The Japanese startup Gitai has developed a maneuvering robot, which was included in the list of technologies for the study of the development of infrastructure on the Moon, initiated by the Agency for Promising Defense Research Projects (DARPA) of the US Department of Defense.
DARPA announced about the 10-year study of the lunar architecture (Luna-10) in August this year. The purpose of the study is to combine the disparate efforts of the scientific community to create an advanced technological infrastructure that supports future activities in space and on the surface of the moon.
GITAI, one of the LUNA-10 participants, specializes in creating robots for space. Its goal is to make time-consuming tasks in space safer and more accessible. GITAI has developed an Inchworm modular robot with adapted equipment for various tasks that can perform complex operations in microgravity and on the lunar surface.
The modular design of Gitai robots allows you to easily integrate them into other technologies, corresponding to the DARPA vision about the interconnected technological infrastructure for the study of space and the Moon.
In October, at a meeting of the lunar consortium on innovation on the surface (LSIC), several companies were selected, including Gitai. As Director of the DARPA Strategic Technological Office, Dr. Phil Rut, said Gitai was chosen to participate in the study of Luna-10.
Gitai has already tested this technology at the International Space Station (ISS) using the S1 robot, which successfully performed manipulations, such as pressing buttons and switches, as well as assembly of test components imitating solar panels or antennae.
The second robot, “S2”, will be launched on the ISS in early 2024 in order to demonstrate the capabilities of service outside the space station. Although the S1 and S2 robots do not fully reflect the capabilities of the Inchworm robot, included in the DARPA LUNA-10 study, they are “technologically similar” to the developed robot, according to the Gitai statement.
“We feel simultaneously humble and excited from the fact that we have been chosen,” said the founder and general director of Gitai, Sho Nakanos. He sees the company’s mission not only in robotics but also in the “formation of a new era of lunar