Two young entrepreneurs, Jamie Palmer, 26, and Ethan Barajas, 23, are developing advanced robotics at the Brooklyn Navy Yard for NASA, aiming to facilitate human expansion into space. Their company, Icarus Robotics, launched in 2024 and is building robots designed to take over the mundane and time-consuming tasks currently performed by astronauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS).
Their first robot, named Joy, is slated for delivery to NASA in early 2027 and will be sent to the ISS for a year-long mission. Joy's primary role will be performing routine maintenance, inspections, and handling cargo, activities that consume significant astronaut time. Barajas stated that these tasks are not the best use of highly trained individuals who are essentially "taking out trash, doing seal inspections and moving bags like they’re in an Amazon warehouse."
This automation is expected to significantly reduce the operational costs of the ISS. NASA estimated in 2021 that supporting each astronaut costs $133,000 per hour. By offloading manual labor, astronauts can dedicate more time to scientific research, which has historically led to significant advancements, such as the development of new cancer medications like Keytruda.
Palmer, with a background in Formula 1 and robotics from Columbia University, and Barajas, who participated in NASA's HUNCH program and interned at the Jet Propulsion Lab, founded Icarus Robotics with ambitious goals. While NASA has previously experimented with robots like Robonaut and Astrobee, Joy is designed with enhanced dexterity and the capability to learn and improve autonomously over time.
The development of Joy involved overcoming challenges in simulating space conditions on Earth. The Icarus team utilized a specially constructed table at Newlab to mimic micro-gravitational effects and conducted tests on a Falcon 20 aircraft during free-fall to achieve short periods of near weightlessness.
Joy will be transported to the ISS via a commercial partner and will operate for approximately six hours daily. Initially, she will be controlled remotely by a teleoperator on Earth, who will mimic movements that Joy will replicate in real-time. The data collected from these operations will train Joy to perform tasks autonomously in the future, potentially undertaking more complex duties such as external repairs and construction. Palmer expressed the company's long-term vision, stating, "Joy is just the start of what we’re building" to support persistent lunar and low-Earth orbit habitats.