Space station repairs don't need to be done by astronauts in the future. Just leave all the dirty work to robots. This wall climbing one named Abigaille may just be the beginning.

The European Space Agency teamed up with Simon Fraser University in Canada to build the latest generation of Abigailles. They are inspired by gecko's feet, and can walk up walls without the use of adhesives. Its feet are covered in dozens of "footpad terminators", and they cling to the surface with the help of atomic interactions.

"Our Abigaille climbing robot is therefore quite dexterous, with six legs each having four degrees of freedom, so it should be handle environments that a wheeled robot could not," the ESA's Laurent Pambaguian explained in a press release. "For example, it can transition from the vertical to horizontal, which might be useful for going around a satellite or overcoming obstacles on the way."

It could even get a job cleaning windows too!

[ESA]