Wednesday, August 11, 2004

Canadian robot designed to rescue the Hubble Space Telescope.


The Canadian robot Dextre. Designed to perform repair work in space. Posted by Hello
NASA has decided that it is too dangerous a mission to send astronauts on a shuttle to perform maintenance work on the Hubble space telescope, although that was originally the plan. They were just going to let it fall apart and stop using it. Fortunately, the Canadian Space Agency (CSA), who have provided the Canadarm in previous shuttles, have a new robot design called the Special Purpose Dexterous Manipulator (or Dextre, for short) that is being designed as a replacement for actual astronauts. Unlike the Canadarm design, which is one long arm, Dextre has two arms, plus other grips to hold tools, etc. NASA is now seriously considering employing robots instead of astronauts for future repair work.

Globe & Mail article

The Canadian Space Agency’s web page for Dextre

The Canadian Space Agency’s web page for Canadarm2