Robonaut 2 & STS-133

STS -133 mission is going to be one of the milestone in human history because of various reasons out of which two are very important from my point of view.

1. It will be the 39th and final flight of space shuttle Discovery.

2. Robonaut 2 or R2.

R2 will be the first humanoid robot in space. Engineers will test and monitor how dexterous robots behave in space and how such devices can help astronauts in the future. In future it will work on the International Space Station and venture outside the station to help spacewalkers. R2 is jointly developed at the Johnson Space Center in Houston by General Motors and NASA.

According to NASA, It can lift 20 pounds with each arm, which is about four times that of other humanoid robots. This is really good stuff…

Anyways.. I am glad with this step.. but at the same time I am a little worried… lots of bad thoughts coming into my mind…

Is this really good to send a Robot in space….? Can I say… we are are going to plant first seed of fictional Human war with intellegent robots…. ? Amagingly R2's face is similer to Boba Fett who was the main villain in Star Wars. Whatever it is, I wish I am wrong… but at the same time I can’t ignore a single possibility out of all impossibilities…!!

References:http://www.nasa.gov(Details and Image taken from NASA website)

NanoSail-D

NanoSail-D finally deployed.. don’t laugh, I know this is a two week old news.. Frankly speaking… I am not getting time to write posts.. too busy with my day to day work.

Anyways, it’s a big achievement because NanoSail-D is the first one of its type ever deployed successfully in space by human. Few years ago, the Planetary Society attempted a mission called Cosmos 1, which was very similar to NanoSail-D but the Cosmos 1 was destroyed because of failure of launch vehicle which prevented it from reaching its intended orbit. Deployment of NanoSail-D nanosatellite was confirmed by engineers at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama on Friday, Jan. 21 at 10 a.m. EST. It is operating as planned with its 100-square-foot polymer sail.

Solar Sails like NanoSail-D take the advantage of sunlight (not like solar cells..!!), and do not require chemical fuel (wow… either not like other spacecrafts..!!). Isn’t that interesting…? If not like above two methods then how…? Here is the concept..

I will take a scenario.. just for some fun, but it will solve my motive.

As per Hindu mythology when HANUMAN (monkey God) was a kid, he assumed Sun as a ripe orange. With the help of his divine powers he became enormous and took the Sun into his mouth (just a myth). But if this was the real scenario.. can you imagine what he could have felt that time…?

A lots of HEAT, of course, but there was one more thing.. “PRESSURE”. The heat because of Hydrogen fusion and the pressure because of momentum of photons (because photon exhibit wave-particle duality).

For us it only comes to about a millionth of an unit. But in space, even this pressure can be of ultimate use because it is there every time regardless of hours, days or years. The good news is its unlimited and absolutely free of cost. Solar Sails can catch the radiation blowing from the Sun and get the momentum transferred to a very slowly but accelerated speed. This speed keeps on increasing with respect to time and can reach to extent where interplanetary transportation is possible in few hours.

We are doing fantastic but still there is a lot to be discovered and revealed at least the reason “Why we are here…?”

For more details of NanoSail-D please refer This Link.