Droids on the ISS

SpaceAdmiral writes "Inspired by Luke Skywalker, M.I.T. students have built five droids for the ISS. The orb-shaped devices will float around the International Space Station, maneuvered by compressed CO2 thrusters. The SPHERES (Synchronized Position Hold Engage Re-orient Experimental Satellite) will eventually be deployed as tiny satellites, but they first require testing aboard the ISS to learn to fly in formation. One has already been sent to the ISS and two more will join it soon."

I, for one...

[Anonymous Coward]

...welcome our new rotund orbiting overlords!

(someone had to say it :-)

Cool !

[darthgnu]

I remember the Yoko Tsuno books had those on the Viniean ships, cool stuff. I would not have imagined that these kinds of machines would be feasible during my lifetime.

I prefer

[neonprimetime]

The first SPHERE arrived on the ISS in April tucked inside a Progress supply rocket. (Remember, tiny satellites make good hitchhikers.)

I prefer the young blondes myself

sounds good, but

[dario_moreno]

do they have a "party mode" emergency button blaring "Feel the Energy" ?

Remotes?

[parasonic]

I guess that Jedi training will have to be added to the astronauts' checklist. They're going to need lightsabers now.

Just one question..

[Rob T Firefly]

*are batteries included? [imdb.com]

Re:Wouldn't compressed air have been better?

[Darth_brooks]

Nitrogen is flammable when combined with air. In an oxygen rich environment, I'd imagine it's even more dangerous.

Re:Wouldn't compressed air have been better?

[Darth_brooks]

whoops i'm a total farking tard. disregard completely, utterly and totally.

Is it any wonder I failed chem?

Re:Wouldn't compressed air have been better?

[Tx]

whoops i'm a total farking tard. disregard completely, utterly and totally.

No way pal, that one's coming back to haunt you. You shall henceforth be known as "the flammable nitrogen guy" :D.

Re:Wouldn't compressed air have been better?

[Darth_brooks]

"Who knew flammable and inflammable meant the same thing?"

Re:Wouldn't compressed air have been better?

[gstoddart]

"Who knew flammable and inflammable meant the same thing?"

When it first happened, it was news to me!

Here I was happily thinking invincible, indestructible, and inflammable, and we standardize with the rest of the world and made it inflammable. Caused me no end of consternation. I suppose, it's good to standardize on something so important, but for some of us, the transition hurt our wee heads and took some time to get used to.

You wanna really see something funny -- find someone old enough to remember when

Apples and Oranges

[Feneric]

But there's a problem: Flying in formation is trickier than it sounds. Ask a crowd of people to line up single file, and they'll be able to figure it out and do it rather easily. Getting a group of orbiting satellites to do the same thing, it turns out, is extremely hard.

This isn't really comparing two similar things. The human example is a 2D case on the ground with friction and easy maneuvering, the satellite one a 3D case in space where inertia rules the day. Ask a crowd of people to navigate little orbs into a line in open space and see how long it takes them.

Re:Apples and Oranges

[peragrin]

Ask 5 pilots to fly in a formation. They can figure it out just as easily as 5 people on the ground. It requires a bit more skill as you have a third dimension plus speed to work out but every military trained pilot can do it.

We just haven't developed the software and hardware to analize the required data fast enough. When we do projects like Bush's anti-ICBM missle defense shield will actually work reliably.

Re:Apples and Oranges

[Feneric]

Ask 5 pilots to fly in a formation. They can figure it out just as easily as 5 people on the ground. It requires a bit more skill as you have a third dimension plus speed to work out but every military trained pilot can do it.

Right, five pilots can, but they've had training, whereas the simple case of queueing up on the ground can be quickly handled by anyone. That's my point -- we're talking about two different levels of difficulty. The 3D case is more complicated than the 2D one.

Re:Apples and Oranges

[SpaceToast]

It depends on how sophisticated you want their formation flying to be. If the rules are A) Stay together, B) Don't crash into anything, and C) Seek some goal, simple emergent behavior can do remarkablly well. Craig Reynolds' Boids [red3d.com] algorithm, developed in 1986, is an amazingly simple way to do it.

I'm not saying that flocking in the real world, even in "empty" space, isn't a remarkable challenge, but there are sometimes simple ways to create compex coordination. Marco Dorigo's ant colony optimization [wikipedia.org] rou

Im guessing this are for inside use only

[technoextreme]

Ultrasonic sensors tend not to work well in space

Seaquest

[jcdick1]

Reminds me less of Star Wars and more of the SeaQuest submarine, since they plan on releasing them outside the station at some point.

Waiting for the Redesign

[Deinhard]

I may be the only one, but the in reading the small "mini posting," I thought it said Druids on the ISS.
Now, I'm not knocking Druids, but I'm certainly not convinced about their effectiveness on the ISS. Sure, certain of their kind can heal and shapeshift but they are hardly useful skills in this situation.

Boy!

[Goo.cc]

Sounds more like something out of Phantasm to me.

Luke Skywalker?

[biglig2]

I don't remember Luke building any droid's.

Annie did, of course. Pity really, if he'd built a PDA instead it would have saved a lot of trouble, as perhaps then he'd have remembered when he got to Corsucant to politely ask one of his friends - the one who rules a planet would be a good place to start - to go back to Tatooine and buy his frickin' mother.

Funny chap, Annie.

"Ah, hello Mr Vader. Welcome to Jedi Heaven. Oh, wait a minute, there's a note on your file here - killed women and children, embraced Dark

Re:Luke Skywalker?

[SpaceAdmiral]

Dude. . . it's refering to that floating orb, light-saber training droid dealie. You know, the one Luke trained with.

Re:Luke Skywalker?

[biglig2]

I see your point, it's not a very good use of "inspired" though is it - bit like being inspired to be an architect because you saw Cary Grant go into a nice building in a film once.

Re:

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

What happens when it runs out of CO2?

[ap0]

Maybe I didn't RTFA very well, but what happens when it runs out of CO2? Is it disposable in that sense, too? Or does it have an air compressor or something?

Re:What happens when it runs out of CO2?

[niXcamiC]

An air compressor...... It's in space......

(And you don't just compress air to get liquid co2, you need somewhat pure co2 to compress)

SPHERES

[kalirion]

Synchronized Position Hold Engage Re-orient Experimental Satellite.... What a coincidence that this unwieldy name would turn into such a perfect acronym!

Re:SPHERES

[Mishra2002]

The original student research project which was developed in to SPHERES was given the acronym MILLER TIME by the students. I wish I still had what that actually stood for.

Is CO2 the best choice for closed-environment?

[Myself]

Is it just me, or is releasing even more CO2 into the station atmosphere not very helpful? They should use plain compressed air, so as not to alter the gas balance when they're active.

I understand CO2 is more compressible, but refining it from plain air in order to recharge the little suckers is just extra work. Give 'em big batteries and onboard compressors, and the problem goes away.

Robin Williams misplaced his

[Stanistani]

This is just Weebo from the remake of 'Flubber'.
Except the one in the movie wouldn't have worked (weightlessness* helps).

*Yeah, microgravity, I know. Bite me.

maneuvered by compressed CO2 thrusters.

[dead.phoenix.616]

maneuvered by compressed CO2 thrusters.

hmm, so thats how they move...
just fart their way around.
I could probably do that at zero g ;p

OTOH, seriously speaking, wont the co2 add
up to the ISS environment hazard?