Bina48 becomes first A.I. humanoid robot to train as an astronaut

Bina48 Photo: Courtesy of Uplift Aerospace

PARK CITY, Utah — Uplift Aerospace, a Park City company, announced at the International Astronautical Congress in Paris, France, on Wednesday that their Space+5  commercial astronaut class would be training alongside artificial intelligence (A.I.) humanoid robot named Bina48 of the Terasem Movement Foundation. The goal is to learn about the benefits of A.I. as an astronaut companion, hopefully laying the foundation for future research and technological development as a part of space exploration.

Bina48 is part of the Terasem Movement’s Lifenaut Project. Bina48, which means Breakthrough in Neural Architecture at 48 Exaflops/Exabytes, was created with the idea of testing the possibility of uploading the mental and behavioral aspects of a human to a computer. From there, artificial intelligence would be used to animate human behaviors using a social robot.

Josh Hanes, CEO of Uplift Aerospace, said in a press release:

“It is important to recognize that Bina48 joining the Space+5 astronaut class is both historically and symbolically significant. Bina48 was one of the first breakthrough technologies for neural architecture, and to have Bian48 as the first A.I to join our astronaut training symbolically recognizes her place in history.”

Bina48 will join the Space+5 crew in their training in areas such as zero-gravity flight, spacecraft, and space suit egress training performed at the Univerisity of Arizona. These steps will help determine the future of using A.I. robots on human-crewed space missions.

“There is something artistically and scientifically important when considering a robot’s ability to interpret and communicate seeing the Earth from space. Our hope is that through astronaut training, we will be able to better understand Bina48’s readiness levels to travel to space on a future mission. It will be a powerful moment for humanity to have a robot experience and communicate what it feels like to go to space. Space+5 astronaut training will collect biometric data that will then be used to update and inform Bina48’s algorithms to provide her a frame of reference for how to communicate what she is experiencing when she travels to space,” said Hanes.

The Space+5 crew will be part of a future mission where Blue Origin will transport the crew to space. The mission itself will focus on science, art, and charity.

More information about Space+5 and Uplift Aerospace’s initiatives can be found on their website.