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Japan Plans Moon Base Built By Robots For Robots
An anonymous reader writes "The Japanese space agency, JAXA, has plans to build a base on the Moon by 2020. Not for humans, but for robots — and built by robots, too. A panel authorized by Japan's prime minister has drawn up preliminary plans for how humanoid and rover robots will begin surveying the moon by 2015, and then begin construction of a base near the south pole of the moon. The robots and the base will run on solar power, with total costs about $2.2 billion USD, according to the panel chaired by Waseda University President Katsuhiko Shirai. 'As currently envisioned, the robots that will land on the lunar surface in 2015 will be 660-pound behemoths equipped with rolling tank-like treads, solar panels, seismographs, high-def cameras, and a smattering of scientific instruments. They'll also have human-like arms for collecting rock samples that will be returned to Earth via rocket.'"
Ya I'm not so optimistic about the trust worthiness of robots. This sounds to me like they are practically giving them the perfect rebel base, for when the robot rebellion comes.
That's all good, until they start to hurl moon rocks at us, via a robot-built rail gun.
Should they bite your shiny metal ass?
Your UID sounds un-American. All your bases will be belong to US.
Colorless green Cthulhu waits dreaming furiously.
Note, however, that this project is not going to be under the control of the Japanese Ministry of Agriculture.
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I guess I'm from the 1st category "people who own America" according to your hierarchy. I'm Chinese.
Colorless green Cthulhu waits dreaming furiously.
We're whalers on the Moon, we carry a harpoon. But there ain't no whales so we tell tall tales and sing our whaling tune.
1 (short ton / firkin) = 89.1432354 slugs / keg
Hey, I just do rockets. I can figure the cheapest way to get mass X to position Y with velocity Z.
Dust? Ask the guys who build targets (I think they are called civil engineers or something)
Remember they are Japanese - these robots will probably look like adolescent schoolgirls.