Cute Japanese Robots To Be Launched Into Space 90
astroengine writes "This summer, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) plans to launch two amazingly cute yet advanced, white-helmeted robots into space. Then an astronaut aboard the International Space Station (ISS) will attempt to converse with one of them. Robot astronaut Kirobo and backup robot Mirata were created as part of the Kibo Robot Project, a collaboration among Robo Garage, Toyota, the University of Tokyo and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency JAXA. They aim to send the robots with the JAXA mission to the ISS on Aug. 4."
Thank god (Score:2)
Re:Thank god (Score:4, Insightful)
I find them more freaky than cute myself.
KAWAAIIIII!!! (Score:2)
At least Robonaut is practical - but what's this cartoony shit for? How's that going to help conquer space?
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Re:Thank god (Score:4, Funny)
Yeah they are. Shame they didn't make them look like Kerbals though. That would have made them at least 20% cooler.
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Cute is attractive, soft, and loveable. In no way do these look cute! They look disturbing and evil to me...
I guess beauty, or "cuteness", really is in the eye of the beholder...
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Speed Racer, Racer-X, Trixie and Pops (Score:1)
Where did my childhood go.
Re:Speed Racer, Racer-X, Trixie and Pops (Score:5, Interesting)
Where did my childhood go.
If you're not still in your childhood, you must be in a coffin.
Childhood should last almost a century.
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Take a fucking vacation dude. Seriously.
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The majority of adults probably live empty, cynical, and ultimately unsatisfying lives
I guess you probably have plenty of company then. But you know what? I don't actually see any argument there contradicting the claim that childhood should last almost a century.
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The majority of adults probably live empty, cynical, and ultimately unsatisfying lives
I guess you probably have plenty of company then. But you know what? I don't actually see any argument there contradicting the claim that childhood should last almost a century.
Being a child for almost a century implies you would need care givers for the same amount of time. Kids don't work, cook or clean. All they do is take. Then who's going to give birth to all these children? Kids don't have kids (mostly). Or are you saying you should just act like an immature prick till you die?
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Millions of kids work, cook, and clean every day. They still mostly find time to enjoy themselves.
Not of their own accord. Millions of adults enjoy themselves too. In ways which are way better than what kids do.
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Being a child for almost a century implies you would need care givers for the same amount of time.
It hasn't been true in the past that children have always required caregivers.
. Kids don't work, cook or clean. All they do is take.
Your kids perhaps, but it's not true in general (particularly outside of the developed world where most kids reside).
And that's a rather strange attitude to take, I might add. If you have kids who don't work, cook, or clean, then you end up with adult children who can't work, cook, or clean. And whom can only take.
What I'll say now is that I see no reason for the pretense of playing adult, especially when it results in such
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Take up a hobby, keep your curiosity peaked, explore, appreciate the beauty found in small things, laugh often and dare to cry. Create something just for the hell of it, anything, and don't be afraid to fail. Most of all do not be afraid to be "wasting your time". That too may sound like a bunch of trite nonsense, but being carefree in your leisure time will help you cope with the stressful day-to-day, as I found.
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Are you allowed to say this stuff on Slashdot? Isn't there something in the fine print about this behavior?
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Life is a disease: sexually transmitted, and invariably fatal. - Neil Gaiman
It's all fun and games (Score:2)
until we're being invaded and enslaved by cute plastic robots that have multiplied and evolved on the moon.
I keep looking at that cute little thing (Score:4, Funny)
and I keep seeing Mega Man for some strange reason.
And yet, (Score:3, Informative)
These robots... (Score:4, Funny)
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The Palin Method: Drill Baby Drill
Great for morale (Score:2)
Plastics shrink in space (Score:4, Informative)
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Reminds me of the Russian's "expedient space exposure experiment with a flag." The Russians decided to put a flag, just a regular nylon plastic flag, out in space, because it looked cool or something.
Upon retrieval a year or so later, there really wasn't to retrieve, the thing was practically gone and was left was bleached white.
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The problem with putting cute things in space is that it will degrade quite rapidly. Any volatiles boil off faster and plastics - even (consumer grade) nylon - shrinks in space. Eventually it cracks up and falls apart. All that happens much faster than down on the surface. So plastics designed for space is different and more expensive.
I thought pretty much the same thing. My first thought was "Yeah, they'll look like small blobs of carbon and a few other materials surrounded by a small cloud of out-gassed material after being exposed in a vacuum, plus going from ridiculously-cold in shadow, and then suddenly exposed to ridiculously-intense direct solar radiation for a few hours/days."
Any idea if how long these things last is part of the experiment, as in a materials-science test of possible future space-worthy materials for space suits,
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The real problem with these things is that they are toys. They can't grip things. They have no jets to manoever in zero-G. In short, they are designed for Earth, Personally, I think this particular robot-in-space project is a publicity stunt designed to sell these toys
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That voice recognition they have wouldn't work very well in vacuum either.
That depends on whether the audio input is a microphone or a radio receiver.
Hold a fixed amount of goods (Score:1)
Cuteness Gap (Score:2)
We have to do something to close the cuteness gap with Asia. We must find a way to be more competitive in adorability or else our economy will get, well, ugly.
Children must be taught to pucker and smile more, or face consequences such as no TV or games. Perhaps those who are adorably gifted should be put in special classes to hone their skills.
America grew complacent after it invented the Teddy Bear and the Campbells Soup Twins and zoomed ahead of Europe in cuteness when the best they could do was mimes and
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We have to do something to close the cuteness gap with Asia. We must find a way to be more competitive in adorability or else our economy will get, well, ugly.
Children must be taught to pucker and smile more, or face consequences such as no TV or games. Perhaps those who are adorably gifted should be put in special classes to hone their skills.
America grew complacent after it invented the Teddy Bear and the Campbells Soup Twins and zoomed ahead of Europe in cuteness when the best they could do was mimes and nutcracker soldiers with big teeth.
However, Asia has grabbed the mantel and is kicking our non-cute little butts. Big butts actually.
This sounds like a task to be undertaken jointly by the Cutie Mark Crusaders (MLP: FiM), Gosalyn Mallard (Darkwing Duck), Kit Cloudkicker (Tale Spin), and Huey, Louie, Dewey, and Webby (Duck Tales).
That should be enough concentrated cuteness to close the gap with Japan.
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I hope they do science with it too (Score:2)
I hope they are able to do some cool science with it too. It'd be great if they could teach it to autonomously do zero angular-momentum maneuvers, IE reorientate itself the same way a cat does. Or see if they can get it to do
zero gravity jump "walking." [mit.edu] Think Ender's Game.
The former should be easy to accomplish with what they are up-porting, while the latter could probably be done if they send up a motion capture set up.
At the very least, it should help cancel out the creepiness of Robonaut's new slenderma [twimg.com]
Kent Brockman quote (Score:1)
And I, for one, welcome our new cute robot overlords!
Yes, but why? (Score:3)
Interestingly, the hiragana letters for the word "kibo" on their website means hope/aspiration [reader.bz].
I do wonder what's the purpose of the trip though, since the robots can jolly well try to communicate with another human on Earth. Its not to test the effects of weighlessness since their video shows that they already tested for zero-G [youtube.com].
Promotional event, maybe?
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It's to test interaction with humans in space. Bad translation I'm afraid.
The idea is to develop robots that can both help and keep humans company in space. On a long trip to Mars it would be desirable to have more than just a small crew of humans to interact with.
Japan is making a lot of progress in this area. They already have robots that keep the elderly company in active service. They might not seem terribly sophisticated but then again you can't have a deep and meaningful conversation with a cat either
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Unlike pets the robots look after themselves and don't eat you if you die too.
Let's just hope the robots never figure out they can do that.
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Sending those cute robots into space (Score:2)
Interstellar Foreign Relations (Score:2)
Japan should be building an army of Pikachu bots to launch aboard all deep space probes.
Won't the ET's be surprised when, expecting to be visiting a world of cute little yellow guys, and find...us?
Holy cow (Score:2)
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That's where you take the Titanium Alloy and work it into Gundanium... although I suppose all the sharp edges could make for a few hazards.
I want one! (Score:2)
They're so cute :-)
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May I be the first to say Bidi-Bidi-Bidi
May you also be the last.
Pocket Spacecraft (Score:1)
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1677943140/send-your-own-pocket-spacecraft-on-a-mission-to-th [kickstarter.com]
"We’ve developed a very low cost, open source, open access, mass space exploration system that anyone can use, and we need your help to send your very own Pocket Spacecraft, and thousands of others, on a first of its kind expedition to the moon."
A dude from the project had a stand at the recent RPi day in @Bristol and the whole
Assembled in Japan (Score:2)
Hello Kitty remake of 2001? (Score:1)
That's it? (Score:2)
Is that really it? Tamagotchi in space?
I was hoping they would at least try to get robots up there which can do something.
It could be worse (Score:2)
It could have been tribbles.
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Ha, yes, the tschyo-kyu first ones.Very yinteres ting siri. Rots of kara-kiter.
Man, that German DRM [slashdot.org] sure is getting out of hand!
Cost Comparison and Justification (Score:2)
I don't live in Japan, but I don't understand how the use of money can be justified for Cute Japanese Robots || Launched Into Space, over "taking care of your fucking citizens who in certain areas have huge energy issues, and in others have earthquake and flooding issues."
Chicken and egg - who came up with the stupid spending plan first? U.S. or Japan?
Wait, why am I even asking this question?
Domo Arigato Mr Astroboto (Score:4, Funny)
I appreciate their cuteness but their is only one kind of robots i want out of Japan
HAPPYNET has SPACE-BOTS? (Score:2)
Or am I just really, really old?