Space, humanity’s ultimate frontier, presents immense challenges alongside its allure. This chapter argues for the crucial imperative of exploring this harsh yet vital realm. A key enabler is robotics: autonomous systems that minimize human risk and collaborative tools that enhance astronaut capabilities for faster, safer, and cheaper exploration. Since the dawn of the space age, space robotics has been pivotal in exploring celestial bodies and is now poised for rapid growth as space access broadens, leading the way to planetary settlements. This chapter highlights the author’s contributions across orbital and planetary domains, featuring robotics experiments on the International Space Station, a unique microgravity laboratory, and participation in Mars analog missions, which provided crucial data and validated operational strategies for planetary exploration. These examples underscore the critical role of space robotics in pushing the boundaries of our cosmic endeavors.