Posted on 02/16/2018 7:48:52 AM PST by BenLurkin
During a recent press statement, a NASA spokesperson declared that Robonaut, the long-armed robotic assistant designed to aid astronauts in their tasks, will be decommissioned and sent back to Earth for repairs. The robot stopped working in 2015, following a series of hardware upgrades that went wrong.
, Robonaut was programmed to keep an eye on oxygen levels and to keep the handrails neat and clean. Over the years, the crew added tentacle-like limbs which should have theoretically enhanced the robot’s functionality, being able to perform even more tasks.
However, during the installation and hardware upgrade process, something went wrong, and Robonaut simply stopped working. At that time, NASA concluded that the astronauts didn’t have the necessary expertise to upgrade Robonaut’s hardware, which led to a system malfunction.
(Excerpt) Read more at thesilverink.com ...
I once met the guy who was the program director for that thing. He led the team that built it.
I used to coach a USFIRST high School robotics team. He was involved and told a great story about the people he hired with FIRST robotics experience in high school. They knew how to work under pressure and fix problems.
As a result of his experience on the robotics team and his deep interest in space, one of my kids is three months away from graduating as an aerospace engineer.
Here’s my shameless plug. If you have a kid who’s engineering minded or likes techy stuff (geeky and proud of it), check out First Robotics (USFIRST.org)
It’s like football for geeks.
The $20,000 college scholarship for being a team member didn’t hurt either.
Fascinating. I can’t wait to hear what upgrades they add to modernize him.
Congratulations to your child! Fantastic!
I went into high school completely addicted to Werner von Braun. We didn’t get a science club till senior year. I did get to grind a telescope mirror when I was 16 but, oh, today’s kids have it SO good!
It quit working two years ago. Why bother with repairs at this late date?
Thanks.
He decided at about the age of 6 he wanted to build rockets at NASA. His college job is actually at NASA doing flight operations on a satellite.
Sorry, but you waited too long to return the unit. It's out of warranty now...
Mindblowing. You’ve got to be bursting your buttons. A dream job. Just wonderful.
After adding arms to increase number of tasks it could perform, Robonaut stopped working. It was a union thing.
Nope.
He’s pretty smart but not a goofball geek.
The weird thing is he’s not really a great computer guy.
Which is fine because he speaks actual English.
Best part, he came out with his conservative principles intact. He got pretty lazy about church though. Gotta work on that one.
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