Sphero + Edge of Space
That one time we sent SPRK+ to the ISS
Every generation begins at the starting line of new ideas, technology, and scientific frontiers. Today, companies are exploring how to make space transportation faster, cheaper, and most importantly easier for research and education. When the opportunity arose to send one of our robots to the International Space Station, we knew we wanted to include our passionate education community in this unique experience. We started asking ourselves “What would happen if our robots tried to move in space?” Our engineers each had different ideas, as did our space industry partners, and that got us excited. So we partnered with Edge of Space and Nanoracks to try to make it happen.
In the fall of 2016, we sent a SPRK+ robot on the Orbital 5 ATK Antares rocket to the International Space Station (ISS) from the Wallops Island Space Facility in an experimental black box unit custom designed by NanoRacks, a company that develops products and services for the commercial utilization of space. We tapped into our passionate education community and got several classrooms to submit SPRK+ programs in the Sphero Edu app for the robot to execute while aboard the ISS to explore how microgravity affects our robotics.
The Educational Value
(Because the Coolness Factor Isn’t Enough)
There are many interesting scientific phenomena students interact with daily, but microgravity is not one of them. We wanted to be a bridge to a unique learning experience for young minds and show them “reaching for the stars” is just a program away. We had the ability to inspire students with a truly unique opportunity so instead of running our own programs, it was more valuable to have students and classrooms submit their own programs for us to load on the SPRK+ and execute while aboard the ISS. They were encouraged to think about how microgravity will have an affect on the robot’s movement and design the programs accordingly.
Cameras were installed in the black box so we we could observe and compare the behavior of an Earth-based SPRK+ moving versus the SPRK+ in space. On October 17, 2016, SPRK+ blasted off and stayed on the ISS for 30–60 days before returning on a SpaceX rocket. SPRK+ was locked into its charging cradle with a robotic arm inside the NanoRacks black box. Once on the ISS, NanoRacks engineers would control the robotic arm and remove the SPRK+ from the cradle allowing it to wake up and execute the classroom programs either suspended in space or on a magnetic sheet. Sounds like a plan… ?
“The Anomaly”
One thing you can count on when it comes to the great unknown that is space… malfunctions happen. And on this mission, we had a mechanical one. Once in space, the robot arm did not have the dexterity and freedom of movement on the ISS that was anticipated. In other words, it was “stiff” and hard to move. After weeks of troubleshooting and attempting various firmware solution from Earth we were unable to recover the robot’s movement. The NanoRacks engineers speculated it may have had something to do with the lateral G forces the payload experienced during launch to ISS.
The gripping hand of the robot also failed to release SPRK+. Again, speculation is that this had something to do with the microgravity environment (no gravity to pull the SPRK+ loose) and temperature variations inside the black box (first cold, then hot during operation) that may have caused the robot arm’s gripper end to expand and contract. The enclosure that NASA required NanoRacks to add to the end of the arm (a precaution insisted on by NASA Safety) also played a major part in the failure to release, as the enclosure proved too restrictive.
Finally, it appeared in the early video footage that the SPRK+ became unseated from its charging base during the launch operation and stowage, thus arriving with a dead battery. The problem was not with the SPRK+, which in fact it handled its duration in space very well, but with the robot arm in the black box. The arm’s difficulties prevented reseating for recharging.
The Take Away
Regardless of the overall success or failure, SPRK+ went into space (!!!) and underwent significant G-force exposure as well as extended microgravity exposure. While we couldn’t test the programs in space, we were able to evaluate the performance difference once it returned to Earth. The SPRK+ worked like a charm and ran its programming upon return to the Sphero HQ. How’s that for quality control?
So what did we learn? New frontiers… they’re unpredictable. And because of that, it’s okay for some experiments to fail, even for companies like Sphero. Failure in this case provides an opportunity to learn through trial and error. In the context of CSEd Week, what is computer science education really if not learning through trial and error? So to all of our young scientists and engineers (the ones who could get through every technical word of this blog post), don’t be afraid to fail. Be excited to learn from it. Also, space is hard. But it sure is fascinating.
