admin answers:

That would be most closely related to mechanical engineering (that’s the dept that MIT puts it’s robotics and artificial intelligence classes in).

admin answers:

There is no specific major for “space robotics”, nor does there need to be. Robotics programs are usually sub-groups of mechanical or electrical engineering departments. You might also want to take electives in computer science to learn how to program the robot, as well as aerospace engineering to learn how to specialize a robot for space.

A few programs:
– MIT has a fantastic robotics program as part of mechanical engineering: http://robots.mit.edu/
– Carnegie Mellon has a robotics institute: http://www.ri.cmu.edu/ri_static_content.html?menu_id=323
– At UC Berkeley, robotics is part of electrical engineering: http://robotics.eecs.berkeley.edu/wiki/pmwiki/pmwiki.php

Any engineering school that you look at will have electrical and mechanical engineering programs that offer classes in robotics.

Many robot experts have PhDs.