Space Robot Operating System

The Space Robot Operating System (Space ROS) is an open-source software framework the space robotics community can use to develop flight-quality robotic and autonomous space systems. Through this RFI, we are seeking your feedback to improve the value Space ROS provides the space robotics community. Information provided will be used to validate and steer Space ROS capabilities and requirements and will serve as a guide for the development of the Space ROS roadmap. Space ROS will begin as a fork of ROS 2 and will be compliant with established NASA flight software engineering practices to facilitate meeting mission and safety-critical requirements. Unlike existing ROS packages, it will provide space missions with robot applications, middleware, libraries, and interaction protocols suitable for spacecraft flight software. Diverse academic, commercial, and government entities will be involved in the lifecycle of space robotics and infrastructure. Current and future space missions will require a variety of orbital and surface robotic capabilities to explore, excavate, construct, maintain, and manufacture. Their autonomy, intelligence, and collaboration depend on a reliable, low-latency communication and computation infrastructure. The proposed Space ROS framework is a step toward a reusable standard that enables organizations to develop robots that seamlessly integrate and interoperate. See Attachment "Space Robot Operating System (ROS)" for the information requested and instructions for response submittal.