missions.

NASA · 2020–now

NASA rover exploring Jezero crater since 2021, caching rock cores for possible return to Earth and driving with onboard autonomous navigation.

NASA · 2011–now

NASA's Mars Science Laboratory rover, operating in Gale crater since 2012; its autonomy software includes AEGIS target selection.

NASA / JPL · 2020–2024

Technology demonstrator that made the first powered, controlled flights on another planet, completing 72 flights between 2021 and 2024.

NASA / ESA · 2020–now

Proposed NASA-ESA campaign to bring Perseverance's cached samples to Earth, with landers, a Mars ascent vehicle and an orbiter.

NASA / JPL · 2003–2019

Twin Mars Exploration Rovers that landed in 2004; Opportunity drove more than 45 km and pioneered visual odometry and autonomous driving on Mars.

ESA · 2016–now

ESA's ExoMars rover, designed to drill up to two metres below the Martian surface in search of biosignatures; launch is planned for 2028.

CNSA · 2020–now

China's first Mars mission: an orbiter plus the Zhurong rover, which landed in Utopia Planitia in 2021.

NASA / JPL · 2018–2022

Mars lander that studied the planet's interior; its robotic arm placed a seismometer and heat probe on the surface.

NASA · 2019–now

NASA rover built to map water ice and other volatiles in and around permanently shadowed regions near the lunar south pole.

NASA / JPL · 2021–now

Three small lunar rovers designed to explore and map as an autonomous team, testing multi-robot coordination on the Moon.

NASA and partners · 2017–now

NASA-led programme to return humans to the Moon and build a sustained presence at the lunar south pole, with international and commercial partners.

NASA, ESA, JAXA, CSA, MBRSC · 2019–now

Planned crew-tended station in near-rectilinear halo orbit around the Moon, with long periods of uncrewed operation and the Canadarm3 robotic system.

NASA · 2018–now

NASA programme buying deliveries of science and technology payloads to the Moon from commercial landers.

ISRO · 2008–now

India's lunar programme; Chandrayaan-3 landed the Vikram lander and Pragyan rover near the south pole in 2023.

CNSA · 2007–now

China's lunar exploration programme, including the Yutu rovers and the first landing on the far side (Chang'e-4, 2019) and sample returns.

JAXA · 2015–2024

JAXA lander that demonstrated a vision-based pinpoint landing on the Moon in January 2024.

JAXA, TOMY, Sony, Doshisha University · 2016–2024

Palm-sized transformable lunar robot deployed from SLIM in 2024, which imaged the lander on the Moon's surface.

Intuitive Machines (NASA CLPS) · 2019–now

Commercial Nova-C lunar landers; IM-1 Odysseus made the first commercial lunar landing in February 2024.

NASA Ames · 2014–now

Three cube-shaped free-flying robots operating inside the ISS since 2019, used as a research platform for microgravity robotics and autonomy.

NASA / MIT · 2006–2019

MIT-built free-flying satellites inside the ISS that served as a long-running testbed for formation flight, docking and autonomy algorithms.

JAXA · 2017–now

JAXA's free-flying camera robots inside the Kibo module, operated from the ground to reduce crew time spent on filming.

NASA / GM · 2011–2018

Humanoid robot developed by NASA and General Motors and tested aboard the ISS from 2011 to 2018.

DLR / Airbus / IBM · 2018–now

Free-floating AI assistant tested with astronauts aboard the ISS, using speech and vision to support crew tasks.

CSA · 2001–now

Canada's robotic arms for the ISS (Canadarm2 and the dexterous Dextre) and the planned Canadarm3 for the lunar Gateway.

NASA · 2016–2024

NASA mission to robotically refuel Landsat 7 and demonstrate in-space assembly; NASA ended the project in 2024.

Northrop Grumman SpaceLogistics · 2019–now

Commercial servicers that docked with Intelsat satellites in 2020 and 2021 to extend their operational lives.

ESA / ClearSpace · 2019–now

ESA-procured mission by ClearSpace to capture and deorbit a piece of debris with a robotic servicer.

Surrey Space Centre / EU · 2018–2019

EU-funded demonstration that tested a net, a harpoon and vision-based navigation for debris capture from the ISS-deployed spacecraft.

NASDA (now JAXA) · 1997–1999

Japanese satellite that performed the first autonomous rendezvous and docking and robotic-arm experiments between two uncrewed spacecraft.

NASA Ames · 2023–now

Swarm of four CubeSats testing distributed spacecraft autonomy, swarm navigation and onboard decision-making in low Earth orbit.

NASA · 2016–now

Sampled the asteroid Bennu with a touch-and-go manoeuvre and returned the sample in 2023; it continues as OSIRIS-APEX to Apophis.

JAXA · 2003–now

JAXA sample-return missions to Itokawa and Ryugu; Hayabusa2 also deployed the MINERVA-II hopping rovers and DLR's MASCOT lander.

NASA / ESA · 2021–now

Planetary-defence pair: DART struck Dimorphos in 2022 using autonomous terminal guidance, and ESA's Hera follows to survey the result.

ESA · 2004–2016

ESA comet mission that orbited 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko and delivered the Philae lander, the first landing on a comet.

JAXA (with CNES/DLR) · 2015–now

JAXA sample-return mission to Phobos carrying the CNES-DLR IDEFIX rover, which will be the first wheeled rover on a moon of Mars.

NASA / JHU APL · 2019–now

NASA rotorcraft lander that will fly between sites on Saturn's moon Titan; launch is planned for 2028.