May 2004

The HubbleSpace Telescope is something that a lot of astronomers and assorted other boffins just do not want to let go of. NASA Has an issue with sending Shuttle missions up there because (a) the shuttle is proven to be dangerous now, and (b) their budget isn't what it used to be. The Pentagon, it appears, has a much greater need for battlefield rockets than scientific ones. But the Pentagon does have a great interest in remote robotic devices, because it allows them to conduct remote operations without the tedious trouble of actually risking anyone (on their side at least) being killed, or worse; captured and paraded on TV. Earth to Bush: Car bombs do much the same thing on a lower budget.
(Image on right by Kate Olliver in a rush.)

But I digress in a terribly political direction; I'm now 40 and my sarcasm gland is enlarging nicely. The point is that some bright spark mentioned that it might be possible to service the Hubble robotically. We're not talking about little crawling-around-in-the-sand robots here, which are doing fine on Mars, by the way. We're talking humanoid designs with dexterous hands, heads and so forth that are every bit as anthropomorphic as something out of a Disney movie. Meet Robonaut. The “leg” shown in this NASA photo on the left is equipped with a docking probe that fits into sockets on the Shuttle arm and the surface of the International Space Station. It looks far too much like a stinger to me!

Why go to all the bother of making a human-shaped robot? I mean, nobody is going to hand an award out up there saying “Congratulations, NASA, here's the 2009 Vogue Intergalactic Fashion Award” now, are they? No, 'course not. This is all about fixing things that were designed to be assembled by, and be operated by, us humans. Having the latest silicon brain, muscles of steel, and aesthetic properties of a Campbell's Soup can is no good if you can't peek behind an obstacle and turn a handle to open the door. Machines like Robonaut were designed to take on the jobs that us humans were supposed to do, but that at this particular moment need to be sorted out by a robot. If they cheapen access to space for the rest of us, then I'm all for it.

Ironically, Shuttle operators often found that the best tool to strap on to the end of the Shuttle's arm was often a fully-equipped astronaut – shown here being deployed on the right. The human is the lumpy tool on the end of the long bit. Much more flexible than a mechanical end effector, but liable to break if bent back too far and needs to bleed its hydraulic system often.

But this robot is operated by a human wearing a headset and virtual reality gloves, shown here on the left. There is a problem with doing this a few hundred kilometres or more up in the air: Time delay. If you thought you had problems having an international phone conversation at times, you try dealing with that delay when trying to screw in a bolt in zero gravity with gloves on. So they made it learn and predict how the human was going to move, taking over the finer details of assembly – much like you do when you write quickly. In other words – it's starting to think.

This edition is also on the web, just point your web browser to http://olliver.family.gen.nz.   vik@olliver.family.gen.nz
"A Picture is worth a thousand words."

- NOT Confucius, but Frederick Barnard; a very successful publicist!

Back to the Launchpad main page http://olliver.family.gen.nz/launchpad