DailyDirt: Space Robots...
from the urls-we-dig-up dept
The satellites we've been sending up into space are getting more advanced all the time. Even some of the really old spacecraft we launched in the 1970s have surprisingly continued to operate and perform useful tasks. Here are just a few more examples of space gear that hopefully won't become space junk anytime soon.- Voyager 2 is about 14 BILLION kilometers from earth now, but it's still getting software upgrades after 34 years in service. Even with its plutonium batteries, it'll cease to function in the mid-2020s. And unlike the Terminator, it won't be back (hopefully). [url]
- A 3m-by-1m spacecraft weighing about 400kg will relatively cheaply collect medium-resolution images of the earth using radar. The radar sensors will be able to see the the earth's surface in any weather -- and a series of these satellites would be able to image any location on earth within 24 hours. [url]
- A robotic arm with a sticky hand will grab onto objects in space with the help of electrostatic forces. This robot arm could help clean up space junk or launch/retrieve nanosatellites. [url]
- To discover more links on space exploration, check out what's floating around in StumbleUpon universe. [url]
Filed Under: robots, satellites, space, spacecraft, voyager2
