"Artificial astronauts" could fly as actual crew members on human missions to Mars, and elsewhere in space.
These rugged, space-rated artificial humans offer great advantages, advocates say. For example, they would not require the large amounts of consumables needed to support humans. They could also perform spacewalks without a life-support system.
While not everyone will agree on the predicted rate of development of robotics and artificial intelligence (AI), the idea is that progress will be fast, commensurate with timescales over which Mars campaigns are planned and implemented, unlike in the past.
This is forcing careful strategic thinking about what planetary exploration capabilities and systems to develop and include on missions, versus those that will mature anyway via broader societal advancements in robotics and AI," explained Pascal Lee, a planetary scientist at the SETI Institute in California.
Lee is also chairman of the Mars Institute and director of the NASA Haughton-Mars Project at NASA's Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley.
"As we enter the 'Age of AI,' robotics and AI are making strides to achieve the first artificial humans," Lee said, "androids given the same physical traits and mobility as humans and equipped with artificial general intelligence (AGI)."
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