Horizons Webinar: Space Exploration in the Age of Intelligent Robotics

Automated machines have always played a key role in the exploration of space, from ground-based and orbiting observatories that peer into the distant cosmos, to robotic explorers that travel to distant worlds in our solar system that are unvisited by humans. On this week's Horizons Webinar Series, Dr. Jamil A. Shariff, an astrophysicist and aerospace engineer, explains how the exploration of space has the potential to reach new heights due to ongoing advances in automation and machine intelligence.

During his PhD in 2014-2015, Dr. Shariff was part of a science team that travelled to Antarctica to launch an automated telescope called Spider, which operated independently for two weeks on a high-altitude balloon with no human intervention. After this first foray into automated systems that operate in a space-based environment, Dr. Shariff has since moved on to become a Member of Technical Staff in the space robotics division of MDA corporation. He will describe the work he is doing there on systems engineering for Deep Space Exploration Robotics (including the Canadarm3). This system is Canada's contribution to the upcoming Lunar Gateway, a new space station that will operate in orbit around the Moon. When completed, the Gateway will be the most distant human outpost ever to exist. This sustained human presence in deep space would not be possible without advanced Canadian robotics.