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Japanese Consortium Projects a Humanoid Robot On the Moon By 2015
JoshuaInNippon writes "A Japanese manufacturing cooperative named Astro-Technology SOHLA announced on April 27th that they are planning to create and send a two-legged humanoid robot to the moon, have it draw the Japanese flag on the surface, and hopefully then get it to return to the Earth, all by the year 2015. The group wants to inspire people, particularly in Japan, about space and generate confidence among SMEs to create low-cost space technology. While the idea may seem far-fetched to some, SOHLA had success in building a small low-cost satellite named Maido-1, which was launched into space aboard a Japanese H-IIA rocket in early 2009. The group also commented that they want to have their future humanoid robot hitch a ride to the moon with a surveying rover that JAXA is building."
With some giant laser?
maybe they use superbright LEDs?
More music, fewer hits
Will it be able to hit golfballs like the earlier astronauts? Will it plant a flag? Hell, will it even be able to right itself or free itself from its restraints once it 'lands'?
If they just want to lose a robot, they should send it down the Jersey Turnpike and see how it does in the truck lanes.
Honestly, this push for 2-legged robots seems pretty silly, and the only reason it's done is because they look more like us. A 4-legged or even 6-legged robot would make far more sense. 4 legs are much more stable than 2, and easier to walk on. If pickup up and handling objects is a concern, then 6 legs is a good alternative. Many insects work this way, after all. Praying mantises are a good example: they have six legs, and use the front two for grasping. For extra stability on rough terrain (which certainly describes the moon), the front legs can be dual-purpose, used for both walking about grasping.
Flag planting by proxy? Will the robot then walk over to the U.S. flag and tear it down?
Wouldn't the cost of returning the robot to earth far exceed the cost of simply building a new one? I thought the whole point of using automatons for exploration was that you could leave them there!
I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
I'd guess that a two-legged Japanese person would be easier to develop.
U+F8FF
I know that the Japanese like their linear algebra and all, but they need to get back to what they are good at: making Marios.
Once you start despising the jerks, you become one.
Robots mean eventual construction, which means eventual colonization, which means eventual international conflict.
Hope the conflict part waits until I'm dead!
They should just send Arnold Schwarzenegger
Why don't they try doing something that'd be more useful like sending a robot capable of mining regolith, scrapping ice off of rocks and collecting it(if they find it), or at the very least capable of moving dirt around? IE do stuff that needs to be done if we want to live there.
Couldn't they just Send an Asimo and a Solar array to charge it's batteries, maybe a "suit" to keep the dust off it's joints?
Tsukasa: All I really want, is to be left alone...
The Moon is considered to be like Antarctica. It is a shared resource, not owned by any one nation. This is mostly because those environments are too harsh and remote to establish any economically viable enterprise. When (if) we eventually find a way to make them economically viable, such as climate change melting the Antarctic or cheap launch / recovery vehicles, then we'll begin fighting over who owns them. Until then, we just look at our neighbors suspiciously, and keep the guns stowed away.
That would be the most hysterical prank ever, if the Japanese robot went and uprooted our flag. Seriously, Americans would be calling for another war with Japan. I can see Glenn Beck now.
Why not have the robot do something semi-constructive? Maybe set up a solar mirror capable of melting lunar rocks. Or set up a drill to see if there are more volatile elements deeper beneath the surface? Or at LEAST give it lots of equipment to play with, and turn it over to their brainiest kids to "experiment with", inspiring their next generation.
If they just want to demonstrate the capability to put a human on the moon and bring them home, have the robot load their return lander with moon rocks - at least that payload would have some value other than publicity, and the robot will have served a purpose.
I mean, first that mini-star generated by a giant laser and now this...
"This is a small step for an android, one giant leap for the robotkind"
The Japanese definitely have the lead in humanoid robots and have made them run, jump, lift weights and whatnot so whilst they probably will have some challenges in designing it, making it a biped won't be an issue. So why not make it look like something mankind is fond of seeing exploring space? And it might have other advantages too since if you think about it, the reason rovers are rovers isn't exactly because such a design can climb rocks easily but because that's the only design that we can make stable. Judging from the photos taken by the rovers on mars, I'd say that most of the terrain would've been easier for a biped to explore than anything with wheels. Some parts have soft sand and a biped might sink more in it but then again, a biped doesn't have wheels in which sand gets stuck so a biped with "snowshoes" might be the ideal explorer. We are bipeds as a consequence of evolution and maybe there are advantages to it on other celestial bodies too.
The whole "draw a flag" thing I consider to be the same as vandals tagging walls.
As long as it can only be seen with a really high-power telescope, I guess I don't care a lot. But it's still vandalism, and very distasteful.
Imagine if corporations could simply buy moon advertisements.... We'd be seeing crap like [KRAFT CHEESE] and other crap. The original footprints from the astronauts are still there 50 years later.
2013.
General Motors is broke and Whitacre and Lutz both knew it before they flew the coop.
Cheers.
Two pointless pursuits that can be pursued (pointlessly) together!
How about we get a humanoid robot that can successfully walk up and down stairs on earth before we send that bad boy to the moon?
Imagine if corporations could simply buy moon advertisements.... We'd be seeing crap like [KRAFT CHEESE] and other crap.
Like the ending to Hancock?
i didnt see that movie yet you insensitive clod!
Oops, my bad.
...welcome our new asian-bred moon-based overlords.
I hate being bipolar; it's awesome!
Apollo 11 - July 1969
Apollo 17 - December 1972
If Japan's two legged robot is on the moon, Who will help Godzilla defeat Megalon?
I've seen Baseball games where they put up the Japanese sun(alternating lines emanating from center). Could Japan be planning on making the entire moon look like that eventually? Heh.
God spoke to me.
However, going to the effort of bringing the robot back seems to me to be just a collossal waste of time and money. They could bring back stuff from the moon's surface without bringing back the robot itself -- it's not like the robot actually needs air to breathe or anything... just leave it there for permanent exploration.
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
The original footprints from the astronauts are still there 50 years later.
The thermal expansion and contraction of the top few feet of lunar regolith means the footprints would have lasted twenty years at most.
If they would only make it look like Godzilla, I think they could get the whole thing funded by donations... where is the paypal button!
Why not get Sanrio Corp to fund the mission and have it draw a Hello Kitty? Why not have the android look like Hello Kitty? If you've ever been to Japan and seen the Hello Kitty dildos, toilet seat covers, etc., you'll understand why this isn't entirely unlikely.
(1) Robot
(2) Moonwalk
main() {1;}
Flag planting by proxy? Will the robot then walk over to the U.S. flag and tear it down?
Who cares if they tear one down? There would still be 5 others... unless of course the Japanese send 6 flag-tearing robots to do the job.
Oblig: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hYeFcSq7Mxg
@"Will it plant a flag?"
Thats easy, provided the flag pops out its ass (like a tail) as soon as it trips over, falling flat on its face and can't get up again!
A historic moment for all robot kind to proudly remember. :)
just in time for a generation of kids who watched WALL-E to feel sorry for it and demand we bring it back
My first reaction to the headline is that's going to be one hell of a projector.
The Japanese are going to do graffiti on the Moon and the US can't even get it up. What the flick is wong with Obama? Let's take the bailout money he gave the banks, investors, AIG and auto companies and give it to NASA. They would do something useful rather than wasting it on billion dollar bonuses for executives that should be hoisted.
What, no tentacles?!?
Imagine if corporations could simply buy moon advertisements.... We'd be seeing crap like [KRAFT CHEESE] and other crap.
That'd be fucking awesome!!!
Monkey spunk.
This is the sort of thing that will cause the US to start taking space seriously again.
I predict the space race will heat up real nice again real soon, but with multiple participants, this time.
It should be very exciting. Just because we're sitting on our laurels, doesn't mean the other guys are.
(But we do have a very nice private industry starting).
expandfairuse.org
I'm reminded of an old Cold War joke.
"Mister President, the Soviets have just landed on the moon and are painting it red!"
"Good. We'll just wait until they finish, then send up our own boys to paint Coca-Cola on it."
The fundamental things apply as time goes by: man must have his mate, and man must mark his territory.
But I think they're missing an opportunity. The robot ought to be anatomically correct, and contain a little reservoir of Japanese urine it could spray onto the surface of the moon. There, let's see any human astronauts match that!
Morris Bishop said it well:
OZYMANDIAS REVISITED
I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: "Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown
And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed.
And on the pedestal these words appear:
`My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings:
Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!'"
Also the names of Emory P. Gray,
Mr. and Mrs. Dukes, and Oscar Baer
of 17 West 4th Street, Oyster Bay.
"How to Do Nothing," kids activities, back in print!
So the Russians *did* land on the moon in 1960, just like I always said.
To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
But, I hope they've worked out the icing problem.
Sorry - Last night I watched Ironman for the first time.
Marques Johansson
That sounds like an awesome idea! Get a bank of really powerful lasers in different colors and project advertisements on the moon! I bet you could sell those ads for a fortune! Just don't let Google know.