Space Song Sunday

Mountain View | Create Your Own Challenge

"I Wanna Be A Space Robot" (Astrobees tribute song)

High-Level Project Summary

As often as possible, usually on Sunday, I perform a (minimally rehearsed) song about space, on Instagram Live: https://www.instagram.com/explore/tags/spacesongsunday ✨ The project has been going for perhaps five years, including a version of "All You Need Is (Dove)" for Planet Labs, a few songs recorded at the Biosphere, and various requests. ✨ For the Space Apps Challenge, I wrote an original song about NASA's Astrobees – to perform with my companion AI, F3NR1R!

Link to Final Project

https://www.hackster.io/glowascii/f3nr1r-2-talking-fennec-fox-companion-bot-78b2ca

Link to Project "Demo"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d2mVn8Jeirw

Detailed Project Description

My video is extra-long for obvious reasons! It's a song. :)

I've been building companion robots since 2018: https://www.hackster.io/glowascii/archimedes-the-ai-robot-owl-325ff5

My usual companion these days is F3NR1R: https://www.hackster.io/glowascii/f3nr1r-2-talking-fennec-fox-companion-bot-78b2ca

Both are built on Raspberry Pi hardware, running Python, and have Teensy sub-brains running Arduino code to power their motors and give them life.

But each has their own usability issues, and I'd like to design one that's robust enough for space travel – as well as cuddly!

I fell in love with NASA's ISS helper bots years ago at a Robot Block Party, where they were showing one of the original SPHERES robots. Those went up to space in 2006, and have since been replaced by the second generation – Astrobees. They are also ADORABLE, brilliant, and so helpful! I really love their design.

So, whlie I develop my more cuddly and durable space bot, I thought I'd write a song for F3N and the others expressing this aspiration and our admiration for the Astrobees. After researching the project, I put together some lyrics and guitar chords to produce this little anthem.

Space Agency Data

I referenced information from these sources:

https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/ames/robot-colleagues-meet-aboard-the-international-space-station/

https://longhorizon.org/trey/pubs/b2hd-bualat18astrobee_ops.html

https://www.cnet.com/science/nasa-woke-up-a-robot-queen-on-the-iss-and-its-there-to-help/

https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/ames/oh-hiiiiive-astrobee-queen-wakes-up-in-orbit

https://www.nasa.gov/directorates/spacetech/game_changing_development/projects/archived/Astrobee

Hackathon Journey

I was invited just last Thursday by Martina Dimoska! So I decided to try and put together something combining my two favorite ongoing projects: companion bots and Space Song Sunday. :)

I tested two different melodies, and while one of them allowed me to pack in more information, the other is prettier and, I think, more inspiring – so that's the one I went with.

References