Podcast Summary: "The Next Workforce in Space Isn’t Human"

Podcast: The Next Innovation
Host: Jennifer Strong (Situation Room Studios)
Guests: Ethan Barajas (CEO & Co-founder, Icarus Robotics), Jamie Palmer (CTO & Co-founder, Icarus Robotics)
Date: January 26, 2026

Episode Overview

In this thought-provoking episode, host Jennifer Strong delves into the rapidly advancing field of space robotics with guests Ethan Barajas and Jamie Palmer, co-founders of Icarus Robotics. The conversation centers on how the next workforce set to transform commercial space stations won’t be human—but instead, smart, dexterous robots capable of performing complex and menial tasks. The episode journeys through the practical, technical, and social aspects of deploying robots in space, their collaboration with NASA and Voyager Technologies, the challenges in creating and testing these robots, and the broader implications for space infrastructure and the global startup scene.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Inspiration and Founding Stories

• Backgrounds:
  • Ethan Barajas: Early NASA internship at 17 focusing on plant growth on the ISS led to a passion for leveraging robotics to augment astronaut labor. Worked at Caltech, JPL, and on lunar and Martian rovers.

    “You know, astronauts, they're really tough to get like your hands on astronaut time... even when we were NASA, just five minutes was crazy to get our experiment plugged in." — Ethan [02:26]

  • Jamie Palmer: Multidisciplinary journey through therapeutic robots, pandemic-era hospital robots, motorsport engineering at Mercedes F1, and graduate work at Columbia on robotic hands, before meeting Ethan through Entrepreneur First.

    "My sort of obsession was always in and around robotics and primarily general purpose robotics." — Jamie [03:13]

2. What Icarus Does: Vision for Space Robotics

• Mission: Designing and building dexterous, mobile, general-purpose robots for space stations—starting with automating menial and hazardous tasks to free up precious astronaut time for specialized work.
• Key Partnerships: NASA and Voyager Technologies, with the first orbital robot deployment planned for early 2027.
• Initial Use Cases:
  • Cargo bag logistics (astronauts currently spend up to 14 days per mission simply moving cargo)
  • Basic maintenance: seal inspections, filter changes, and evolving tasks as robot intelligence matures

    "We're building these dexterous mobile general-purpose robots that first help augment astronauts that are on the space station." — Ethan [04:32]

3. The Technical Trials of Operating in Space

• Proving Remote Control & Safety:
  • Real-time teleoperation tests across the US to simulate space station latency.
  • Development of physical simulation environments mimicking zero gravity for hardware and software integration.
  • Upcoming parabolic flight (“Vomit Comet”) as a final major safety trial.

    "We have an air bearing facility... imagine a floating platform that acts almost like a hockey puck... and we can fly a robot into microgravity." — Jamie [07:48]

• Latency Comparison:
  • ISS orbits just 250 miles from Earth (much closer than most assume), but communication relays via geosynchronous satellites introduce real-time challenges.

    "The ISS is much closer oftentimes than people think... about 10 times closer than NY to California." — Jamie [09:43]

4. The Challenge and Promise of Intelligent Space Robots

• Current Robotics Intelligence Limitations:
  • Most robots, especially in space, are heavily teleoperated and not yet 'smart'—lacking robust A.I.
  • Icarus seeks to generate the first meaningful microgravity manipulation dataset to train robots through "robot learning".

    "With robot learning... you're putting intelligence into these robots such that they have an understanding of what's happening around them." — Jamie [16:53]

• Data Collection:
  • Using teleoperation to amass video, telemetry, and 'action observation pairs' in the unique physics of microgravity, enabling robots to learn and eventually function autonomously.

5. Major Challenges Facing Icarus Robotics

• Rapid Scaling and Development:
  • Transitioning from a non-existent company to a NASA partner in 2.5 years is a sprint—team scaling, minimum viable product safety, and regulatory hurdles are ongoing.
  • Unique engineering problems, such as “dynamic coupling” in free-floating microgravity, pose unsolved technical puzzles.

    "One of the hardest problems is... dynamic coupling... when your robot is a floating body." — Ethan [20:50]

• Team Expansion:
  • Hiring from medical robotics, Blue Origin, Boeing—engineering talent essential for meeting space deployment timelines.

6. Culture, Community, and Industry Collaboration

• Support in the Space & Robotics World:
  • Both guests remark on a uniquely passionate, helpful culture in both industries, with even prominent astronauts taking time to help startups.

    "People in the space industry are passionate about space and the exploration of the universe... If they find that really cool environment, it’s this awesome marriage." — Ethan [24:27]

• Storytelling as Core Skill:
  • Success in building Icarus involved extensive storytelling and vision-sharing—not just with the public, but with suppliers, partners, and investors.

    "It’s a lot of storytelling and being able to sort of articulate... the vision that you guys see so clearly." — Jamie [27:54]

• Redesigning Infrastructure to Accommodate Robots:
  • Major space companies are altering hardware for new robot interfaces, showing the impact of their work.

    "Sometimes it can be everything as simple as... change the way that our internal space station looks... so it can interface with your robot." — Ethan [29:15]

7. New York’s Tech Resurgence and Irish Founder Community

• Brooklyn Navy Yard as a Hub:
  • Jennifer observes a revival in New York’s tech scene, with immigrant founders at the heart.
• Irish Entrepreneurial Connection:
  • Jamie describes a strong, supportive Irish compatriot network in New York, spanning SaaS and deep-tech startups.

    "I actually have a lot of peers... that have kind of come over on similar paths, looking for their real, you know, American ambition..." — Jamie [32:09]

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On microgravity experiment challenges:

  "You do a lot of pre-flight campaign sort of operational planning in order to account for that, because there’s only certain things that you can run in that environment." — Jamie [13:32]

• On flight heritage and the modern era:

  "For us, we're using things that they couldn't have dreamed of... They have famously used boards that stopped existing in the early 2000s... We get to use the highest end, newest end... robotics world." — Ethan [25:16]

• On astronaut collaboration and networking:

  "We were messaging astronauts and we would get folks to actually get on with us and talk about their experiences in space for hours at a time." — Ethan [23:50]

Timestamps for Key Segments

• Meet the Founders: [01:10 - 04:25]
• What Is Icarus?: [04:25 - 06:26]
• Proving the Tech & Testing: [06:26 - 10:16]
• Intelligent Robots and Data: [14:37 - 16:45]
• Biggest Challenges: [19:02 - 22:44]
• Industry Surprises and Culture: [22:44 - 29:15]
• New York & Irish Founder Scene: [30:41 - 33:12]

Tone and Style

The conversation is candid, passionate, and technical yet approachable, peppered with humor (“Vomit Comet,” ducking flying robotic arms) and a palpable sense of excitement for the future. Both guests display humility and wonder at being part of a new era, with Jennifer fostering curiosity and storytelling throughout.

This episode is essential listening for anyone fascinated by the intersection of robotics, space, and startup innovation—offering both a primer on current technical realities and a glimpse into the personalities and motivations shaping the next phase of human (and robotic) expansion beyond Earth.