Designing space robots: Harmonic Drive shares history, looks ahead

The article summarizes a special episode of The Robot Report Podcast featuring Harmonic Drive engineer Chris Finger, who discusses the company’s historic and ongoing contributions to space robotics. Harmonic Drive has played a critical role since the 1960s, providing precision drive systems for landmark missions such as Mariner 4 and the Apollo lunar rovers. Finger highlights the stringent reliability requirements for space robotics—often demanding 99.99% uptime—and the technical challenges posed by harsh conditions like extreme temperature fluctuations and vacuum environments. The discussion also covers how emerging space operators like SpaceX and Amazon are driving shifts toward more cost-effective satellite constellations, influencing design priorities. Harmonic Drive’s solutions offer advantages in material flexibility and configuration adaptability, making them well-suited for evolving space applications. Additionally, the episode touches on the expanding industrial ecosystem in space, including private sector ambitions for in-orbit manufacturing and resource utilization, underscoring the growing importance of robotics in future space exploration.