{"type":"rich","version":"1.0","provider_name":"Transistor","provider_url":"https://transistor.fm","author_name":"Crazy Wisdom","title":"Episode #517: How Orbital Robotics Turns Space Junk into Infrastructure","html":"","width":"100%","height":180,"duration":3514,"description":"In this episode of the Crazy Wisdom Podcast, host Stewart Alsop speaks with Aaron Borger, founder and CEO of Orbital Robotics, about the emerging world of space robotics and satellite capture technology. The conversation covers a fascinating range of topics including Borger's early experience launching AI-controlled robotic arms to space as a student, his work at Blue Origin developing lunar lander software, and how his company is developing robots that can capture other spacecraft for refueling, repair, and debris removal. They discuss the technical challenges of operating in space - from radiation hardening electronics to dealing with tumbling satellites - as well as the broader implications for the space economy, from preventing the Kessler effect to building space-based recycling facilities and mining lunar ice for rocket fuel. You can find more about Aaron Borger’s work at Orbital Robots and follow him on LinkedIn for updates on upcoming missions and demos. \n\nCheck out this GPT we trained on the conversation\nTimestamps\n00:00 Introduction to orbital robotics, satellite capture, and why sensing and perception matter in space\n05:00 The Kessler Effect, cascading collisions, and why space debris is an economic problem before it is an existential one\n10:00 From debris removal to orbital recycling and the idea of turning junk into infrastructure\n15:00 Long-term vision of space factories, lunar ice, and refueling satellites to bootstrap a lunar economy\n20:00 Satellite upgrading, servicing live spacecraft, and expanding today’s narrow space economy\n25:00 Costs of collision avoidance, ISS maneuvers, and making debris capture economically viable\n30:00 Early experiments with AI-controlled robotic arms, suborbital launches, and reinforcement learning in microgravity\n35:00 Why deterministic AI and provable safety matter more than LLM hype for spacecraft control\n40:00 Radiation, single event upsets, and designing space-safe AI systems with bounded behavior\n45:00 AI,...","thumbnail_url":"https://img.transistorcdn.com/UZbrDrlO5VTfDNcq188THwbv0T09vcmLyzx3BcPI9bs/rs:fill:0:0:1/w:400/h:400/q:60/mb:500000/aHR0cHM6Ly9pbWct/dXBsb2FkLXByb2R1/Y3Rpb24udHJhbnNp/c3Rvci5mbS81Y2Rj/OGFiMTYyMGFkNTM5/N2NjOWI2MWM5YzQ1/YTc2Ny5qcGc.webp","thumbnail_width":300,"thumbnail_height":300}