A robotics company, co-founded by 25-year-old Tipperary man Jamie Palmer, which is building a robotic labour force for space, has signed a deal to test its technology aboard the International Space Station.
Icarus Robotics, which is based in New York, has agreed a mission management contract with Voyager Technologies to test its free-flying robotic platform 'Joyride'.
Under the agreement, Voyager will oversee payload integration, safety certification, launch coordination, on-orbit operations planning and real-time mission execution support.
The International Space Station demonstration will take place in early 2027.
Icarus Robotics uses artificial intelligence (AI) to create human-controlled robots that can learn and carry out tasks in space.
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The company was co-founded by Mr Palmer who was born in Tyrone and moved to Tipperary at the age of five.
He told RTÉ News that a busy year of testing lies ahead as they prepare for the International Space Station demonstration.
"We have a lot test rigs that will put the robot through different dynamics and manipulation testing," Mr Palmer said.
"We are also using physics simulations to simulate what it is going to be like when the robot is actually in space.
"Ultimately, all these things are building towards that one north star which is getting that robot successfully on the International Space Station next year.
"We're really looking forward to getting it up there and seeing it work," he added.
Mr Palmer grew up just outside Clonmel, he went to school in Cashel and studied engineering in Trinity College Dublin.
"I got my first robotics research done at Trinity, I worked at a robotics start-up in Dublin and this was before I moved to the US to go further and attend grad school at Columbia.
"I definitely owe a lot of my success and opportunities to coming up in Ireland," he added.
Icarus Robotics' robots are operated remotely by humans, a first step toward embodied AI - machines that learn from human demonstrations and eventually carry out complex space tasks autonomously.
"Icarus Robotics represents the next generation of space builders and provide the turnkey solution for those seeking reliable, flight-proven access to space," said President of Space, Defence & National Security, Voyager Matt Magaña.
The company's other co-founder Ethan Barajas was a participant in Voyager's NASA HUNCH programme when he was in school.
"It is very full circle to return the favour and deliver a robotic platform to help make the ISS and future commercial stations like Starlab smarter-autonomous, free-flying, and ready to operate where humans can’t easily go," Mr Barajas said.
According to Icarus, labour has become a pressing bottleneck in space missions with astronauts spending much of their time on mundane tasks such as cargo handling and equipment checks.
The robots being designed by Icarus will have built-in intelligence allowing them to physically interact with their environment and learn, adapt and evolve while in space.
They will be able to take on a full range of space labour such as intravehicular activities, tasks performed inside spacecraft and eventually scaling to large-scale orbital construction, such as maintaining satellites and infrastructure in space.
In September 2025, Icarus announced the completion of a $6.1m funding round.
