboticist@floor23digital.com
Administered under the America COMPETES Reauthorization Act.