May 2-3, 2012
Telerobotics Symposium at
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

Space Exploration via Telepresence:
A New Paradigm for Human-Robotic Cooperation

Telerobotics has advanced enormously over the past several decades. Specific advances have revolutionized the way we carry out complex tasks in space, including those pertaining to science. Telepresence has allowed us to extend human cognition and dexterity into a variety of extreme and sometimes hostile environments, from the deepest depths of the oceans to dangerous mines, as well as high radiation sites. The dexterity and effectiveness that this technology offers is exemplified by the emergent high-precision telerobotic surgery in the medical field.

Telerobotics from space provides the opportunity to extend human cognition to the Moon, Mars, NEOs and other accessible bodies without the challenges, expense and risk of putting humans on hazardous surfaces or within deep gravity wells. Similar to how scientists and engineers today access the ocean depths telerobotically from surface ships, human crews could teleoperate systems deployed on planetary bodies from more easily accessible in-space locations (e.g., planetary orbit, Lagrange Points), which are close enough such that high quality telepresence is possible. While landing humans on these surfaces may remain our ultimate science exploration goal, extending human cognition/dexterity to these locations would be a complementary objective that can be achieved on a shorter timescale and with less expenditure.

This symposium is the first of its kind devoted to in-space telepresence control of robotic systems on other worlds for the purpose of prioritized science and exploration activities. The meeting will bring scientists and engineers together to consider telepresence, as an enabled by proximity operations and immersive technologies, as an enabling near-term strategy. Robotic telepresence would lay the foundation for an advanced partnership between scientific exploration and human spaceflight, and could prepare for eventually deploying humans to the surfaces of other worlds. The symposium will explore the opportunities presented by high quality telepresence for science activities and development tasks at the Moon, Mars, Near-Earth Objects, and elsewhere (Libration points), and consider the impact of telerobotic control capabilities on existing and unfolding architectural concepts for deep space crew vehicles. To the extent that on-orbit proximity telerobotic control can be established for the lunar surface, how can this potential capability optimize groundwork for future efforts at other planetary bodies (Mars, NEO's, Venus)? What is the relevance of modern advances in terrestrial telerobotics? This meeting will take the first steps to establish community input on these topics, with strong attention to existing Decadal Survey science priorities.

The symposium will include invited presentations by leaders in space science, telerobotics, human space flight, and cognitive neuroscience. Panel discussions will provide added engagement opportunities for all participants. The product of the meeting will be an organized compendium of all presented materials, and a summary white paper that will provide a distillation of the opportunities and challenges discussed during the symposium. The organizing committee will include representatives from NASA, industry and academia, with expertise in science, human space flight, and telerobotics (including IT).

We envision a symposium beginning with plenary talks on space telepresence, followed by science and development objectives for planetary exploration. This will be followed by technical reviews of modern telerobotic capabilities, and factors that determine task productivity as a function of telecommunication latency.

Attendees will then be invited to participate in three parallel working groups to assess candidate recommendations for future design work and technology development:

*Breakout Group 1: Science Objectives for Planetary Exploration -- Focus will be on the Moon, NEOs, and extended to Mars and potentially Venus , and how human cognition impacts those objectives.

*Breakout Group 2: Telerobotics capabilities required for scientific surface exploration -- Focus will be on requirements for telepresence as they relate to critical activities, operations, and efficiency.

*Breakout Group 3: Human space flight and telerobotics -- Focus will be on human space flight requirements in lunar and martian orbit.

More information coming soon!