Sandeep Yayathi works on Robonaut, a dexterous humanoid robot built and designed at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. On April 4, 2012, from noon – 1 p.m. EDT, Yayathi will answer student questions about his work with Robonaut, his career path and what the future holds for robotics. Robonaut 2, or R2, launched to the International Space Station on space shuttle Discovery as part of the STS-133 mission. It is the first dexterous humanoid robot in space and the first U.S.-built robot at the space station.
Yayathi is developing a new power system including a battery backpack to allow Robonaut 2 to move about freely without having to be plugged into the space station’s power grid. Eventually, the new power system will allow an upgraded version of the robot to work outside the station.
Submit questions during the chat through a chat window, or email them to NASA-Explorer-Schools@mail.nasa.gov.
For more information and to view the video chat, visit https://www.nasa.gov/offices/education/programs/national/nes2/home/robonaut-chat.html.
Today, Dr. Michelle Thaller from Goddard Space Flight Center will answer student questions from 1 – 2 p.m. EDT. Dr. Thaller’s research interests are hot stars, colliding stellar winds, binary star evolution and evolved stellar companions. Don’t miss this opportunity to have your students ask Dr. Thaller about her research and the path that led her to NASA.
Join NES for a live video chat on Feb. 8, 2012 from 1:30 – 2:30 p.m. EST to celebrate National Black History Month with a panel of five NASA engineers and scientists. 
Give your students the opportunity to ask questions of a NASA oceanographer and climate scientist. Dr. Josh Willis is an oceanographer and climate scientist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. He was the Deputy Project Scientist and a member of the science team on Jason 1 and 2. Willis is currently the Lead Project Scientist for the Jason 3 project.
Join NES for a video chat on Oct. 5, 2011 at noon EDT. Paulo Younse, a robotics engineer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, will answer student questions about a career as a robotics engineer, robot technology, what scientists already have learned about the geology of Mars, and what they are hoping to learn from the soon-to-launch Mars rover named Curiosity.