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BBC MUNDO RADIO
The space shuttle Discovery has delivered Robonaut 2, a humanoid robot, to the International Space Station. R2 is still in its box but has big ambitions.
 A handout image released by NASA in August 2010 shows 'Robonaut 2' saluting. Known as R2, it is the first-such human-like robot to be brought to space aboard Space shuttle 'Discovery.' (NASA / EPA) |
Reporting from Cape Canaveral, Fla —
.Robonaut 2, the first humanoid robot in space, may get an early unpacking from its crate thanks to a little nudging from President Obama.
R2 was ferried last weekend to the International Space Station by the shuttle Discovery, and NASA had planned on keeping it stowed away for another two months.
But during a call to astronauts Thursday, the president asked: "I understand that you guys have a new crew member, this R2 robot…. Are you guys making him do chores up there?"
Now, the astronauts aboard the space station are pushing to get R2 out early.
"We've all been voting to move up getting him out of his box," astronaut Catherine Coleman said Friday during a crew news conference. "In fact, we're all pretty sure that we hear scratching from the inside there."
The astronauts have some extra time to unpack R2 because Discovery is staying two extra days at the space station.
Robonaut 2, built by General Motors, aspires to be a permanent member of the station crew. Built primarily of aluminum and steel, the 40-inch robot has no legs but looks like a human from the torso up. Its exterior is soft and fleshy, designed so that astronauts won't be hurt if they bang into it.
It's also, well, extroverted.
"So far, space is great — but I suspect it will be even better once I'm out of my box!" R2 said in a Twitter update last week.
AstroRobonaut, the robot's tweet name, has a following of more than 30,000. Of course, the robot itself isn't tweeting just yet: Humans on the ground do that.
The robot will spend the next year or so attached to a stand in the U.S. lab on the space station, undergoing tests in zero gravity and doing such tasks as turning knobs and plugging things in.
But its long-term prospects — including useful work in the station and outside it in space — excite NASA and robotic engineers all over the world.
"So in a sense, while it [the testing phase] may be a single step for this robot, it's really a giant leap forward for tin mankind," Rob Ambrose, acting chief of NASA's automation simulation and robotics division, joked at a briefing.
From waist to head, R2 stands 3 feet 4 and weighs 330 pounds. Its arms give it an 8-foot wingspan. Its head is equipped with eight cameras. Its computer brain is in its torso.
NASA expects to upgrade and reprogram R2 so that it becomes a mechanical member of the crew. Eventually, it will get legs or some manner of lower body and be able to work with astronauts on simple tasks, such as vacuuming, or more complex maintenance and repairs, and assisting astronauts on spacewalks. Finally, it could become a caretaker or experiment tender, working on assignments after astronauts leave.
NASA began developing the robot 15 years ago, and the R2 model — the second generation of the concept — was developed in partnership with General Motors at a cost of about $2.5 million per robot. Two have been built.
R2 spent months in Discovery's cargo hold while NASA resolved the shuttle's problems. Discovery had been scheduled to blast off Nov. 1, but finally achieved its 39th and final liftoff on Feb. 26 with just two seconds left in the launch window.
"This has been an exercise of patience for us, but we're anxious to see our hardware … being put to use on the International Space Station," said Scott Higginbotham, payload manager for the mission.
Discovery is scheduled to return to Earth Wednesday and eventually will be retired to the Smithsonian Institution in Washington.
Two more shuttles await final launches: Endeavour in April and Atlantis as early as June. After that, astronauts probably will get to the space station aboard Russian Soyuz spacecraft.
scott.powers@orlandosentinel.com
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