NASA's humanoid robot to get a leg up on space station

Sharon Gaudin | March 28, 2014

A pair of robotic legs will be heading to the International Space Station.

A pair of robotic legs will be heading to the International Space Station.

That's right. Robot legs.

Robonaut 2, also known as R2, is a humanoid robot that has been working on the space station since 2011.

The 300-pound robot, which had been in the works for 11 years, has 38 PowerPC processors, including 36 embedded chips, which control its joints. Each of the embedded processors communicates with the main chip in the robot.

The robot, whose legless torso has been attached to a stationary pedestal, is expected to eventually take over some basic duties, such as cleaning and maintenance inside the station, freeing up the astronauts to do more critical work, like scientific experiments. NASA scientists hope that one day, with upgrades to the robot's torso, it will be able to work outside the station, aiding astronauts in spacewalks.

To do much of that work, the robot needs legs.

That's where SpaceX, a commercial space flight company that runs cargo missions to the space station, comes into play.

SpaceX is set to carry the robotic legs onboard one of its Dragon cargo crafts in its third contracted resupply mission to the space station. The mission had been scheduled for launch on Sunday but was postponed because of a recent fire that damaged radar equipment on the East Coast of Florida.

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NASA's humanoid robot to get a leg up on space station