NASA's Personal Satellite Assistants

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.

Comments

Other links of interest

[bonghorn]

More information is available here and here.

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

Re:Other links of interest

[EvilTwinSkippy]

LINUX! He said the magic word! [cacaphony of sound ensues]

the BIT

[drenehtsral]

It sounds to me like the Bit from tron =:-) *YES* *NO*

More on Defense Tech

[noahmax]

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

Cross between what now?

[SpiffyMarc]

It's a cross between the tricorder and the lightsaber training droid... so... it shoots at me until I'm hit, and then uses that little detachable wand to scan my wound?

That's awesome. Put me down for two.

Earning my nerd stripes

[darth_MALL]

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!

Cost of Space Missions

[artlu]

If droids can replace mundane human tasks on space missions, then Nasa is doing very well to spend their money on these things. Just think of it as a droid automating the stupid tasks of checking environmental controls, or outside activity. pretty cool.

also

[abscondment]

also being covered at some sites.

Idea:

[Paulrothrock]

Why not put a small CO2 cartridge in it so that it could move through a space that has been depressurized? This would probably come in handy for, say, checking the status of a system after an accident.

Re:Idea:

[EvilTwinSkippy]

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.

Re:Idea:

[Paulrothrock]

I meant inside the station. It's better than the poor thing wearing out its batteries spinning its fans in an airless environment, and safer than having the humans go in there.

As for the airlock thing, I imagine the algorithm would go like this: 1)Wait for airlock door to open. 2) Enter airlock, 3) Move into position to exit airlock, 4)On depressurization, use CO2 jets to move out of airlock once egress door is open. Or you could have a human pilot it remotely, since it's already got a camera.

Monitoring tank PSI and location (which I imagine it already does), you could make it so that you need to sudo anything that will put it somewhere it can't get back from. And timed bursts + a little math (for decreasing pressure in the tanks) = good enough control for emergencies.

Re:Idea:

[Mondoz]

The fans could still be used to orient the device. Spin a fan one direction, the device rotates in the other direction.

This kind of gyroscopic attitude control has been used for years in zero-gravity environments.

Oh great...

[cindy]

Imagine Clippy come to life and able to follow you around commenting on everything you do.

Lifespan: 2 hours
Cause of failure: smashed against bulkhead by astronaut

Not that cool

[scottennis]

On the coolness meter it only rates slightly higher than sharks with frickin' laser beams on their heads.

It runs linux?

[Mz6]

Thank goodness because if it was Windows I could only imagine...

*enter Clippy*
"It looks like you are trying to breathe..."

Re:why?

[PhuCknuT]

Because it's a prototype, and they need a way in when they're debugging the wireless hardware/software.

Still just a pipe dream...

[Mondoz]

In order for this sort of thing to actually do the things it's described as being able to do, it's going to have to work and play well with the other systems onboard.

One of the tools indicated on this device is an inventory scanner. Whomever is working on this project has yet to contact anyone in the inventory department about interfacing with the inventory software IMS (Inventory Management System) which uses its own barcode readers.

This still has a long way to go before anyone sees them floating around any of the orbiting vehicles.

Combined with Just in time training and sensors...

[955301]

sphere: Sensors indicate that the oxygen level in the cabin have decreased dramatically.

astro-tauko-cosmo-naut: gasp!

sphere: You appear to be suffocating. Would you like some training on the use of the backup oxygen supply?

astro-tauko-cosmo-naut: cough... gasp!

sphere: I did not understand your answer.

sphere moves in front of 'naut to hear the response, obstructing the backup mask.

astro-tauko-cosmo-naut passes out.

sphere: You appear to have suffocated. I'm sorry, but I don't have instructions for you to follow on what to do next.

One Thing To Say

[DarkHazard]

Ultimate dodgeball.

Re:PSA

[MonkeyCookie]

When I saw the picture of it, I also immediately thought of that torture droid thingy that Darth Vader was using during interrogations, rather this one is red and missing the big needle.

Maybe they will use it to interrogate any aliens they come across.

NASA astronaut: "Tell me the coordinates to your home planet!"
Alien: "Nooo! I'll never tell!"
NASA astronaut: "Have it your way. Bring me the personal satellite assistant! It will relieve me of the humdrum task of "convincing" you otherwise."

Re:A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away

[servognome]

Darth Vader already had such an assistant. (Episode IV) "And now, your highness, we will discuss the location of your hidden rebel base..."
Given Vader was Leia's father, right after he asked about the base, he probably continued with:
"Now lets talk about your cell phone bill. How the HELL do you spend 50,000 credits text messaging han_solo@falcon.net?! You think I'm made of money? I have a freaking goverment job, and I'm still paying on the loans I had to take out to pay for your mother's dresses! Back when I was your age I got my damn arm chopped off in the war, trying to keep those droid nazi's from taking over...."