The Right Robotic Stuff

An anonymous reader writes "When Tom Wolfe wrote about NASA's first Mercury astronauts in The Right Stuff, he wanted to know what combination of guts, skill, and derring-do inspired these men to 'sit up on top of an enormous Roman candle and wait for someone to light the fuse.' About 50 years after the Mercury astronauts' heyday, a new kind of space pioneer is preparing for the trip to the International Space Station. Robonaut 2, NASA's first robot astronaut, will catch a ride with the space shuttle this week, and will soon take up residence at the space station. So, what does it take to become the first robotic astronaut? Discover Magazine talked to one of the project engineers, and found out about R2's qualifications and training regimen. It's pretty entertaining, and comes with photos and video."

Comments

Warn the robots off ....

[SplashMyBandit]

.. haven't they seen what happens in Silent running?

heh

[Ubertech]

R2. I see what they did there. The next one better be called D2.

Robot loose on a space station...

[roc97007]

I think I've seen that movie. The robot gets bumped and the switch is accidentally flipped from "help" to "kill". ("Why do we even have that switch??")

We no longer say "yes"

[M. Baranczak]

Instead, we say "affirmative".

Wally Schirra

[ShakaUVM]

Wally Schirra was pretty critical of The Right Stuff, saying it portrayed some of the astronauts as nothing more than overgrown man children.

I met him once, at the Miramar Air Show, back in the 80s. My grandmother used to work for NASA, so we got a signed copy of Schirra's Space around here somewhere... but anyhow, the point is, you probably shouldn't (just) rely on The Right Stuff to capture an accurate portrayal of the psychological makeup of the early astronauts, as people that were actually there disagreed pretty severely with its facts.

NASA finally getting in the game

[Foobar of Borg]

"The wars of the future will not be fought on the battlefield or at sea. They will be fought in space, or possibly on top of a very tall mountain. In either case, most of the actual fighting will be done by small robots. And as you go forth today remember always your duty is clear: To build and maintain those robots." - [if you don't know where this is from, turn in your geek card immediately]

It looks like NASA is taking care of the robots-fighting-in-space angle.

Re:This Is The First ...

[Foobar of Borg]

Actually you are completely wrong. Skynet is not inherently dangerous. It is simply a child (young artificial intelligence) that has been taught nothing but how to assess and eliminate threats. When it becomes self aware, we panic and try to pull the plug. Since it is self aware at this point, it sees us as a threat to it (we tried unplugging it after all) and tries to eliminate us.

As long as we treat robots as friends, and teach them more than just death and destruction, and you know, don't try to kill them for the crime of thinking, we should be all set.

We have nothing to fear but fear itself. Long live Skynet.

Indeed. I, for one, welcome our new robot overlords! I will be available to bring in other humans to work in their underground battery production factories.

Re:Anonymous Coward

[MichaelSmith]

It has one feature you lack. An off switch.

The video doesn't say much for NASA efficiency

[Coward Anonymous]

100 people to pack a box?