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NASA's Personal Satellite Assistants

Posted by michael on from the battlebots dept.

colonist writes "Wired News reports on the Personal Satellite Assistant (PSA), a spherical robot about the size of a softball that uses air jets to move in the microgravity environment of space vehicles and habitats. Described as a cross between Star Trek's tricorder and Star Wars' lightsaber training droid, the PSA has 'sensors for measuring gases, temperature, and air pressure' and performs 'video conferencing and can communicate with electronic support devices such as computer servers, avionics systems, and wireless LAN bridges'." We mentioned these a few years ago - looks like they've come a long way since then.

9 of 152 comments (clear)

  1. Other links of interest by bonghorn · · Score: 5, Informative

    More information is available here and here.

    Kind of weird that they don't play up the fact it runs linux more.

  2. More on Defense Tech by noahmax · · Score: 5, Informative

    There's a bunch more on how the Trek-inspired 'bot was built and tested here.

  3. Earning my nerd stripes by darth_MALL · · Score: 5, Informative

    Wrong SW droid man! The IT-0 droid in that link is a torture droid. You will find the correct Training Remote Here. May the Force be with YOU!

  4. also by abscondment · · Score: 4, Informative

    also being covered at some sites.

  5. Yup by fiannaFailMan · · Score: 3, Informative
    "The PSA, running on a Pentium II processor and GNU Linux OS, would store the steps instead, and use a built-in speaker or LCD screen to tell or show the astronauts what they need to do."
    --
    Drill baby drill - on Mars
  6. Re:Idea: by EvilTwinSkippy · · Score: 4, Informative
    The complexities of ingress an egress for a robot through an air lock are not simple algorithms.

    Now assuming you get past that, something bumbling around in space needs armor to withstand micrometeorites, radiation shielding for the electronics, and some sort of thermal insulation to prevent the mechanics from tearing themselves apart when the sun side of the droid is at 400 degress and the shade site at -200.

    CO2 propellent can't be proportionally controlled as well as air from a fan, so you loose fine positioning control. And you have the problem of running out or propellent.

    I think that about covers it.

    --
    "Learning is not compulsory... neither is survival."
    --Dr.W.Edwards Deming
  7. More like Forward's "Christmas Trees" by TheGreatGraySkwid · · Score: 3, Informative

    In Robert Forward's Rocheworld series, his characters have a fractally organized device called "The Christmas Tree." The limbs of the tree could break off, and the branches of those limbs could do likewise, and so on until you have little tiny clusters. Each cluster had some small amount of processing power, and sensor capability, and motile capability. A small branch was always with/following around after/worn by every crewmember, and could be used for pretty much everything these "PSAs" are intended for.

    Lots of good science in the Rocheworld books, but as prose and characters go...well, the science is really neat...

    --
    The Humblest Mollusk on the Net
  8. Re:why? by servognome · · Score: 2, Informative

    Most hardware in space vehicles is old.
    RS232 is there probably so its compatible with the computers running on the space shuttle or ISS.

    --
    D6 63 0D 70 89 81 BB 8E 7B 7C 5F 5D 54 EA AB 73
  9. Re:Idea: by tassii · · Score: 2, Informative

    Something like this from this article at Space.com.

    --
    "I drank what?" - Socrates