Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Boba Fett to the ISS!

 Not really, but they look similar.  The shuttle is done dropping off space station inhabitants (at least the human type),but today it was announced that "Robonaut" or R2 will be getting a ride to his (her?) permanent home on the ISS on the final shuttle mission, STS-133, in September.  The robot will live in the Destiny laboratory and eventually be let out to wander the station.  The robot is basically a head and torso with arms similar to a human.  I'm assuming it follows the rules of robotics and can never harm a human.  We all remember Ash from Alien when he went on a rampage on board the Nostromo.  We don't have Sigourney Weaver up there to discipline misbehaving robots!
I'm ok with R2 though, I'd hate to see what JAXA comes up with for a robot if they were assigned to provide the robot.  Those Japanese robots are quite disturbing!



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