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First ISS-To-Earth 'Handshake' Demonstrates Space-to-Ground Remote Control
Zothecula writes: NASA astronaut Terry Virts, aboard the International Space Station, and ESA telerobotics specialist André Schiele, in the Netherlands, made space history this week with the first telerobotic "handshake" between space and Earth. Using special force feedback joysticks that acquire force data and create the sensation of pressure, Virts and Schiele brought the agencies closer to allowing astronauts in remote locations to naturally and safely control robotic devices and perform potentially dangerous or otherwise impossible tasks.
Is this what space exploration has been reduced to?
Like sending people to the moon and Mars?
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
You mean like when you want a hug or are needing satisfied in certain ways?
I would say this is just a demonstration of precision and control capabilities and not directly mean for human to human interactions. Imagine a repair needing to be made in a remote location to lets say the space station. Suppose something struck part of it and has disabled the airlocks and boarding docks. You cannot get anything out there to see the extent of the damage but know you can unbolt it and replace it if you could. It's hard to preprogram a robot for the precise maneuvers or detect when the attempt to fix is going to make things worse. With this, it would be similar to a human touch but by a robot. It goes a long way at making things safer.
Now lets get grounded for a bit. Suppose it's not in space but at a nuclear reactor that's had some issues and it is to dangerous to sent live people in. This could be a step above current robotic capabilities and have a human like presence. But think about other things like earth quakes and so on. The lists go on and on where possibly one expert in some mechanical application or medical field can be in 20 different places in the amount of time it takes to reconfigure a connection from command center to another robot already set in place by less specialized people.
While cool, TF summary notes this is a first "between space and Earth". I'm guessing this has already been done between two (possibly distant) places on earth. The IN SPACE factor is neat, but is there much new here?
What makes you think that? There is space debris smaller than a pebble that could damage things without any of that. A micrometeorite strafing the docking port could damage it to the point of inoperable status without ever piercing the walls or decompressing it.
Besides, it was just a freaking example of a potential real life use. It doesn't matter if 10,000 other things are likely to happen, if the one outlined scenario happens, that could be a use.