Robotic systems designed for space environments.
- Hardware Platforms
- Software Frameworks
- Simulation Environments
- Verification & Validation
- Perception
- Navigation
- Manipulation
- Human-Robot Interaction
- Robot Learning
- Space Exploration
- Assembly & Servicing
- Education
- Demos
- Datasets
- Competitions
- Organizations
- Recurring Events
- CADRE - Cooperative Autonomous Distributed Robotic Exploration, a NASA JPL project deploying a team of shoebox-sized rovers to the Moon.
- Curiosity - NASA's car-sized Mars rover powered by a radioisotope thermoelectric generator.
- ExoMy - Open source build-it-yourself rover developed by ESA.
- JPL Open Source Rover - Open source build-it-yourself rover developed by JPL.
- LEMUR - Limbed Excursion Mechanical Utility Robot developed by JPL.
- Mars Exploration Rovers (Spirit & Opportunity) - NASA's twin solar-powered rovers with rocker-bogie suspension and a five-degree-of-freedom instrument arm.
- MASCOT - Mobile Asteroid Surface Scout developed by DLR and CNES.
- Perseverance - NASA's Mars rover that landed in Jezero Crater in 2021.
- RASSOR - Regolith Advanced Surface Systems Operations Robot developed by NASA Kennedy Space Center.
- RoboSimian - Four-limbed robot developed by JPL with seven degrees of freedom per limb.
- Sojourner - NASA's first Mars rover, a 10.6 kg six-wheeled microrobot that landed in 1997 as part of the Mars Pathfinder mission.
- Dragonfly - NASA dual-quadcopter rotorcraft designed to fly on Saturn's moon Titan.
- Ingenuity - NASA's 1.8 kg coaxial-rotor helicopter that achieved the first powered, controlled flight on another planet.
- Astrobee - Free-flying robotic system developed by NASA to assist astronauts inside the ISS.
- Int-Ball2 - Second-generation free-flying camera robot developed by JAXA for the ISS Kibo module.
- Canadarm2 - Robotic arm on the ISS built by MDA for the Canadian Space Agency.
- Canadarm3 - Next-generation robotic system being developed by MDA for the Lunar Gateway.
- Dextre - Two-armed dexterous manipulator on the ISS that serves as a robotic handyman for delicate maintenance tasks.
- ERA - European Robotic Arm installed on the Russian segment of the ISS.
- GITAI Inchworm Robot - Robotic arm developed by GITAI for in-orbit and lunar surface operations.
- JEM-RMS - Japanese Experiment Module Remote Manipulator System on the ISS Kibo module.
- Robonaut 2 (R2) - Humanoid robot developed by NASA to assist astronauts onboard the ISS.
- Rollin' Justin - Mobile humanoid robot developed by DLR with two torque-controlled arms and dexterous hands mounted on a wheeled platform.
- Valkyrie (R5) - NASA's bipedal humanoid robot designed for disaster response and space exploration.
- Robot Operating System (ROS) - Open source middleware framework widely used in space robotics for development and ground testing.
- Space ROS - Fork of ROS 2 that aims to align with the safety and reliability requirements of space missions.
-
core Flight System (cFS) - NASA's platform-independent and mission-independent flight software framework.
-
F´ (F-Prime) - Component-driven framework for spaceflight applications and embedded systems with limited resources.
-
Yamcs - Open source mission control framework for command and control of spacecraft, satellites, payloads, and ground equipment.
- GMAT - General Mission Analysis Tool, NASA's open source space mission design tool for trajectory optimization and mission planning.
- SPICE Toolkit - NASA's observation geometry system used for space science mission planning and data analysis.
- Gazebo - Open source robotics simulator that provides accurate physics simulation, sensor models, and 3D visualization.
- Isaac Sim - NVIDIA's robotics simulation platform built on Omniverse.
- Project Chrono - Open source multi-physics simulation engine handling rigid and flexible body dynamics, collision detection, and vehicle-terrain interaction.
- DARTS - Dynamics Algorithms for Real-Time Simulation developed by JPL.
- PANGU - Planet and Asteroid Natural Scene Generation Utility developed by the University of Dundee for ESA.
- Space Robotics Bench (SRB) (Disclosure: Created by the author of this list) - Collection of environments and tasks for space robotics research built on NVIDIA Isaac Sim.
- Space ROS Demos - Collection of Space ROS simulation examples featuring Canadarm2, Curiosity rover, and lunar terrain environments.
-
42 - NASA Goddard's general-purpose spacecraft simulation environment.
-
Basilisk - Astrodynamics simulation framework developed at the University of Colorado Boulder.
-
Trick - NASA's simulation development framework that provides common simulation capabilities for rapid prototyping of space vehicle simulations.
- Atacama Desert - Chile: One of the driest places on Earth, used as a Mars analogue for testing rover autonomy and astrobiology experiments.
- Devon Island - Canada: The largest uninhabited island on Earth, hosting the Haughton-Mars Project for testing rover operations.
- Iceland - Volcanic island used extensively by NASA and ESA as a planetary analogue.
- Lanzarote - Spain: Volcanic island in the Canary Islands used by ESA as an analogue site for lunar and planetary exploration testing.
- Mount Etna - Italy: Active volcano with fresh volcanic soils and lava flows, serving as a lunar and Martian analogue.
- ESA Orbital Robotics Laboratory - Netherlands: Testbed at ESA's ESTEC featuring Europe's largest 2D free-floating platform with air-bearing systems that simulate microgravity.
- JPL Mars Yard - USA: Outdoor test facility at JPL designed to emulate the Martian surface. It is used for testing rover mobility on terrain representative of Mars.
- LUNA - Germany: ESA-DLR LUNA analogue facility at the European Astronaut Centre in Cologne. It features a large regolith testbed for testing lunar surface operations.
- LunaLab - Luxembourg: Moon analogue facility at the University of Luxembourg. It features an indoor basalt gravel area to simulate the lunar surface.
- Spaceport Rostock - Germany: Testing facility at Rostock-Laage Airport featuring a test track for lunar and space vehicles and microgravity testing infrastructure for space research.
- TRON - Germany: Testbed for Robotic Optical Navigation at the DLR Institute of Space Systems in Bremen. A hardware-in-the-loop facility for validating optical navigation sensors.
- Zero-G Lab - Luxembourg: Facility at the University of Luxembourg designed for testing 2D and 3D free-floating robotic systems in microgravity conditions.
- Copilot - NASA's runtime verification framework that generates constant-time, constant-memory C99 monitors from high-level Haskell specifications.
- OGMA - NASA tool for generating safe runtime monitors for flight and robotic applications.
- Ames Stereo Pipeline (ASP) - NASA's open source suite for generating digital terrain models, orthoimages, and 3D point clouds from satellite, rover, and aerial stereo imagery.
- VICAR - Video Image Communication And Retrieval, JPL's open source image processing system developed since 1966.
- Enhanced Autonomous Navigation (ENav) - Enhanced Navigation system used on NASA's Perseverance rover.
- Terrain Relative Navigation (TRN) - NASA's Lander Vision System developed for Mars 2020.
- dSGP4 - ESA's differentiable SGP4 orbital propagation library reimplemented with PyTorch automatic differentiation support.
- Orekit - Open source low-level space dynamics library written in Java.
- MoveIt - Open source general-purpose motion planning framework built on top of ROS.
- OMPL - Open Motion Planning Library, a collection of sampling-based motion planning algorithms.
- Drake - Model-based design and verification toolbox for robotics developed at MIT and now maintained by Toyota Research Institute.
- Pinocchio - Fast and flexible C++ library for rigid body dynamics algorithms.
-
METERON - Multi-purpose End-To-End Robotic Operation Network, an ESA project for teleoperation of robots on Earth from the ISS.
-
OpenMCT - Open source mission control framework developed by NASA Ames.
- Space Robotics Bench (SRB) (Disclosure: Created by the author of this list) - Suite of GPU-accelerated environments for space robotics reinforcement learning built on NVIDIA Isaac Lab.
- Astrobotic Peregrine - First mission under NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services program, launched in January 2024.
- Blue Ghost - Firefly Aerospace's lunar lander selected under NASA's CLPS program.
- Chandrayaan-3 - ISRO's lunar mission that successfully soft-landed the Vikram lander and Pragyan rover near the lunar south pole in 2023.
- Chang'e Program - China's lunar exploration program operated by CNSA.
- Lunokhod Program - Soviet robotic lunar rover program that deployed the first remote-controlled rovers on another world.
- LUPEX - Lunar Polar Exploration mission jointly developed by JAXA and ISRO.
- Nova-C (Odysseus) - Intuitive Machines' IM-1 lunar lander that became the first commercial spacecraft to soft-land on the Moon in February 2024.
- SLIM - Smart Lander for Investigating Moon, JAXA's precision lunar landing demonstrator that touched down in January 2024.
- VIPER - Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover, a NASA lunar rover designed to map water ice deposits at the Moon's south pole.
- ExoMars - ESA's mission to search for signs of past life on Mars.
- Mars 2020 - NASA mission that landed the Perseverance rover and Ingenuity helicopter in Jezero Crater in 2021.
- Mars Exploration Rovers - NASA's twin-rover mission that landed Spirit and Opportunity on Mars in 2004 to search for evidence of past water activity.
- Mars Pathfinder - NASA's first rover mission to Mars, which landed in 1997.
- Mars Science Laboratory - NASA mission that landed the Curiosity rover in Gale Crater in 2012.
- Tianwen-1 - China's first Mars mission, which landed the Zhurong rover in Utopia Planitia in 2021.
- Dragonfly - NASA rotorcraft lander planned for Saturn's moon Titan.
- Hayabusa2 - JAXA's asteroid sample-return mission to Ryugu.
- MMX - Martian Moons eXploration, JAXA's mission to return samples from Mars's moon Phobos.
- OSIRIS-REx - NASA's asteroid sample-return mission to Bennu.
- Rosetta - ESA's Rosetta spacecraft orbited comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko and deployed the Philae lander in November 2014, achieving the first-ever landing on a comet.
- Tianwen-2 - CNSA mission launched in 2025 to collect samples from near-Earth asteroid Kamoʻoalewa and return them to Earth.
- ADRAS-J - Active Debris Removal by Astroscale-Japan, a JAXA-contracted mission launched in 2024.
- ClearSpace-1 - ESA-commissioned mission to remove a piece of space debris from orbit, planned as the first active debris removal mission.
- Mission Extension Vehicle (MEV) - Northrop Grumman's satellite life-extension spacecraft.
- Mission Robotic Vehicle (MRV) - Northrop Grumman's next-generation servicing spacecraft designed to perform hands-on satellite maintenance in GEO.
- RSGS - Robotic Servicing of Geosynchronous Satellites, a DARPA program to develop a robotic servicing vehicle for GEO satellites.
- Erasmus Mundus — SpaceMaster - Joint European master's degree in space science and technology offered by a consortium of European universities.
- University of Luxembourg — Master in Space Technologies and Business - A two-year program pairing space technology with space business.
- Eyes on the Solar System - NASA's real-time 3D visualization of the solar system.
- JPL Open Source Rover (Homepage) - Simulated Mars rover that can be controlled through a simple teleoperation interface.
- KeepTrack - Open source web application for visualizing satellites and space debris in real time.
- LeoLabs Visualization - Interactive 3D visualization of tracked objects in low Earth orbit.
- Mars Trek - NASA's web-based portal for exploring the surface of Mars using data from multiple missions.
- Moon Trek - NASA's web-based portal for interactive exploration of the lunar surface.
- ESA Planetary Science Archive (PSA) - ESA's central repository for data from all planetary science missions.
- NASA-3D-Resources - Collection of copyright-free 3D models, textures, and images from NASA.
- HiRISE - High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment aboard NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.
- Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera (LROC) - Camera system aboard NASA's LRO that has imaged the lunar surface at resolutions up to 50 cm/pixel.
- Planetary Data System (PDS) - NASA's archive of data from planetary missions.
- SPARK - SPAcecraft Recognition leveraging Knowledge dataset from the University of Luxembourg.
- SPEED+ - Spacecraft Pose Estimation Dataset, providing synthetic and real images of satellites with ground truth 6-DOF pose labels.
- ESA ESRIC Space Resources Challenge - ESA challenge focused on developing robotic technologies for lunar resource prospecting and in-situ resource utilization.
- European Rover Challenge (ERC) - Annual competition in planetary exploration where student teams design and test rovers.
- University Rover Challenge (URC) - Mars Society's annual competition held in the Utah desert.
- ASI - Italy: Italian Space Agency.
- CNES - France: Centre National d'Études Spatiales.
- CNSA - China: China National Space Administration.
- CSA - Canada: Canadian Space Agency.
- DLR - Germany: German Aerospace Center, Institute of Robotics and Mechatronics.
- ESA - Europe: European Space Agency.
- ISRO - India: Indian Space Research Organisation.
- JAXA - Japan: Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency.
- KASA - South Korea: Korea AeroSpace Administration.
- NASA - USA: National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
- NASA ARC - USA: NASA Ames Research Center.
- NASA GSFC - USA: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center.
- NASA JPL - USA: NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
- NASA JSC - USA: NASA Johnson Space Center.
- UKSA - United Kingdom: UK Space Agency.
- AAU Space Robotics - Denmark: Aalborg University.
- Space Robotics Group (SRG) - Japan: Keio University.
- Space Robotics Lab (SRL) - Japan: Tohoku University.
- Space Robotics Research Group (SpaceR) - Luxembourg: University of Luxembourg.
- The Laboratory for Autonomous Systems in Exploration and Robotics (LASER) - USA: University of Southern California.
- Astrobotic - USA: Lunar logistics and delivery services.
- Astroscale - Japan/UK: On-orbit servicing and debris removal.
- ClearSpace - Switzerland: Space debris removal and in-orbit servicing.
- GITAI - Japan/USA: Space robotics and labor automation.
- Honeybee Robotics (Blue Origin) - USA: Spacecraft mechanisms and planetary drilling systems, now a subsidiary of Blue Origin.
- Intuitive Machines - USA: Lunar landers and space infrastructure.
- ispace - Japan: Lunar exploration and resource development.
- MDA - Canada: Canadarm, robotics, and satellite systems.
- Motiv Space Systems - USA: Robotic arms and actuators for space.
- Northrop Grumman - USA: Satellite servicing and space logistics.
- Redwire Space - USA: In-space manufacturing and robotics.
- Starfish Space - USA: Satellite servicing and space sustainability.
- ASTRA - Advanced Space Technologies for Robotics and Automation, ESA's symposium on space robotics held biennially at ESTEC.
- i-SAIRAS - International Symposium on Artificial Intelligence, Robotics and Automation in Space.
- IAC - International Astronautical Congress, the world's largest annual gathering of space professionals.
- ICRA - IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation.
- IROS - IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems.
- iSpaRo - International Conference on Space Robotics.
- SPAICE - ESA academic conference on AI in and for space.
Contributions are welcome! Please read the contribution guidelines before submitting a pull request.