Astronauts are faced with a lot of dangers when they are sent on space missions. The adverse environment in space can be physically and psychologically taxing for them; space radiation can cause cancer, and a possible spacecraft malfunction can put them in great peril.
Thanks to modern technology, astronauts may soon no longer have to face these dangers that go with their job. The solution: human-like robots that can help space scientist explore space.
Last week, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) unveiled its newest humanoid machine named Valkyrie. This showcase of modern space-exploring technology was built in cooperation with students and researchers from the University of Edinburgh's Centre for Robotics.
Valkyrie is a 6-foot, 300-pound robot designed by engineers from the NASA's Johnson Space Center. According to a report by Tech Insider, it has 200 sensors and four body cameras, enabling it to sense surroundings in real-time.
The robot—named after the female war spirits of Norse mythology—can also turn a valve and use a hand drill, making it useful during space missions, Valkyrie's project manager Kris Verdeyen said in a Tech Insider report.
Professor Sethu Vijayakumar, director of the Edinburgh Centre for Robotics, described Valkyrie as a "huge scientific undertaking."
"At the moment the robot is a pretty basic shell which can walk up a set of three small steps and can reach out and grip something and pass it on to someone. It reacts if you push against it, either swaying or taking a step back," Vijayakumar said in a Daily Express report.
"The big challenge will be getting Valkyrie to interact with people; you have to have some pretty adaptable algorithms. The dream is to have something that can be a co-worker for astronauts on space missions, for example," the professor added.
Valkyrie will be tapped for the mission to Mars in the next five years, and for other space missions.
"We are looking forward to tackling the many technical challenges involved in developing a large-scale humanoid robot, and pushing the state of the art in humanoid robotics," Vijayakumar added.
