A NASA perspective on why humanoid robots will reach the Moon before astronauts do. Robots will handle dangerous work and construction at lunar outposts, multiplying what human crews can accomplish. The first humanoid robot could walk on the Moon within the next several years.
I'd be curious to hear your timelines for deploying humanoid robots with your NASA hat on throughout the solar system and what role and what timeline you see humanoids in constructing Artemis and other facilities elsewhere.
Well, I think any place that we believe there is a realistic probability of building a, you know, an eventual human outpost. So the Moon for sure, we are absolutely gonna build a base there and make the most of it. So any area that you're gonna have human involvement eventually, it would be crazy not to make a force multiplier and put humanoid robots there to do some of the work. It's incredibly dangerous to be there in the first place. So leveraging robotics there for all things from infrastructure build-out, logistics is imperative.
Best guess, under, over, when we see the first humanoid robot walking on the moon?
In my mind, I would think on the uncrewed lander demonstrations, which both Blue Origin and SpaceX need to do in advance of the lunar landing, that's already contractual. I'd kind of be shocked if somebody didn't smuggle one on board. We're not waiting that long, right? I mean, you're talking the next 4 years, maybe 6 years as a window as these start showing up and building that infrastructure.
