R2-D2 becomes a reality

This one is for all you Sci-fi geeks out there. It has been 34 years since the Star Wars saga began and inspired inventors and engineers around the world create to some of the key technological advancements of our time. From Ipods to hands-free kits, they all first appeared in any number of sci-fi films before gracing our lives. There was a time when people couldn't imagine living away from our planet, yet the international space-station orbits our planet with resident scientists all year round!


On the 24th of February at 4:50 PM EST (USA time) the first fully automated humanoid robot, code named R2, will launch from Cape Canavarel to join the crew of the international space-station.


R2's first stage will be to familiarise its self with the space station. It will be required to help the astronaughts cooking meals, finding & fetching equipment and making repairs to the exterior of the space station. Once R2 has settled in, its next task will be to work and assist in the with research tasks in the science labs aboard the station.


It’s truly amazing to think that we have become advanced enough to trust a fully automated Droid to safely work on and fix a piece of hardware costing $100 Billion.

To keep up to date with R2's experiments, he will be tweeting (apparently by himself daily). Check out his twitter page at: http://twitter.com/robonaut2


For more information and pictures check out: http://robonaut.jsc.nasa.gov/default.asp

Sovibrant