How a Robotic Tail Could Help Future Space Travelers

Valentina Sumini, a postdoctoral associate at the MIT Media Lab and Manuel Muccillo, a product designer, are working together to build a robotic tail called SpaceHuman. Their goal is to help the casual space traveler grab objects, anchor to surfaces and balance while they are floating in environments with reduced gravity such as an spacecraft or on the surface of Mars.

Manuel Muccillo, a product designer, models a prototype of a robotic tail that would allow the wearer to grab objects, anchor to surfaces, and balance while floating in reduced gravity environments. PHOTO BY: Tony Luong for the Wall Street Journal.

Ms. Sumini is a member of the Media Lab's Space Exploration Initiative which consists of a group of 50 graduate students, faculty and staff developing technologies, tools and experiences for a new space age. The group plans to test the Spacehuman tail and other projects on a microgravity flight in May. An airplane in charged of the microgravity flight will take them up, then fly sharply down allowing for 20-30 seconds of weightlessness at a time; this will be a follow-up to a similar test back in November 2017. 

Ms. Sumini and Mr. Muccillo began to design the tail the past summer, both were inspired by seahorses. The prototype consists of a trio of ribbed tubes made of translucent, flexible silicone. The ribs are 36 air chambers that can be inflated in different configurations by 12 battery-operated air pumps attached to a belt, causing the tail to curve or lengthen. 

The SpaceHuman tail responds to the wearer's environment and his/her movements, grabbing onto surfaces, acting like a rudder during jumps or picking up objects as needed, thanks to an array of sensors on the tail and body and object-tracking camera on the back. This camera uses an algorithm to identify colors and materials that have been uploaded to the system. "Our body is the main control tool", Ms. Sumini says. 

Ms. Sumini is testing the prototype underwater, it is currently attached to a wet suit until it is ready for the microgravity flight test in May. 

In my opinion, I believe this is a great project for those who will be able to travel to space one day which more likely will be billionaire space tourists. The group that's working on this prototype is definitely doing a great job by running different tests before putting it out in the market, some researchers sometimes fail because they forget that running a test is one of the most important steps to follow in a project. 

I chose this specific article because technology plays a big role in the world and it's always fun and important to learn about the latest technology out there. This article relates to Marketing because this project could actually encourage and prepare space tourists to travel to Mars without having fear or anxiety about being in a reduced or no gravity at all environment.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/robotic-tails-and-zero-gravity-orchestras-lifestyle-upgrades-for-space-11554472496