No More Astronauts Needed... Meet ROBONAUT

Originally posted by jra
What cargo are you referring to specifically? The supplies from the cargo ships are removed from the inside, by people. And from what I've read, Dextre is meant for doing maintenance.

Each 11-foot arm has seven joints, including articulated elbows and wrists. In addition to delicate maintenance tasks outside the station, Dextre will eventually load and unload cargo from the shuttle.

www.bloomberg.com...

Each 11-foot arm has seven joints, including articulated elbows and wrists. In addition to maintenance, Dextre will eventually load and unload delicate cargo from the shuttle.

www.bloomberg.com...

Now if these astronauts see anything out of the ordinary, we will hopefully get recorded evidence.
Sweet!

reply to post by zorgon


Hey, good post about the Russians and Pizza Hut and what not.

I think logos on the side of rockets are a pretty good idea. Why not right? Space is expensive and if companys want to help fund our efforts by slapping their logos on the side of the rockets or hanging banners inside the ISS then I say go for it.

My point was more about how we don't hear much about what kind of serious science is being done in space and how that leads to most people thinking it's just a big money pit.


It almost makes me think they are trying to distract us from what's really going on.

Originally posted by fieryjaguarpaw
My point was more about how we don't hear much about what kind of serious science is being done in space and how that leads to most people thinking it's just a big money pit.

Most people don't care about real science... just look at 80%ish of posts on ATS They don't like reading 500 page tech reports

Robonaut is already being prepared to explore places like the Moon.



[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/335a8cc06c39.jpg[/atsimg]

I think they call this configuration the centaur.

Robonaut is a joint project between NASA and General Motors, and if I'm not mistaken I belive GM is also behind this thing

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/a68531619dbb.jpg[/atsimg]

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/10adbc5b9245.jpg[/atsimg]

This baby, called the Chariot, could be configured in different ways to become anything from a bulldozer to a mobile crane to a pressurized rover. And I gaurante it could be operated by remote or even autonomously. It will be how we set up off world outposts before we ever set foot on the surface of a foreign body. No humans needed.

It's stuff like this that makes me wonder if the GM bailout was really just simply about saving jobs. I think it's a better possibility that we just couldn't let the company that's making our space toys fall apart. After all, whoever controlls space, controlls the world.

reply to post by zorgon


I think that at some point in the not too distant future,we humans will develop technology which will allow us to transport our consciousness into such robonauts-A bit like the way its done in "avatar".

That would be great IMO-we could maybe "jump into" these robonauts and experience the sort of space experiences which it is at this time too dangerous for us in our real bodies.

The tech is already in its early stages with such things as thought controlled computers,and Virtual Reality.
Maybe we could have these robots building bases on distant planets,ready for the time the real humans can travel there.

This is pretty much the way Robonaut already works. It's not linked directly to your brain, but the result is pretty much the same none the less.

The operator wears a glove and when he moves his arm the droid moves it's arm. The controller sees what the robot sees and guides it where to go.

It's like virtual Reality only way better than the things they had in the malls in the 90's and instead of looking at computer generated graphics you are looking at live video from the moon or the space station or mars or an astroid or where ever. It's called "teleoperated". It's almost exactly like being there.

With this in mind it's almost difficult to imagine why we would need humans in space. Robonaut really is like Avatar, and the title of this thread may not be too far off.


On a side note I can imagine some pretty cool uses for this technology here on Earth. Imagine you live in the US and you have met somone online that lives in Japan. Now imagine both of you have humanoid robots with these abilities. You could have a very surreal expierience where you are physically in to places at one time. You could pour your fiend in Japan a drink from your home in the US.

reply to post by fieryjaguarpaw


Its awesome indeed,but we do need to go into space ultimately if we are to survive as a species IMO.
The robots need to build and search for resourses in order to set up real living habitats for their inventors.

These robosapiens could build us bases in space before we get there.
On an asteroid,or on the Ice of Io,with drilling equipment all ready for when we arrive.

They could do all the tough spacewalks,and test the waters with any new lifeforms we encounter.

I love the whole idea.

Originally posted by fieryjaguarpaw
It's called "teleoperated". It's almost exactly like being there.

With this in mind it's almost difficult to imagine why we would need humans in space.

I can think of one good reason. Time delay. If you're trying to teleoperate something on Mars from Earth, you can have up to a 40min delay. That alone would make it impossible to do any decent teleoperation. You'd have to be in Mars orbit at the very least, if you want to teleoperate a robot on the surface of Mars with little to no delay.

Originally posted by Silcone Synapse

I think that at some point in the not too distant future,we humans will develop technology which will allow us to transport our consciousness into such robonauts-A bit like the way its done in "avatar".

I'm down with that These old bones could use an upgrade..add another 500 years

reply to post by jra


Yes it would take that long if you use radio waves to send your signal to the robot, but if we used a different medium, like say lasers, communications would take place at the speed of light.

Now what do you think would be cheaper, sending humans to Mars orbit or putting a couple of sats in Mars orbit?

I have to wonder why they aren't doing this already. Just think how much more spirit and opportunity could have done if there wasn't such a huge time delay in communications. ...it almost makes me think there's some kind of conspiracy going on.

Originally posted by fieryjaguarpaw
Yes it would take that long if you use radio waves to send your signal to the robot, but if we used a different medium, like say lasers, communications would take place at the speed of light.

PSSTTT ummm radio waves are EM radiation... so is light... they kinda travel at the same speed

Radio waves are a type of electromagnetic radiation with wavelengths in the electromagnetic spectrum longer than infrared light. Like all other electromagnetic waves, they travel at the speed of light.

en.wikipedia.org...

What we need is sub space radio

Quantum Non-Locality Communications
The Real Sub-Space Radio
M. Joseph Young
www.mjyoung.net...

reply to post by fieryjaguarpaw


Use quantum entaglement dude!
They can already do it over 10 miles or so,QE data transfer-basically eliminates lag of any kind,instant real time data transfer.
Once they suss it completley,it would be ideal for the robonoghts IMO.
All you would need was for the robots to be equipped with the same tech when they left earth.
Lag problem sorted.!

Scientists in China have succeeded in teleporting information between photons further than ever before. They transported quantum information over a free space distance of 16 km (10 miles), much further than the few hundred meters previously achieved, which brings us closer to transmitting information over long distances without the need for a traditional signal.
Quantum teleportation is not the same as the teleportation most of us know from science fiction, where an object (or person) in one place is “beamed up” to another place where a perfect copy is replicated.
In quantum teleportation two photons or ions (for example) are entangled in such a way that when the quantum state of one is changed the state of the other also changes, as if the two were still connected.
This enables quantum information to be teleported if one of the photons/ions is sent some distance away.

www.physorg.com...

No problemo,see!

reply to post by fieryjaguarpaw


Ummmm...you do realize that radio waves and light travel (in a vacuum) at the same velocity, correct?

Yes it would take that long if you use radio waves to send your signal to the robot, but if we used a different medium, like say lasers, communications would take place at the speed of light.

jra was correct....Mars is up to ~40 light minutes away from Earth, depending on each planet's position on orbit. Whether discussion radio, or light, still in the EM spectrum.

Now what do you think would be cheaper, sending humans to Mars orbit or putting a couple of sats in Mars orbit?

Certainly is cheaper to NOT send Humans...but, a satellite orbiting Mars (there is one, BTW) still, in terms of "telecontrol" for robotics, won't help IF the Human operators are still on Earth!

reply to post by zorgon


Ha! great! I love it when that happens-You and me were both typing pretty much the same solution at the same time,from different locations!!

Maybe we can do Quantum entanlement with our brains or something...

Top stuff

Originally posted by Silcone Synapse
Maybe we can do Quantum entanlement with our brains or something...

A long time ago...in a galaxy right close by... we had what most outsiders called 'Magic'... Religious 'Saints' created miracles, esoteric societies used "The Secret"...

Einstein said..
"Imagination is more important than knowledge."
"Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one."

Adrew Carnagie said..
"Think and Grow Rich"

Konstantin E. Tsiolkovsky said
"The earth is a cradle of the mind, but one cannot live in a cradle forever."

Jesus said...
"For truly, I say to you, if you have faith as a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it will move; and nothing will be impossible to you. "

Yoda said...

“Size matters not. Look at me. Judge me by my size, do you? Hmm? Hmm. And well you should not. For my ally is the Force, and a powerful ally it is. Life creates it, makes it grow. Its energy surrounds us and binds us. Luminous beings are we, not this crude matter. You must feel the Force around you; here, between you, me, the tree, the rock, everywhere, yes. Even between the land and the ship.”
Luke: “I can’t believe it.”
Yoda: “That is why you fail.”

All throughout our history the sages tell us we have in our mind the ability to change the world around us. But along the line evil self centered people have told us it is wrong and people were killed for such beliefs...

But today, it seems Quantum physics has discovered that indeed thought CAN influence matter... and we are discovering that old magic all over again..

Arthur C Clarke's third law..

"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."

Full Circle

OK so I guess I was wrong about that. Weird though because I swear I've heard legit main stream folks talk about it.

Oh well, you learn something new every day.

Another great thread i missed while my laptop crashed and burned
this is great, just think when they put robonaut on the moon some lucky
guy/gal could be here on earth with a full VR suit with all the sensors and
a display monitor all in 3d and HD of course almost as near to BEING the
robot.
If only one of us could hack the display we may get to see what there REALLY
is up there on the moon and what they are doing.cool.
said person in the suit could roam around freely as if they were there that
robot!so so cool.
S & F for post.

Now we have cyborgs in space and thinking microchips. This brings to mind 3 scarey nouns. Cylon's, Skynet and Butlerian Jihad. Keeping my fingers crossed. Because we might get lucky and find "Jane" instead.

If you go to Nasa's Robonaught page they say that "there are no plans to return R2 to earth." I'm not sure what that's about either. Are there plans to return other robot's to earth?

(references in order : Battlestar Galactica, Terminator, Dune, Ender's Game)

www.popsci.com...

robonaut.jsc.nasa.gov...