Saturday, February 5, 2011

Robonaut 2 (R2)

Robonaut 2, will make its television debut on Super Bowl Sunday, Feb 6, 2011. Millions of viewers will be able to watch the state-of-the-art robot during a General Motors segment to air during the Super Bowl pre-game show on the Fox network.

Robonaut 2, or R2, was developed and built by NASA and General Motors via a Space Act Agreement. Using the latest technology, they created a new humanoid robot that can work side-by side with people. R2 is using edge control, sensor and vision technologies so will in future assist astronauts during hazardous space missions.

Like its predecessor Robonaut 1, R2 is capable of handling a wide range of tools and interfaces. It is capable of speeds more than four times faster than R1. It's more dexterous, and includes a deeper and wider range of sensing, which can really helps.

And one BIG advantage of a humanoid design is that Robonaut can take over simple, repetitive, or especially dangerous tasks on places such as the International Space Station. Will robots make spacewalks disappear? We will see in close future.


Image above: Robonaut 2 surpasses previous dexterous humanoid robots in strength, yet it is safe enough to work side-by-side with humans. Credit: NASA. 

Thursday, February 3, 2011

What's Up for February 2011?

What's Up for February? Don't forget to see Jupiter at sunset, Saturn at midnight and pretty moon with planet couples in - between. Have a look video with short overview for this, not so long, month. You can also read the story written by Jane Houston Jones from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. You can find the story HERE. Thank you Jane for this useful information.




Tuesday, February 1, 2011

Shuttle Discovery Reached Launch Pad


Shuttle Discovery reached Launch Pad 39A at 2:55 a.m. EST following its 3.4 mile trek on the crawler-transporter from the Vehicle Assembly Building. First motion began at 7:58 p.m. EST Monday.
Discovery reach the Pad, and history! It's his last flight to the International Space Station. I don't need to say anything more. It's all said here, on this video about Discovery. Enjoy!

Image above: Bathed in bright xenon lights, space shuttle Discovery makes its nighttime trek, known as "rollout," from the Vehicle Assembly Building to Launch Pad 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Photo credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett






Monday, January 31, 2011

What Is Engineering?

Have you ever wonder? What is engineering, and who exactly is an engineer? Learn  on this video. It's mostly made for the kids, but all can learn something from here. How things works, and how do they got fixed. It's a funny video and you will not regret for 3 minutes of your life! Enjoy!



Sunday, January 30, 2011

How Would Planet Appear In The Sky If They Are Distanced As Our Moon?


Have you ever asked yourself - How would planets appear in the sky if it shared an orbit with our Moon, 380.000 km from Earth. BradBlogSpeed.com explains and show us in fantastic video! He said he created it "to make you feel small." We ARE really small.


This is an amazing and  great story. You can notice the fantastic usage of mathematics to calculate some stuff that we can even imagine that is true. Great work!