DailyDirt: Space Robots

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

The robots in science fiction are a bit more entertaining than most of the robots that actually exist today, but the "coolness" gap is narrowing as robots get to go to more interesting places -- like space. Robots tweeting observations from the surface of Mars have a fairly impressive number of followers (even though they weren't talking during the recent government shutdown). It probably shouldn't be too surprising, since space robots have always been the coolest robots (eg. R2D2, Data, the "Class M-3 Model B9 General Utility Non-Theorizing Environmental Control Robot"). Here are just a few examples of actual space robots that might be famous someday. If you'd like to read more awesome and interesting stuff, check out this unrelated (but not entirely random!) Techdirt post via StumbleUpon.
Hide this

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team

Filed Under: astronauts, droid, haptics, hmi, humanoid, iss, kirobo, r2, robonaut, robots, space, spacejustin, turing test
Companies: nasa


Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread


  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 21 Oct 2013 @ 5:15pm

    don't make me..

    google "Class M-3 Model B9 General Utility Non-Theorizing Environmental Control Robot" just to find out that it's the name of the un-named robot in Lost in Space.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Wolfy, 22 Oct 2013 @ 3:34am

    That's nuts! I clearly recall the robot being addressed as "Robot".

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Jared, 24 Oct 2013 @ 12:30pm

    It's great robots have gone beyond the days of science fiction. Some people are anxious about robots taking jobs. In reality, they are helping humans make incredible discoveries by handling routine or undesirable tasks. Excellent examples.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Greg, 24 Oct 2013 @ 12:35pm

    It makes sense to send intelligent robots into space before humans get there. We need to be able to see what is happening before taking risks. Robotics are getting extremely advanced and many industries are starting to use them.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 30 Apr 2015 @ 7:52pm

    I dont see any article with an unnamed robot.

    link to this | view in chronology ]


Follow Techdirt
Essential Reading
Techdirt Deals
Report this ad  |  Hide Techdirt ads
Techdirt Insider Discord

The latest chatter on the Techdirt Insider Discord channel...

Loading...
Recent Stories

This site, like most other sites on the web, uses cookies. For more information, see our privacy policy. Got it
Close

Email This

This feature is only available to registered users. Register or sign in to use it.