A Humanoid Robot Could Be Reaching Deep Space Before Us
NASA is sending MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory one of two 6 foot, 290 lbs humanoid robot to test for future space missions. NASA’s hope is to send this robot to Mars and, if successful, even beyond the Red Planet and onto deeper space.
It’s a very natural step, seeing as the New Horizons has gotten so far into space. NASA will always put manned mission safety first, so a NASA Humanoid in Mars to test the Red terrain is not a bad idea, nor is it a far-fetched one.
NASA Humanoid Robot: Valkyrie, a. k. a. R5
The NASA humanoid handed over to MIT is part of NASA’s Space Robot Challenge, and its mission is to create better autonomous robots that can go as far as replacing humans in what they call extreme space missions. The challenge is divided into several parts, including robot simulation and a physical robot competition using the Valkyrie robot, also known as R5.
The MIT team, led by Russ Tedrake, was chosen because they’d participated in 2015’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Robotics Challenge. They’ll be getting up to $250,000 per year until 2015 from NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directive to try and get this NASA humanoid to handle deep space exploration and other basic tasks.
NASA Humanoid: Why Do They Want Robots in Space?
NASA expressed that the reason behind wanting to put a Humanoid in space is because they can be of assistance, or maybe even replace humans in very extreme space environments. They can be monitored directly by humans or take care of basic tasks as humans arrive onto these environments. The NASA Humanoid hopes to be able to handle disaster-relief protocols in addition to exploring deep space and assisting astronauts.
