Build a Mindstorm Robot to Fly to ISS

CodingFrenzy writes: "If you're over 18 and living in Germany, Switzerland or Austria (thats all in Europe) you can submit your best Mindstorm based Robot to a competition to fly to the ISS (this link in German). Choose any design you want: cleaning windows, space-ballet, etc. Include a gravity generator and you might even be able to use those wheels. Pack it into fur and give them a space-pet. What the heck, there's enough junk in space already..." If you win, let us know, we'll send you a t-shirt. :)

Comments

A T-shirt?

[TOTKChief]

Just a T-shirt? I can see it:

I built this kickass Mindstorm robot that flew on ISS, and all I got was this lousy /. T-shirt!

Re:A T-shirt?

[TOTKChief]

And a trip to the control center in Moscow. If you had to chose, what would you take?

Okay, I'm biased. I do design and systems work on stuff that actually does fly on ISS, so this doesn't nearly appeal to me. But I wouldn't go to Moscow Control to save my life. They might decide that, as an undergraduate, I work cheaper than most cosmonauts--"Slap this boy in a Soyuz, Vanya; we'll have a bake sale to pay his salary while he's up there!"

Re:A T-shirt?

[TOTKChief]

I'm pretty sure quite a lot of the slashdotters would gladly go there for free...

Hell, I will go up there for free. As long as they bring me down, too.

My Invention: A walking bottle of Dessinex.

[tcd004]

You know, fight off that space fungi.

Damned Dirty Space Fungi

tcd004

Fly to ISS?

[Dr_Cheeks]

I dunno. I mean, that's gonna take an awful lot of batteries, and AFAIK Lego don't make any launch kits. And I wouldn't have thought the little connector-bumps (do they have a technical name?) would be all that aerodynamic. And what if you want it back - re-entry's going to be a bitch on the plastic.

Haha

[Tachys]

Germany, Switzerland or Austria (thats all in Europe)

I just find it funny the fact you had to point that out

Re:Haha

[larkost]

As a former exchange student to Austria from the USA, I can vouch for the fact that few Americans know the difference between Austria (small mountainous European country) and Australia (large continent sized country in the southern hemisphere). Before I left many of my (reasonably intelligent) friends honestly asked if I would bring them back pictures of Kangaroos...

So... I came back with a t-shirt saying: "There are no Kangaroos in Austria". Whenever I wear it I get random people telling me that there, "are too Kangaroos in Australia". They usually have to read the shirt three or four times to see their mistake...

If you lose...

[sulli]

You should be doing more important stuff than reading slashdot.

Where's the ISS ?

[CSC]

OK, so the poster explains things to us:

...and living in Germany, Switzerland or Austria (thats all in Europe)

...but where is ISS ? He doesn't say!

What's an average slashdotter to do? Help!

Re:Where's the ISS ?

[camusflage]

but where is ISS ? He doesn't say!

Waaaay up in the sky. You may also know it as the International Space Station.

Re:Where's the ISS ?

[camusflage]

(I can't believe you took my post seriously...)

You'd be surprised.. I posted to the article about the world's top computers, noting that the top four are at .mil installations doing "energy research", and cracked that maybe they're working on 90 MPG engines or cold fusion, and two people let me know that nuclear simulations are energy research too. Sadly, one thing this medium doesn't convey so well is the subtleties of sarcasm, something which all true geeks are quite well-versed in.

New Arm

[msheppard]

This is a clever ploy to have an open source (and open-hardware!) replacement for the canada-arm.

Re:New mantra

[Kris_J]

Cute, but I don't think he meant "they're all in Europe", I think he meant "that's all".

And people think I'm picky when I can't answer a question like "How long is 250k?".

Oops

[BradleyUffner]

When I first read the headline I thought it said "Build a Mindstorm Robot to Fly the ISS". What a difference one word makes. That's also an awful lot of trust to put into a little pile of plastic.

What's the big deal here?

[colnago]

Oh...I'm sorry...I thought it said build a robot to administer IIS.

Whoa

[Khopesh]

Apparently this is NOT a contest to "Build a Mindstorm Robot to Fly to the ISS" ... since building a real spaceship out of legos is a LOT more difficult.

Wackiest Lego/KNex/Construx Creations?

[__aaahtg7394]

OK, this has inspired me to seek out the craziest, zaniest, wildest homebrew stuff made out of these. We all know about Lego Machine Guns, but how about a Homemade Ballpoint Plotter?

with that in mind, what have you folks managed with legos?

Re:Wackiest Lego/KNex/Construx Creations?

[Lars T.]

The Plotter isn't Lego

It's Fischertechnik.

parochial

[mrBlond]

> (thats all in Europe)

ObSatireWire: NetNarrow, the note at the end is even funnier than the article.

Some stories told by travel agents:

• A client called in inquiring about a package to Hawaii. After going over all the cost info, she asked, "would it be cheaper to fly to California and then take the train to Hawaii?"
• I got a call from a woman who wanted to go to Cape Town. I started to explain the length of the flight and the passport information when she interrupted me with "I'm not trying to make you look stupid, but Cape Town is in Massachusetts." Without trying to make her look like the stupid one, I calmly explained, "Cape Cod is in Massachusetts, Cape Town is in South Africa." her response....click.
• A man called, furious about a Florida package we did. I asked what was wrong with the vacation in Orlando. He said he was expecting an ocean-view room. I tried to explain that is not possible, since Orlando is in the middle of the state. He replied, "Don't lie to me. I looked on the map and Florida is a very thin state."
• I got a call from a man who asked, "is it possible to see England from Canada?" I said, "No." He said "but they look so close on the map."
• A nice lady just called. She needed to know how it was possible that her flight from Detroit left at 8:20am and got into Chicago at 8:33am. I tried to explain that Michigan was an hour ahead of Illinois, but she could not understand the concept of time zones. Finally I told her the plane went very fast, and she bought that!
• A woman called and said, " I need to fly to Pepsi-Cola on one of those computer planes." I asked if she meant to fly to Pensacola on a commuter plane. She said, "Yea, whatever."
• A business man called and had a question about the documents he needed in order to fly to China. After a lengthy discussion about passports, I reminded him he needed a visa. "Oh no I don't, I've been to China many times and never had to have one of those." I double checked, and sure enough, his stay required a visa. When I told him this he said, "Look, I've been to China four times and every time they have accepted my American Express card."

A common answer to folk from the USA saying that we are rude to them is: "We're not rude to people from the USA, we're rude to imbeciles." There's a difference between someone who doesn't know, and someone too stupid to learn.

I think the reason why the "morons from the USA" meme is so prevalent, is because of their president, their political and social conservatism, and the fact that a lot of them can afford to travel abroad, and countless AOLers and WebTVers have access the 'net. If anything I'd say that the USA has some of the most brilliant and amazing people, but the tourists and politicians unfortunately influence thought about USA folk more.

New mantra

[pongo000]

Germany, Switzerland or Austria (thats all in Europe)

News for nerds. Stuff that matters. Geography for geeks.

Now if we could just teach the /. boys proofreading skills, we'd almost be scholarly.

I won

[Wonko42]

Well guys, I won. Can you send the t-shirt via FedEx Next Day? Thanks.

Russian control rooms...

[Richard Bannister]

I've never been to a russian mission control room, but it's probably an interesting experience ;-)

Aye - be sure to wear protective clothing, and make sure you check yourself with a Geiger counter before and afterwards!

Re:Really? Fly to the ISS?

[unitron]

Glad to see I'm not the only one confused by it not being worded "to be flown to the ISS".

Unless of course by being in the Alps you're already high enough up not to have to worry about achieving orbital velocity.