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NASA's Zero-Gravity Robotic-Arm Partnership With Canada

Posted by Soulskill on from the see-ya-to-da-iss-eh dept.

AndreV writes "We've entered into an extraterrestrial quid pro quo with our Northern neighbors: After celebrating 25 years of the Canadarm's first venture into space, NASA has reached out (so to speak) to the Canadian Space Agency and begun research and development on a new generation of robotic arms, which would ultimately be used for the US agency's Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle that will provide transportation for Moon missions and jaunts to the international space station. In exchange, Canada will trade the robotic-limb technology's use on Orion and other future US-manned spacecraft for flight time for Canadian astronauts. And seeing solid results shouldn't be far off — the engineering company designing the bionic branch, responsible for the previous Canadarms, has already begun investigating the effects of zero gravity on their components. (Another forward-looking project being bartered for astronaut time is a rover for the Moon and Mars.) Fair trade?"

2 of 41 comments (clear)

  1. Canadians are armed after all! by itsybitsy · · Score: 3, Funny

    Take off without a Canadarm, eh? Not going to happen! You try to get out and they keep pulling you back in with their stinking robotic canada arm! They've got leverage! They've got rotating joints, and as we all know Canadian joints are the best in the world! They've got Jack Baur and Captain Kirk and some awesome singers too! You try to get out and they keep pulling you back in with the long flexible reach of the canadarm...

    Gotta hand it to Canada, it's an awesome technology! No wonder as up in the Great White North (it's melting, it's melting, no, it's freezing, it's freezing, no it's melting, no it's irregular climate, ...) there is nothing to do but play with robotic and non-robotic arms and hands! You see we Canadians got tired of our own hands we decided to invent a flexible third hand for those extra special moments when a helping hand is needed to reach those spots that you just can't get to.

    Canadians keep grasping at the future getting a tight grip upon it! You keep trying to get out but they keep pulling you back in! ;-)

  2. Re:Controversy Mining ... by legallyillegal · · Score: 0, Funny

    they should take their robots and go back to wear they came from

    "Sir, you can't end your sentence with a preposition."
    "Oh, really? Well, what would you say?"
    "Well, I guess I'd say either, 'Go back from where you came,' or the preferred Queen's English, 'Go back, thee, from whence thou came.'"

    - Canadian Bacon, 1995

    --
    ?giS