Who Needs R2D2? We Now Have Robonaut!

Lets face it. Space is not a friendly place to be for most, if not any, living organisms. This is one of the reasons why probe missions are favored by NASA over manned missions, especially on long distance journeys. Surprisingly, we humans actually require a lot more maintenance, in the form of food, workouts, and healthy life style to be efficient and productive compared to our robotic counterparts. Despite recent increases in movies that depict human-created robots overthrowing their previous masters, NASA has gone through great measures to produce the state of the art robots that would ultimately assist astronauts on space missions and also in the international space station. This emphasis on robotic technology is astute because human lives are irreplaceable due to the amount of training each human must undergo to become an astronaut, while robots are more replaceable. Situations like space walks that has always posed a big risk for astronauts will be decreased almost completely if smart robots can take on the job.

NASA recently developed Robonaut 2, also known as R2 (which seems really similar to R2D2). It is a "dexterous humanoid robot" that is meant to take over simple and dangerous tasks on space missions. On February 24th, 2011, the last Discovery shuttle flight before the shuttle was decommissioned took a Robonaut 2 into space and on board the International Space Station. This marks the first humanoid robot to be in space, and within the International Space Station. Right now there are four operational Robonaut 2s, with many others still in development. These robots were specifically made to be humanoids because only by having human-like physiology will equipment and tools used by robots and humans be interchangeable and thus simpler to produce and replace.

(http://www.space.com/10772-robonaut-2-nasa-space-droid-details.html)

(http://www.space.com/12698-space-station-robot-robonaut-2-power-tests.html)

The implications of the technology of robots, which is the decrease in risk for any humans in any dangerous situation or task, gives the technology much attention from "both military and space" agencies all across the world. This means the amount of funding and support for developing such technologies is very high. It is already predicted that perhaps by 2040, robotic intelligence may start to encroach to human levels. It does make me wonder if the science fiction shows and movies about robots rebelling against humans could become a reality. On the bright side, no doubt better robotic technology will help in our search for life in the universe!