Robonaut Flexes for the Camera

In the Space Station Processing Facility at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, the dexterous humanoid astronaut helper Robonaut (R2) flexes its mechanical muscles during a media event hosted by NASA. R2 will fly to the International Space Station aboard space shuttle Discovery on the STS-133 mission. Although it will initially only participate in operational tests, upgrades could eventually allow the robot to realize its true purpose -- helping spacewalking astronauts with tasks outside the space station.

Image credit: NASA/Jim Grossmann, Aug. 13, 2010

For more information visit http://www.nasa.gov/centers/kennedy/multimedia/images/10-08-13.html

Star Wars Meets UPS as Robonaut Packed for Space

Getting into space isn't necessarily easy for astronauts, and it's not much easier for a robotic astronaut, either.

Cocooned inside an aluminum frame and foam blocks cut out to its shape, Robonaut 2, or R2, is heading to the International Space Station inside the Permanent Multipurpose Module in space shuttle Discovery's payload bay as part of the STS-133 mission.

Once in place inside the station, R2, with its humanlike hands and arms and stereo vision, is expected to perform some of the repetitive or more mundane functions inside the orbiting laboratory to free astronauts for more complicated tasks and experiments. It could one day also go along on spacewalks.

Making sure the first humanoid robot to head into space still works when it gets there has been the focus of workers at NASA's Kennedy and Johnson space centers. Engineers and technicians with decades of experience among them packing for space have spent the last few months devising a plan to secure the 330-pound machine against the fierce vibrations and intense gravity forces during launch.

Robonaut2 is designed as an assistant to astronauts on the International Space Station. But to to get there, it will need some assistance of its own from engineers and technicians on Earth. Photo credit: NASA

"I think back in May we realized we had a huge challenge on our hands," said Michael Haddock, a mechanical engineer designing the procedures and other aspects of preparing R2 for launch, including careful crane operations inside the Space Station Processing Facility's high bay.

Though it was fast-paced, intense work, the payoff of getting to help R2 into space added extra motivation for the engineers involved.

By spaceflight standards, planning for the packing effort moved quite quickly, particularly considering R2 is perhaps the heaviest payload to be taken into space inside a cargo module.

"The mass is what's driving the crane operations, otherwise we'd be handling the robot by hand," Haddock said. "But the robot itself weighs on the order of 333 pounds and when it is installed in the structural launch enclosure, it will weigh over 500 pounds."

As they must when loading anything for spaceflight, the engineers designed the packaging so astronauts could easily remove R2 from its launch box, known by its acronym SLEEPR or Structural Launch Enclosure to Effectively Protect Robonaut.

"We were trying to do something very unique and very fast," said Scott Higginbotham, payload manager for the STS-133 mission. "And we've got the best team in the world for dealing with things like that."

There was talk of simply strapping the robot into the empty seat on the shuttle's middeck, Higginbotham said, but R2 was too heavy for that. So the teams came up with a plan to fasten R2 to a base plate and use struts to support the back and shoulders. Then dense foam will provide more support, followed by an aluminum frame. A clamshell of foam tops off the package.

Assembling the packing precisely is important for R2 because a space shuttle accelerates to more than three times the force of gravity during its eight-minute climb into orbit.

"The team had to educate ourselves, learn the uniqueness of it as well as learn how to install it into the vehicle," said Ken Koby, lead systems engineer for Boeing. "That's what the team has basically been doing every day for the last three months, educating ourselves about Robonaut."

Coincidentally, detailed analysis showed that R2's best position to withstand the launch forces will be the same as the astronauts -- facing toward the nose of the shuttle with the back taking all the weight.

"The orientation is just like the crew flies," Koby said. "The crew will be facing straight up on their backs and Robonaut will be the same direction, obviously 30 feet behind them in the module here."

The astronauts of STS-133 met Robonaut at NASA's Johnson Space Center before the launch of Discovery. Photo credit: NASA

Although the robot is fundamentally a very complex machine full of state-of-the-art sensors and operated by phenomenally sophisticated software, it is its shape that stirs fascination. Designed by NASA and General Motors as a robotic assistant for astronauts working in space, R2 looks like the upper torso of a sculpted bodybuilder and is topped with a helmeted head that includes two cameras to give it three-dimensional vision plus other sensors.

Its look has been compared to Star Wars bounty hunter Boba Fett, the endoskeleton from the Terminator films and the animated robot that plays football on Fox Sports.

"It's rather intimidating at first sight because of its size, its physique and you can't see its eyes," Haddock said.

"From the moment you walk into the room and see R2, it's everything you'd expect from a robot, from the gold-shield face to the thickness, the broadness of his shoulders," Koby said. "It's truly very science fiction-like, but it's all fact in this case."

It also has a pair of beefy arms and two hands, complete with four fingers and one thumb each, that can shake hands. Its programming is sensitive enough to respond to a handshake with the same amount of force as the person squeezing R2's hands. In other words, it can hold a piece of equipment in space without crushing it.

"It really grabs people's attention," said Higginbotham. "It's so incredibly cool. It can use the same tools and procedures as an astronaut."

This Robonaut was not meant to fly at first. Instead, it was strictly a developmental model to be tested and perfected on the ground. However, it was adapted for flight and has tested well for launch. That is a bit of a theme for the STS-133 mission because the Permanent Multipurpose Module that Discovery is taking to the station also was retrofitted to add more capabilities. The PMM was formerly a Multipurpose Logistics Module known as Leonardo and was built to stay in space for only short periods at a time. But its mission has changed and engineers built up its armor and added some interior features so it can be permanently attached to the station and used as more of a storage closet than the moving van first envisioned.

"Someone said this mission is anything but ordinary," said Higginbotham, "and that is a fact."

For more information visit http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/behindscenes/robonautpacking.html

Tile Testing

In Orbiter Processing Facility-3 at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, United Space Alliance tile technician Jimmy Carter works on boundary layer transition tile bonding on space shuttle Discovery's leading wing edge.

The boundary layer transition tiles are part of testing designed to help engineers better understand the heating environment around a spacecraft as it reenters the atmosphere.

Discovery and its crew for the STS-133 mission are targeted to deliver the Express Logistics Carrier-4 filled with external payloads and experiments, as well as critical spare components to the International Space Station.

Image credit: NASA/Frankie Martin
June 25, 2010

For more information visit http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/shuttlemissions/sts133/multimedia/gallery/10-06-25.html

Space Sim

STS-133 astronauts Michael Barratt and Nicole Stott, both mission specialists, participate in an exercise in the systems engineering simulator in the Avionics Systems Laboratory at NASA's Johnson Space Center. The facility includes moving scenes of full-sized International Space Station components over a simulated Earth.

Image credit: NASA/JSC, June 8, 2010

For more information visit http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/shuttlemissions/sts133/multimedia/gallery/10-06-08.html

STS-133 Crew

Attired in training versions of their shuttle launch and entry suits, the STS-133 crew members are, from the left, Tim Kopra, Alvin Drew, Pilot Eric Boe, Commander Steve Lindsey, Michael Barratt and Nicole Stott.

Image credit: NASA/JSC March 31, 2010

For more information visit http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/shuttlemissions/sts133/multimedia/gallery/10-03-31-crew.html

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Discovery's OMS Pod Removed; Crew Practices Rendezvous, Docking

Workers at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida removed Discovery's right-side orbital maneuvering system pod Friday and will move it to the Hazardous Maintenance facility today for processing. The shuttle is undergoing standard launch processing for the STS-133 mission to the International Space Station.

The astronauts who will fly the mission are rehearsing in a simulator at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston for the rendezvous and docking at the station. The flight is targeted for launch in September.

Image above: Astronaut Tim Kopra sits in the flight engineer's position during a simulation earlier this year for the STS-133 mission. Commander Steve Lindsey is sitting in the left-hand seat in the front of the flight deck mockup as Pilot Eric Boe works in the right seat. Misison Specialist Alvin Drew is sitting beside Kopra. Image Credit: NASA

During space shuttle Discovery's final spaceflight, the STS-133 crew members will take important spares to the International Space Station along with the Express Logistics Carrier 4. Discovery is being readied for flight inside Kennedy's orbiter processing facility while its solid rocket boosters are stacked inside the nearby Vehicle Assembly Building. STS-133 is slated to launch in September.

For more information visit http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/main/index.html

NASA to Launch Human-Like Robot to Join Space Station Crew

NASA will launch the first human-like robot to space later this year to become a permanent resident of the International Space Station. Robonaut 2, or R2, was developed jointly by NASA and General Motors under a cooperative agreement to develop a robotic assistant that can work alongside humans, whether they are astronauts in space or workers at GM manufacturing plants on Earth.

The 300-pound R2 consists of a head and a torso with two arms and two hands. R2 will launch on space shuttle Discovery as part of the STS-133 mission planned for September. Once aboard the station, engineers will monitor how the robot operates in weightlessness.

R2 will be confined to operations in the station's Destiny laboratory. However, future enhancements and modifications may allow it to move more freely around the station's interior or outside the complex.

"This project exemplifies the promise that a future generation of robots can have both in space and on Earth, not as replacements for humans but as companions that can carry out key supporting roles," said John Olson, director of NASA's Exploration Systems Integration Office at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "The combined potential of humans and robots is a perfect example of the sum equaling more than the parts. It will allow us to go farther and achieve more than we can probably even imagine today."

Robonaut2 – or R2 for short – is the next generation dexterous robot, developed through a Space Act Agreement by NASA and General Motors. Credit: NASA.

The dexterous robot not only looks like a human but also is designed to work like one. With human-like hands and arms, R2 is able to use the same tools station crew members use. In the future, the greatest benefits of humanoid robots in space may be as assistants or stand-in for astronauts during spacewalks or for tasks too difficult or dangerous for humans. For now, R2 is still a prototype and does not have adequate protection needed to exist outside the space station in the extreme temperatures of space.

Testing the robot inside the station will provide an important intermediate environment. R2 will be tested in microgravity and subjected to the station's radiation and electromagnetic interference environments. The interior operations will provide performance data about how a robot may work side-by-side with astronauts. As development activities progress on the ground, station crews may be provided hardware and software to update R2 to enable it to do new tasks.

R2 is undergoing extensive testing in preparation for its flight. Vibration, vacuum and radiation testing along with other procedures being conducted on R2 also benefit the team at GM. The automaker plans to use technologies from R2 in future advanced vehicle safety systems and manufacturing plant applications.

"The extreme levels of testing R2 has undergone as it prepares to venture to the International Space Station are on par with the validation our vehicles and components go through on the path to production," said Alan Taub, vice president of GM's global research and development. "The work done by GM and NASA engineers also will help us validate manufacturing technologies that will improve the health and safety of our GM team members at our manufacturing plants throughout the world. Partnerships between organizations such as GM and NASA help ensure space exploration, road travel and manufacturing can become even safer in the future."

For more information visit http://www.nasa.gov/topics/technology/features/robonaut.html