Russia’s State Space Corporation, Roscosmos, has announced a tender to create space robots (Kosmorobot) that will assist cosmonauts during their extravehicular activities. The project’s contract price tag comes to 2.4 billion rubles ($36.78 million). This information has been published on the public procurement website.
According to the technical design assignment, the robots will have to carry out operations on the exterior of a spacecraft and assist the crew in spacewalks from the International Space Station (ISS). In addition, it is planned to carry out flight tests of the Kosmorobot system as part of the ISS Science-Power Module (SPM, launch planned for 2019).
Kosmorobot’s development timeline for the prototypes is scheduled from September 2019 to November 2020. The space robot’s flight tests are planned at the final stage of the project – from December 2020 to November 2024.
The Kosmorobot project is included in Russia’s Federal Space Program for 2016-2025. The deadline to submit tender applications will be on September 20. The term of the contract is until November 2024.
The Federal Space Program’s previous draft, which was drawn up in 2014, provided for funding totaling 1.7 billion rubles ($26.05 million) to create elements and units, as well as prototypes for Kosmorobot and its flight tests on the ISS. (Russian Aviation/Business World Magazine)
