Nasa’s robots enrol in college to prepare for life on Mars

[Super Nova]

Wow... cool.

Nasa’s robots enrol in college to prepare for life on Mars

If Valkyrie ever flies on its planned mission to Mars, it will be the most advanced robot to leave Earth. It will have the bipedal gait necessary to surmount unexpected obstacles and scale dunes of sand, and the humanoid appearance of a robot designed to work comfortably alongside astronauts.

Before it takes its first step on Martian soil, however, it needs to learn a few less advanced things, such as how to get in and out of an airlock and how to operate with a 20-minute communications delay without bumping into rocks or tumbling off cliffs.

So Valkyrie is going to college.

Nasa has announced that two of its humanoid robot prototypes, also known as Robonaut 5, will be sent to research teams at two US universities, who will help to develop software necessary for the robot, or later models, to operate far from home and complete the sort of tasks that will make it a useful member of space missions.

The 6ft, 20 stone robot was created two years ago, to demonstrate basic tasks such as climbing a ladder and walking over uneven terrain. But it has cameras and sonar and laser sensing, and the intention was always for it to work towards more ambitious goals.

Now, after a competition held by the US Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency, the robots will be sent to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Northeastern University, along with up to $250,000 (£164,000) in funding.

The advantages of robots in space are clear: they can operate without an atmosphere, take risks that are unacceptable for humans and there is no need to get them home. Nasa believes that they will go to Mars before astronauts.

Robert Ambrose, the principal technologist on Nasa’s game changing development programme, has said that if there was a task that was dangerous, “we could let the machine go out and sacrifice itself. And that’s OK. It’s not human. We can build another one. We’ll build one even better.”
http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/science/a ... 618812.ece

[Neferti]

They were talking about us having ROBOTS to do the housework, way back. Now you just need huge kitchens to "hide" all the ModCons and then you go out to get a take-away, since the dishwasher doesn't load and unload itself. Sad, huh?

[Black Orchid]

Better than sending chimps and dogs. There must be dozens of the poor devils floating around out there.