Tipperary’s Jamie Palmer on Icarus Robotics and an industrialised orbit

Icarus Robotics, a New York-based start-up co-founded by Jamie Palmer and Ethan Barajas, is developing a free-flying mobile robot called Joy to address the demand for space-based innovations. With a growing market valued at around $1.8 trillion, Icarus aims to create an industrialised low Earth orbit (LEO) by the end of the decade.

Joy, which boasts two moving arms and uses fans to propel itself in microgravity environments, will be tested aboard the ISS early next year in a partnership with Voyager Technologies. This partnership will involve the transfer of one robot to Voyager for launch aboard a SpaceX cargo resupply mission in early 2027. Initially, Icarus plans to teleoperate Joy inside the ISS to ensure safety, prove the robot's thesis, and collect data in microgravity for AI training.

The goal is to gradually transition to partial and eventual full autonomy, reducing costs by up to 94% and eliminating the need for teleoperation altogether. The start-up draws inspiration from predecessors like NASA's Astrobee, Airbus-made Cimon, and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's Int Ball. Icarus Robotics aims to develop scalable infrastructure and address the challenges of maintaining and assembling larger infrastructure in LEO, leveraging partnerships with companies like Vast, Axiom, Starlab, Vast's Haven-1, Blue Origin, and SpaceX.