Perhaps the final launch of the Space Shuttle Discovery (my favourite Shuttle) should have been christened as ‘New Venture’ instead of the routine, bland, conventional designation of STS-133.
Though it might have slipped the news this time, Discovery has the first humanoid Robot R2 or Robonaut 2 on board. We might not appreciate the importance of the event right now, but this is really a historical moment. For the first time, Man has sent a robot ‘in his own image’ - okay, it is only half his image ;-E - out to space. Follow his tweets @astrorobonaut . (I like the one ‘small step for robot, giant leap for tinman kind’)
What it means is that the next humanoid form to actually make a landing (from space) on a planet other than Earth or its satellite might very well be the successors of Robonaut 2. Just think about it. How much money, time, detail and care which would be spent on developing a space module to safely transport a human from Earth to Mars (or even Moon) could be saved by strapping a Humanoid Robot into a cargo module and shooting it out!?! Oops! I forgot! NASA is already on this job with Project M, aren’t they?
Though strictly not equal, it is akin to the difference between launching and operating a Remote Sensing satellite versus maintaining a space lab with an astronaut to take photographs and readings to transmit back to Bangalore.
BTW, Robonaut is ‘not’ the first robot to go out in space; it ‘is’ the first ‘humanoid’ robot to do so. Incidentally, there s a Canadian robot presently on board the International Space Station - Dextre, which successfully completed it first job on Feb 4th.
Again, both Dextre and Robonaut 2 neither possess ‘Artificial Intelligence’, nor or ‘Autonomous Robots’ but are just ‘remote controlled’ robots (Robonaut 2 claims some semi-autonomous capability), which require Telepresence.
Great Job guys!
Though it might have slipped the news this time, Discovery has the first humanoid Robot R2 or Robonaut 2 on board. We might not appreciate the importance of the event right now, but this is really a historical moment. For the first time, Man has sent a robot ‘in his own image’ - okay, it is only half his image ;-E - out to space. Follow his tweets @astrorobonaut . (I like the one ‘small step for robot, giant leap for tinman kind’)
What it means is that the next humanoid form to actually make a landing (from space) on a planet other than Earth or its satellite might very well be the successors of Robonaut 2. Just think about it. How much money, time, detail and care which would be spent on developing a space module to safely transport a human from Earth to Mars (or even Moon) could be saved by strapping a Humanoid Robot into a cargo module and shooting it out!?! Oops! I forgot! NASA is already on this job with Project M, aren’t they?
Though strictly not equal, it is akin to the difference between launching and operating a Remote Sensing satellite versus maintaining a space lab with an astronaut to take photographs and readings to transmit back to Bangalore.
BTW, Robonaut is ‘not’ the first robot to go out in space; it ‘is’ the first ‘humanoid’ robot to do so. Incidentally, there s a Canadian robot presently on board the International Space Station - Dextre, which successfully completed it first job on Feb 4th.
Again, both Dextre and Robonaut 2 neither possess ‘Artificial Intelligence’, nor or ‘Autonomous Robots’ but are just ‘remote controlled’ robots (Robonaut 2 claims some semi-autonomous capability), which require Telepresence.
Great Job guys!
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