Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Cute Japanese Robots To Be Launched Into Space

Posted by samzenpus on from the manga-space dept.

astroengine writes "This summer, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) plans to launch two amazingly cute yet advanced, white-helmeted robots into space. Then an astronaut aboard the International Space Station (ISS) will attempt to converse with one of them. Robot astronaut Kirobo and backup robot Mirata were created as part of the Kibo Robot Project, a collaboration among Robo Garage, Toyota, the University of Tokyo and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency JAXA. They aim to send the robots with the JAXA mission to the ISS on Aug. 4."

90 comments

  1. Thank god by RedHackTea · · Score: 1

    they are cute!

    --
    The G
    1. Re:Thank god by loufoque · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I find them more freaky than cute myself.

    2. Re:Thank god by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I described them to a colleague as "robotic dolls", and dolls are universally creepy.

    3. Re:Thank god by Scarletdown · · Score: 3, Funny

      Yeah they are. Shame they didn't make them look like Kerbals though. That would have made them at least 20% cooler.

      --
      This space unintentionally left blank.
    4. Re:Thank god by NoNonAlphaCharsHere · · Score: 2

      Sure, they're cute now, but wait until they all assemble into a giant mega-zord in outer space!

    5. Re:Thank god by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Going by KSP's reputation for mission success anything Kerbal-shaped is probably banned from going anywhere near launch facilities, let alone actually being allowed on-board a spacecraft!

    6. Re:Thank god by David_Hart · · Score: 1

      Cute is attractive, soft, and loveable. In no way do these look cute! They look disturbing and evil to me...

      I guess beauty, or "cuteness", really is in the eye of the beholder...

    7. Re:Thank god by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Sure, they're cute now, but wait until they all assemble into a giant mega-zord in outer space!

      That is very close to their actual mission: to collect near-Earth space junk and assemble an army of cute little robots using whatever materials are available.

    8. Re:Thank god by unixisc · · Score: 1

      Doraemon is going into space?

  2. Speed Racer, Racer-X, Trixie and Pops by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Where did my childhood go.

    1. Re:Speed Racer, Racer-X, Trixie and Pops by AliasMarlowe · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Where did my childhood go.

      If you're not still in your childhood, you must be in a coffin.
      Childhood should last almost a century.

      --
      Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. - Voltaire
    2. Re:Speed Racer, Racer-X, Trixie and Pops by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If you're not still in your childhood, you must be in a coffin.
      Childhood should last almost a century.

      That's such a trite bunch of nonsense, come on!

      Bills, mouths to feed, being a provider in general, and all the other concrete normal responsibilities and stress of adult life preclude most people from remaining in childhood. Even being single and unattached and not having any children there's still alot of responsibility and stress. You're still growing older, potentially losing good health, body wearing down, illness and disease, etc, and you're seeing all this same shit in your friends' and family's lives. Life is not about winning but it's about losing and continuing to lose until you die.

      The majority of adults probably live empty, cynical, and ultimately unsatisfying lives, so yes you could very well say they're already in a coffin, you're right on that, but that just comes with the territory.

    3. Re:Speed Racer, Racer-X, Trixie and Pops by The+Cat · · Score: 1

      Take a fucking vacation dude. Seriously.

    4. Re:Speed Racer, Racer-X, Trixie and Pops by khallow · · Score: 1

      The majority of adults probably live empty, cynical, and ultimately unsatisfying lives

      I guess you probably have plenty of company then. But you know what? I don't actually see any argument there contradicting the claim that childhood should last almost a century.

    5. Re:Speed Racer, Racer-X, Trixie and Pops by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Bad Luck Brian...

      "Takes a fucking vacation"

      "Gets AIDS"

    6. Re:Speed Racer, Racer-X, Trixie and Pops by stealth_finger · · Score: 1

      The majority of adults probably live empty, cynical, and ultimately unsatisfying lives

      I guess you probably have plenty of company then. But you know what? I don't actually see any argument there contradicting the claim that childhood should last almost a century.

      Being a child for almost a century implies you would need care givers for the same amount of time. Kids don't work, cook or clean. All they do is take. Then who's going to give birth to all these children? Kids don't have kids (mostly). Or are you saying you should just act like an immature prick till you die?

      --
      Wanna buy a shirt?
      https://www.redbubble.com/people/stealthfinger/shop?asc=u
    7. Re:Speed Racer, Racer-X, Trixie and Pops by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Take a fucking vacation dude. Seriously.

      Yeah that sure as hell would be nice, for a week or so, but then what? Take a nice vacation, relax and get away from it all, and then come back to inescapable reality.

      It's great advice, and I sure as hell plan on taking a vacation soon, but what's that got to do with the discussion?

    8. Re:Speed Racer, Racer-X, Trixie and Pops by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I guess you probably have plenty of company then. But you know what? I don't actually see any argument there contradicting the claim that childhood should last almost a century.

      I don't really know what point you're trying to make, or why any reasonable person would think the original claim ("childhood should last almost a century") is at all feasible or realistic. It's just a trite statement and if the OP is honest with himself he will acknowledge that.

    9. Re:Speed Racer, Racer-X, Trixie and Pops by JaredOfEuropa · · Score: 1

      "We do not stop playing because we grow old, we grow old because we stop playing" (Shaw)

      Take up a hobby, keep your curiosity peaked, explore, appreciate the beauty found in small things, laugh often and dare to cry. Create something just for the hell of it, anything, and don't be afraid to fail. Most of all do not be afraid to be "wasting your time". That too may sound like a bunch of trite nonsense, but being carefree in your leisure time will help you cope with the stressful day-to-day, as I found. We cannot remain children, but hanging on to some part of our childhood is a healthy thing.

      --
      If construction was anything like programming, an incorrectly fitted lock would bring down the entire building...
    10. Re:Speed Racer, Racer-X, Trixie and Pops by jalopezp · · Score: 1

      Millions of kids work, cook, and clean every day. They still mostly find time to enjoy themselves.

    11. Re:Speed Racer, Racer-X, Trixie and Pops by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You just described the United States voter about as perfectly and succinctly as I have ever seen it done. It's scary in fact.

      Everything except the kids don't have kids part.

    12. Re:Speed Racer, Racer-X, Trixie and Pops by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Some of us moved out of mom's basement at some point, had kids of our own, responsibilities ... it's called adulthood.

    13. Re:Speed Racer, Racer-X, Trixie and Pops by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Bills, mouths to feed, being a provider in general, and all the other concrete normal responsibilities and stress of adult life preclude most people from remaining in childhood. Even being single and unattached and not having any children there's still alot of responsibility and stress. You're still growing older, potentially losing good health, body wearing down, illness and disease, etc, and you're seeing all this same shit in your friends' and family's lives. Life is not about winning but it's about losing and continuing to lose until you die.

      At age 61 I'm way too old to grow up. You're not describing an adult, you're describing someone suffering from clinical depression. You should seek medical help, because what you describe is in no way normal.

      I think the most childlike part of my life was about twenty years ago when my kids were about five. Man, the fun we had! Childhood ended for the three of us when their mother abandoned us, but we all got better in time (with a little professional help).

    14. Re:Speed Racer, Racer-X, Trixie and Pops by ArcadeMan · · Score: 1

      Life is a disease: sexually transmitted, and invariably fatal. - Neil Gaiman

      --
      Get free satoshi (Bitcoin) and Dogecoins
    15. Re:Speed Racer, Racer-X, Trixie and Pops by stealth_finger · · Score: 1

      Millions of kids work, cook, and clean every day. They still mostly find time to enjoy themselves.

      Not of their own accord. Millions of adults enjoy themselves too. In ways which are way better than what kids do.

      --
      Wanna buy a shirt?
      https://www.redbubble.com/people/stealthfinger/shop?asc=u
    16. Re:Speed Racer, Racer-X, Trixie and Pops by khallow · · Score: 1

      Well, I guess my point is that I see children playing grown up in this thread. Skip that pretense and your life will be better.

    17. Re:Speed Racer, Racer-X, Trixie and Pops by ColdWetDog · · Score: 1

      Are you allowed to say this stuff on Slashdot? Isn't there something in the fine print about this behavior?

      --
      Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
    18. Re:Speed Racer, Racer-X, Trixie and Pops by khallow · · Score: 1

      Being a child for almost a century implies you would need care givers for the same amount of time.

      It hasn't been true in the past that children have always required caregivers.

      . Kids don't work, cook or clean. All they do is take.

      Your kids perhaps, but it's not true in general (particularly outside of the developed world where most kids reside).

      And that's a rather strange attitude to take, I might add. If you have kids who don't work, cook, or clean, then you end up with adult children who can't work, cook, or clean. And whom can only take.

      What I'll say now is that I see no reason for the pretense of playing adult, especially when it results in such children as you describe above. It's just a rather phony act and looks rather harmful to the next generation.

    19. Re:Speed Racer, Racer-X, Trixie and Pops by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "We do not stop playing because we grow old, we grow old because we stop playing" (Shaw)

      Growing old is mandatory, growing up is optional.

    20. Re:Speed Racer, Racer-X, Trixie and Pops by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Kids don't work, cook or clean.

      Not unless they're brought up right.

  3. It's all fun and games by SmokeSerpent · · Score: 1

    until we're being invaded and enslaved by cute plastic robots that have multiplied and evolved on the moon.

    --
    All kings is mostly rapscallions. -Mark Twain, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
  4. I keep looking at that cute little thing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    and I keep seeing Mega Man for some strange reason.

    1. Re:I keep looking at that cute little thing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      and I keep seeing Mega Man for some strange reason.

      Me too... that was my first and last thoughts upon seeing them.

  5. Noooooo! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I just wanted to cuddle those kawaii Mr. Robotos.

  6. Lasers?? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The need to have "frickin' laser beams attached to their heads! "

  7. And yet, by Ultracrepidarian · · Score: 2, Informative

    When it was time to clean up the mess at the Fukushima nuke plants it was U.S. robots that were rushed in.

  8. These robots... by zakkudo · · Score: 4, Funny

    I'm not sure how you're supposed to hump these??? Maybe they are not actually from Japan.

    1. Re:These robots... by Storebj0rn · · Score: 1

      "This summer, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) plans to launch two amazingly cute yet advanced, white-helmeted robots into space. Then an astronaut aboard the International Space Station (ISS) will attempt to **** with one of them."

      --
      "Windows are for cheaters" - Bruce Springsteen
    2. Re:These robots... by Tablizer · · Score: 1

      The Palin Method: Drill Baby Drill

      --
      Table-ized A.I.
    3. Re:These robots... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Perhaps those big eyes are removable.

  9. Great for morale by TheModelEskimo · · Score: 1

    "One day this robot came floating through, Sam, and I realized he was missing an arm. He says, "konnichiwa" and we just chuckled and were like, "little dude, where's your arm??" And then about two weeks later...Mike and Yuriy were trying to sort out an engineering mess, and it was getting kind of tense, and this little robot head...comes floating by, kind of tumbling..."kon...ni...chi...wa"...we all just lost it. I have no idea who it was but MAN it just summed up our feelings perfectly..."

  10. T_T by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    x_x

  11. Plastics shrink in space by flyingfsck · · Score: 3, Informative

    Nice ASCII art. The problem with putting cute things in space is that it will degrade quite rapidly. Any volatiles boil off faster and plastics - even (consumer grade) nylon - shrinks in space. Eventually it cracks up and falls apart. All that happens much faster than down on the surface. So plastics designed for space is different and more expensive.

    --
    Excuse me, but please get off my Pennisetum Clandestinum, eh!
    1. Re:Plastics shrink in space by Plazmid · · Score: 1

      Reminds me of the Russian's "expedient space exposure experiment with a flag." The Russians decided to put a flag, just a regular nylon plastic flag, out in space, because it looked cool or something.

      Upon retrieval a year or so later, there really wasn't to retrieve, the thing was practically gone and was left was bleached white.

    2. Re:Plastics shrink in space by BlueStrat · · Score: 2

      The problem with putting cute things in space is that it will degrade quite rapidly. Any volatiles boil off faster and plastics - even (consumer grade) nylon - shrinks in space. Eventually it cracks up and falls apart. All that happens much faster than down on the surface. So plastics designed for space is different and more expensive.

      I thought pretty much the same thing. My first thought was "Yeah, they'll look like small blobs of carbon and a few other materials surrounded by a small cloud of out-gassed material after being exposed in a vacuum, plus going from ridiculously-cold in shadow, and then suddenly exposed to ridiculously-intense direct solar radiation for a few hours/days."

      Any idea if how long these things last is part of the experiment, as in a materials-science test of possible future space-worthy materials for space suits, habitats/vessels, etc?

      A major advance in materials-science that produced a relatively cheap-to-produce material that could make a major impact on the mass needed to be lifted from a gravity well, and reduce the amount of mass, once in space, that you wanted to accelerate/decelerate and/or change direction plus be relatively resistant to radiation would be a major boost to space exploration and utilization.

      [OT]
      OMG!!...That's it!!....That's the reason for the Japanese fascination with robots all this time! This has been their plan all along! The Japanese will rule outer space with millions of plastic robot-ships...with LASERS!!...But strangely the robots will feel a curious sense of sadness and spiritual angst that will play out among them in multitudes of awkward & overly-melodramatic social situations for eons afterwards. /kidding

      Strat

      --
      Progressivism (aka US 'Liberalism'): Ideas so good they need a police/surveillance-state to enforce.
    3. Re:Plastics shrink in space by Megane · · Score: 2

      Then it's a good thing these are meant to be used inside the ISS, right? That voice recognition they have wouldn't work very well in vacuum either.

      --
      #naabhaprzrag, #sverubfr-000, #agi-fcbafberq, negvpyr[pynff*=' negvpyr-ary-'] { qvfcynl: abar !vzcbegnag; }
    4. Re:Plastics shrink in space by camperdave · · Score: 2

      Um... They won't be going outside the station. They'll be staying in the shirt sleeve environment of the ISS. (That is, until the ISS astronauts decide that they've had enough cute, and hurl them out the airlock.)

      The real problem with these things is that they are toys. They can't grip things. They have no jets to manoever in zero-G. In short, they are designed for Earth, Personally, I think this particular robot-in-space project is a publicity stunt designed to sell these toys

      --
      When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!
    5. Re:Plastics shrink in space by camperdave · · Score: 1

      That voice recognition they have wouldn't work very well in vacuum either.

      That depends on whether the audio input is a microphone or a radio receiver.

      --
      When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!
    6. Re:Plastics shrink in space by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Nice ASCII art. The problem with putting cute things in space is that it will degrade quite rapidly. Any volatiles boil off faster and plastics - even (consumer grade) nylon - shrinks in space. Eventually it cracks up and falls apart. All that happens much faster than down on the surface. So plastics designed for space is different and more expensive.

      It shrinks?

      I was in deep space! I was in deep space!

  12. Hold a fixed amount of goods by rs3gold · · Score: 1

    Which has a book bag which could hold a fixed amount of goods, your current figure may start the action. Your current figure could hold additional goods by simply holding more luggage.

    --
    fifa 13 coins pc
  13. Cuteness Gap by Tablizer · · Score: 1

    We have to do something to close the cuteness gap with Asia. We must find a way to be more competitive in adorability or else our economy will get, well, ugly.

    Children must be taught to pucker and smile more, or face consequences such as no TV or games. Perhaps those who are adorably gifted should be put in special classes to hone their skills.

    America grew complacent after it invented the Teddy Bear and the Campbells Soup Twins and zoomed ahead of Europe in cuteness when the best they could do was mimes and nutcracker soldiers with big teeth.

    However, Asia has grabbed the mantel and is kicking our non-cute little butts. Big butts actually.

    Without such measures, we'll have to take drastic and dangerous cuteness stimulus measures, such as making boys wear dresses. The red/blue culture war is bad enough as it is, but the Masculine Adorability Dress Stimulus Act Proposal (MADSAP) may just push the political system past the point of no return.

    --
    Table-ized A.I.
    1. Re:Cuteness Gap by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Hehe! that's so funny I pissed my panties. -Dave

    2. Re:Cuteness Gap by Scarletdown · · Score: 1

      We have to do something to close the cuteness gap with Asia. We must find a way to be more competitive in adorability or else our economy will get, well, ugly.

      Children must be taught to pucker and smile more, or face consequences such as no TV or games. Perhaps those who are adorably gifted should be put in special classes to hone their skills.

      America grew complacent after it invented the Teddy Bear and the Campbells Soup Twins and zoomed ahead of Europe in cuteness when the best they could do was mimes and nutcracker soldiers with big teeth.

      However, Asia has grabbed the mantel and is kicking our non-cute little butts. Big butts actually.

      This sounds like a task to be undertaken jointly by the Cutie Mark Crusaders (MLP: FiM), Gosalyn Mallard (Darkwing Duck), Kit Cloudkicker (Tale Spin), and Huey, Louie, Dewey, and Webby (Duck Tales).

      That should be enough concentrated cuteness to close the gap with Japan.

      --
      This space unintentionally left blank.
    3. Re:Cuteness Gap by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      such as making boys wear dresses

      Wait, what?

    4. Re:Cuteness Gap by king+neckbeard · · Score: 1

      I'm sorry, but have you even being keeping up? Maybe these would have been competitively cute 10-15 years ago, but cuteness has been growing at an exponential rate. And furthermore, it's not just the intensity of the cuteness, but also the sheer output of cuteness. Even if we could manage to get a 3:1 cuteness intensit advantage, we still wouldn't be able to compete. Japan has cute everything. A recent series went so far as to make some of Lovecraft's eldritch abominations into cute girls. If we wish to remain competitive in cuteness, we need a concentrated, long term plan, and relying on yesterday's A-list isn't going to cut it today. Mark my words, Japan will only continue to advance further in cuteness, and if we underestimate them, we will become irrelevant.

      --
      This is my signature. There are many like it, but this one is mine.
  14. I hope they do science with it too by Plazmid · · Score: 1

    I hope they are able to do some cool science with it too. It'd be great if they could teach it to autonomously do zero angular-momentum maneuvers, IE reorientate itself the same way a cat does. Or see if they can get it to do
    zero gravity jump "walking." Think Ender's Game.

    The former should be easy to accomplish with what they are up-porting, while the latter could probably be done if they send up a motion capture set up.

    At the very least, it should help cancel out the creepiness of Robonaut's new slenderman space legs. Robonaut is going to be 'walking' around the space station SOON.

  15. Kent Brockman quote by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    And I, for one, welcome our new cute robot overlords!

  16. Yes, but why? by Camael · · Score: 2

    Interestingly, the hiragana letters for the word "kibo" on their website means hope/aspiration.

    I do wonder what's the purpose of the trip though, since the robots can jolly well try to communicate with another human on Earth. Its not to test the effects of weighlessness since their video shows that they already tested for zero-G.

    Promotional event, maybe?

    1. Re:Yes, but why? by AmiMoJo · · Score: 2

      It's to test interaction with humans in space. Bad translation I'm afraid.

      The idea is to develop robots that can both help and keep humans company in space. On a long trip to Mars it would be desirable to have more than just a small crew of humans to interact with.

      Japan is making a lot of progress in this area. They already have robots that keep the elderly company in active service. They might not seem terribly sophisticated but then again you can't have a deep and meaningful conversation with a cat either. Unlike pets the robots look after themselves and don't eat you if you die too.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    2. Re:Yes, but why? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Cheer themselves up?

    3. Re:Yes, but why? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Interestingly, the hiragana letters for the word "kibo" on their website means hope/aspiration.

      You mean kanji.

    4. Re:Yes, but why? by Nidi62 · · Score: 2

      Unlike pets the robots look after themselves and don't eat you if you die too.

      Let's just hope the robots never figure out they can do that.

      --
      The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for it to be pitted against a slightly greater evil
    5. Re:Yes, but why? by king+neckbeard · · Score: 1

      No, the characters on the site are hiragana.

      --
      This is my signature. There are many like it, but this one is mine.
    6. Re:Yes, but why? by camperdave · · Score: 1

      The hiragana letters for the word "kibo" on their website mean kanji?

      --
      When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!
    7. Re:Yes, but why? by mrchew1982 · · Score: 1

      wow, it's seems like such a complex language for us dumb westerners... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiragana

  17. Sending those cute robots into space by Chrisq · · Score: 1

    That's terrible .... people wouldn't treat a dog like th...... Oh wait!

  18. Interstellar Foreign Relations by some+old+guy · · Score: 1

    Japan should be building an army of Pikachu bots to launch aboard all deep space probes.

    Won't the ET's be surprised when, expecting to be visiting a world of cute little yellow guys, and find...us?

    --
    Scruting the inscrutable for over 50 years.
  19. Holy cow by vikingpower · · Score: 1

    I just watched the video ( too bad I can't understand the Japanese ). Utterly cool. I already find myself thinking about how the next generation could look like, and what capabilities it would have the current generation has not ( yet ). One thing, though, puzzles me: what about using a material different than plastic ? If these robots are to ever go on a space walk or do work in hard vacuum, their plastic parts are going to be broken down quite rapidly by cosmic radiation, most of all, however, by UV radiation from the Sun. Titanium an option ?

    --
    Religous speak to God. Insane are spoken to by God. When all shut up, one can finally hear Shostakovich in peace
    1. Re:Holy cow by JaredOfEuropa · · Score: 1

      Titanium and cute? That just doesn't work...

      --
      If construction was anything like programming, an incorrectly fitted lock would bring down the entire building...
    2. Re:Holy cow by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      That's where you take the Titanium Alloy and work it into Gundanium... although I suppose all the sharp edges could make for a few hazards.

  20. I want one! by X10 · · Score: 1

    They're so cute :-)

    --
    no, I don't have a sig
    1. Re:I want one! by jones_supa · · Score: 1

      Are they based on the same bot which is featured on the Deagostini Japan YouTube channel?

  21. KAWAAIIIII!!! by sanman2 · · Score: 1

    At least Robonaut is practical - but what's this cartoony shit for? How's that going to help conquer space?

    1. Re:KAWAAIIIII!!! by king+neckbeard · · Score: 1

      By lulling enemies into a false sense of security.

      --
      This is my signature. There are many like it, but this one is mine.
    2. Re:KAWAAIIIII!!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Before we steal one of their ships so we can actually get into space and upload a virus to their mothership?

  22. And... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Cute Japanese Robots To Be Launched Into Space

    The rocket will be aimed the sun, with a pre-launch ceremony hosted by Unimate and Silver Arm.
    "Halt and Catch Fire" program is sponsored by the association for ugly, mean robots.

  23. May I be the first to say by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Bidi-Bidi-Bidi

    1. Re:May I be the first to say by camperdave · · Score: 1

      May I be the first to say Bidi-Bidi-Bidi

      May you also be the last.

      --
      When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!
  24. Pocket Spacecraft by notjim · · Score: 1

    Even better, the Pocket Spacecraft project has started its Kickstarter

    http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1677943140/send-your-own-pocket-spacecraft-on-a-mission-to-th

    "We’ve developed a very low cost, open source, open access, mass space exploration system that anyone can use, and we need your help to send your very own Pocket Spacecraft, and thousands of others, on a first of its kind expedition to the moon."

    A dude from the project had a stand at the recent RPi day in @Bristol and the whole thing is awesome, thousand of spacecraft thinner than a floppy disk will crash land on the MOON!

  25. Assembled in Japan by Yvanhoe · · Score: 1

    but how many parts were made in China?

    --
    The Wise adapts himself to the world. The Fool adapts the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the Fool.
  26. Hello Kitty remake of 2001? by jeremylichtman · · Score: 1

    "I'm sorry Dave, you're not cute enough to do that..."

  27. That's it? by gstoddart · · Score: 1

    Then an astronaut aboard the International Space Station (ISS) will attempt to converse with one of them.

    Is that really it? Tamagotchi in space?

    I was hoping they would at least try to get robots up there which can do something.

    --
    Lost at C:>. Found at C.
  28. It could be worse by PPH · · Score: 1

    It could have been tribbles.

    --
    Have gnu, will travel.
  29. The 1st Run Always Has Small Glitches by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Ha, yes, the tschyo-kyu first ones.Very yinteres ting siri. Rots of kara-kiter.

  30. Cost Comparison and Justification by poofmeisterp · · Score: 1

    I don't live in Japan, but I don't understand how the use of money can be justified for Cute Japanese Robots || Launched Into Space, over "taking care of your fucking citizens who in certain areas have huge energy issues, and in others have earthquake and flooding issues."

    Chicken and egg - who came up with the stupid spending plan first? U.S. or Japan?

    Wait, why am I even asking this question?

  31. it is worse by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It is bait for a tentacled Old One.
    I for one welcome the new Cthulhu space hentai overlords.

  32. Domo Arigato Mr Astroboto by zlives · · Score: 3, Funny

    I appreciate their cuteness but their is only one kind of robots i want out of Japan

  33. Re:The 1st Run Always Has Small Glitches by Valdrax · · Score: 1

    Ha, yes, the tschyo-kyu first ones.Very yinteres ting siri. Rots of kara-kiter.

    Man, that German DRM sure is getting out of hand!

    --
    If it's for-profit but free, you're not the customer -- you're the product (e.g., the Slashdot Beta's "audience").
  34. HAPPYNET has SPACE-BOTS? by jeffb+(2.718) · · Score: 1

    Or am I just really, really old?