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Lego Mindstorms In Space
ribbiting writes: "A father-son team have won the "Ultimate Builder Competition" (Lego Mindstorms) with their entry named "Jitter". The robot will fly to the ISS in November. It fits (whole) into a approx. 1'x1'x1' box and weighs less than 3 lbs. It's main mission is to collect small, flying debris. It can interact with the station walls and crew and supposedly has some light "mischief" programmed in as well (sneaking up on people, dancing). The story can be found here, de.news.yahoo.com, it's in German (sorry)." We mentioned the contest a few months ago. Altavista gives a semi-readable machine translation.
It might be interesting to have this type of device do some mundane house keeping tasks. Another possibility is a mobile alarm clock that looks for people if it has not been turned off, and wakes them up.
I am me...I think
"Is "Sneaking up on people" such a good idea in something as stressful as a space station?"
Yes. I think the element of surprise, especially from a 'toy', might be appreciated if you're living in a confined space for some time.
...a fact which for the sake of a quiet life most people tend to ignore ~H2G2
Also the rebot has the nice ability of being turned off and back on again. Tito would have been a bit tougher to turn back on again if they turned him off ;) Problem I could see however is if the robot starts to come apart and then there are all these lego blocks floating around inside the station.
Collects random lego bricks and then builds another 'Jitter' from the parts!
GPL Deconstructed
I wonder if all the bricks for Jitter will need to be glued together to keep him from 'accidentally' coming apart?
if it "interacts" with the walls, does that not mean it could accidentally (or maybe not...) press the "self destruct" or "open door" button?