Article Journal Post 12

This article is about a humanoid robot designed for space by GE and NASA. It is called the Robonaut 2, or R2 for short. It is scheduled to launch on a ship called the Discovery. It will be the first humanoid robot to fly to the International Space Station, or the ISS. The Discovery will bring it there where it will be stored until late next year. This is because currently R2 only exists from the waist up, but he weighs 330 pounds and is 3 feet 4 inches tall. Its arms are each 2 feet 8 inches long. Next year another ship will bring R2's legs and in another year they plan to bring the computer enhancements that will allow R2 to walk in space. R2's job at the space station will include not only the housekeeping chores but also the more dangerous jobs such as if a fore or leak were to break out. This will be a tremendous help to the astronauts. Eventually engineers plan to use robots like R2 to explore deeper into space.

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This robot will be useful in the future, but is currently ineffective. Firstly it only exists from the waist up. This leaves the robot unable to do anything. It is also large, bulky, and heavy. This would make it hard to move while it doesn't have its legs. In addition, the robot cost $2.5 million to build, which is highly impractical. Finally the length of time it takes to assemble the robot makes it ineffective. It will take 2 more years before the robot will even be able to help out at the space station and that is only if nothing goes wrong. However, despite all of these immediate drawbacks that make R2 ineffective in the short term, in the long term this robot will do jobs that would otherwise threaten the lives of the astronauts. It will also take over care of the ISS which a human would otherwise have to do, which will open up more time for the astronauts.

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This website shows that the launch of the DIscovery was delayed due to a hydrogen leak. It also states how a scientists had to replace a failed cable in the ISS for an experiment, which is an example of a job R2 could do (in the distant future).