Cute Japanese Robots To Be Launched Into Space

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."

Comments

I keep looking at that cute little thing

[Anonymous Coward]

and I keep seeing Mega Man for some strange reason.

Re:Thank god

[loufoque]

I find them more freaky than cute myself.

And yet,

[Ultracrepidarian]

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

These robots...

[zakkudo]

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

Re:Speed Racer, Racer-X, Trixie and Pops

[AliasMarlowe]

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.

Re:Thank god

[Scarletdown]

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

Re:Thank god

[NoNonAlphaCharsHere]

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

Plastics shrink in space

[flyingfsck]

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.

Re:Plastics shrink in space

[BlueStrat]

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

Re:Plastics shrink in space

[Megane]

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.

Re:Plastics shrink in space

[camperdave]

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

Yes, but why?

[Camael]

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?

Re:Yes, but why?

[AmiMoJo]

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.

Re:Yes, but why?

[Nidi62]

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.

Domo Arigato Mr Astroboto

[zlives]

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