diff --git a/resource_retriever/src/retriever.cpp b/resource_retriever/src/retriever.cpp
index 242ae3e..3ca5371 100644
--- a/resource_retriever/src/retriever.cpp
+++ b/resource_retriever/src/retriever.cpp
@@ -111,6 +111,25 @@ size_t curlWriteFunc(void * buffer, size_t size, size_t nmemb, void * userp)
   return size * nmemb;
 }
 
+static std::string escape_spaces(const std::string & url)
+{
+  std::string new_mod_url;
+  new_mod_url.reserve(url.length());
+
+  std::string::size_type last_pos = 0;
+  std::string::size_type find_pos;
+
+  while (std::string::npos != (find_pos = url.find(" ", last_pos))) {
+    new_mod_url.append(url, last_pos, find_pos - last_pos);
+    new_mod_url += "%20";
+    last_pos = find_pos + std::string(" ").length();
+  }
+
+  // Take care for the rest after last occurrence
+  new_mod_url.append(url, last_pos, url.length() - last_pos);
+  return new_mod_url;
+}
+
 MemoryResource Retriever::get(const std::string & url)
 {
   std::string mod_url = url;
@@ -136,6 +155,9 @@ MemoryResource Retriever::get(const std::string & url)
     mod_url = "file://" + package_path + mod_url;
   }
 
+  // newer versions of curl do not accept spaces in URLs
+  mod_url = escape_spaces(mod_url);
+
   curl_easy_setopt(curl_handle_, CURLOPT_URL, mod_url.c_str());
   curl_easy_setopt(curl_handle_, CURLOPT_WRITEFUNCTION, curlWriteFunc);