Crew Works Multitude of Advanced Robotics

Robonaut
Robonaut 2, with its new legs attached, rests in the Destiny laboratory. Credit: NASA TV

The International Space Station crew has been working on a variety of robotics activities this week. On Wednesday, they tested a humanoid robot and explored how bowling ball-sized satellites, known as SPHERES, can navigate around objects. Crew members trained earlier in the week for the planned Sunday capture of the Dragon spacecraft using the 57.7 foot Canadarm2.

› Read more about the SpaceX CRS-5 mission

NASA astronaut Terry Virts unpacked Robonaut 2 so that payload controllers from the Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama could power up its new legs for the first time. Robonaut’s legs, which arrived on a previous SpaceX mission, were installed in August. Italian astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti downloaded SPHERES data demonstrating how the small free-floating satellites build 3D maps of objects and interact and navigate using those 3D models.

› Read more about the SPHERES-VERTIGO study

Cristoforetti also joined Commander Barry Wilmore removing a small satellite deployer, nicknamed CYCLOPS, from Japan’s Kibo lab module for troubleshooting. Afterward, Wilmore conducted a vision test and set up a multipurpose experiment platform in Kibo.

› Read more about the CYCLOPS

Veteran cosmonauts Alexander Samokutyaev and Anton Shkaplerov installed more overlay sheets inside the Zarya cargo module. New cosmonaut Elena Serova conducted a photographic inspection of the interior panels of the Zvezda service module. The trio also worked a wide variety of science including studies of bioelectric cardiac activity and the effects that earthquakes and human activities have on Earth’s ionosphere.

One thought on “Crew Works Multitude of Advanced Robotics”

  1. I am 69, disabled and on oxygen 24/7. Every time I read a new post from the ISS I become more amazed and awed. I also stay current with the Mars rovers, Maven, New Horizons and anything else NASA emails me about. Even though I have a college degree it has been a while, so I’ve been brushing up on physics so I can better understand. Keep up your great work and keep the posts coming. HAPPY HOLIDAYS TO ALL OF YOU!!!

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