This Space Roomba Could Clean the ISS While Astronauts Sleep

Allison Cox
Cleaning the inside of a space station has to be a difficult task, so I can imagine cleaning
companies that excel at these tasks get known quickly. Cleaning companies have to do well to
become known, so I don’t think they bite off more jobs than they can chew.

Lindsey Cabanas:
I never would’ve imagined that cleaning the space station would be that difficult of a task that a
robot would be needed. After this article, I think that the issue is also that cleaning thoroughly so
that there is no sickness on board become more critical in space where there are less resources. I
don’t have a Roomba at home but I hope that the trials of GermRover go well for the sake of the
astronauts.

Lorena Zamora Matos:

The space industry is astronomically expensive, I imagine that adding a cleaning robot will not
break the bank but was a cost benefit analysis done by anyone? Can the hours that the astronauts
would normally spend cleaning and wiping down the ship be better used? If not, I think cleaning
is not such a bad job. I do not think everybody loves to clean, but I find somehow balanced to
add activities like shores to these people’s lives. The disinfection application of the UV rays
seems promising though. Keeping them safe is a great priority given all the circumstances.

Brian Evans
Some new technology that comes out makes me think that it was developed just because it could
be. However, the GermRover is worth all of its research dollars and then some! Can you
imagine having to clean someone else space crap? My God!! What took them so long to come
up with this? I think there is also a green engineering lesson to be learned from this article. This
is an excellent way to use UV rays to kill harmful microbes. This same technology works in air
conditioning vents. I installed a UV light in my AC vent last week to kill the bacteria that was
building up in my vents, and it works!!

Avni Patel:
This Space Roomba article was very interesting, one wouldn't just think in their free time about
how International Space Station would get clean and all just like Lindsey Cabanas has mentioned
in her discussion. From the article, I gather that GermFalcon is a private company specializing in
airplane sanitizing tech. I agree with Brian Evans that it is definitely in aerospace favorable if
such technology called GermRober Roomba space cleaner could blast the walls with powerful
sterilizing UV rays to kill any harmful microbes. The developer of the robot believes that UV
disinfection showed to decrease the hospitals' infection rate so in similar ways it can replicate
those results in space as well. It would be fascinating to read and learn more about the
GermRover robot once the prototype is revealed at the Aerospace Medicine Association.

Jamarius Willis:
I never thought much about how space stations are cleaned. Now that I think of if though I
imagine it is a very daunting task because there are so many wires and open circuitry to look out
for. This space Roomba article is very interesting because not only does the company specialize
in cleaning space stations, but they also are very far into the future because they have an
autonomous robot doing some of the really hard task. We definitely need more tech like this
where I work at Disney in sourcing and I see the large amount of money we spend on
maintenance workers and the constant turnover when the job gets too hard.

Anthony Randazzo:
I agree with many of the above discussions as the thought of cleaning a space station never
crossed my mind. Space age sustainability is the new way of the world. From dust bunnies to
harmful microbes, engineers are working on ways to sanitize it autonomously.