Goddard researchers put a robot science team to the test

Researchers from NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt are testing a different kind of science team: robots that divide up work and reconsider their plans as conditions change.

In a September 15 update, NASA described summer field tests at the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute in Blacksburg. A drone and two rovers evaluated areas of interest, navigation hazards and sampling opportunities.

The project, called ASTRA, weighs scientific priorities alongside practical constraints. NASA reported that the fleet could continue its original task while assigning another robot to investigate something newly discovered.

For Maryland, the connection is the research team at Goddard. Its longer-term goal is to help explore places where distance or danger makes continuous human direction difficult. These were Earth-based field tests, not a deployed planetary mission.

This report is based on NASA’s published account.