Hubble Marching orders

Michael Kent ) wrote:
: Eric Chomko wrote:

: Rand Simberg ) wrote:

: : Robot repair, which is what was under discussion, had you been paying
: : attention. Shuttle repair has an excellent chance of success.

: Given no track record for the former and given a good track record for the
: latter I would agree. But this begs an earlier question about using the
: ISS as a robot repair mission testbed. So, rather than DEXTRE or
: equivalent being shelved due to being to risky, shouldn't we continue
: development for future use, and use ISS to test it?

: Dextre itself is a derivative of the Special Purpose Dextrous Manipulator
: (SPDM), an attachment for the Space Station Remote Manipulator System
: (SSRMS -- aka the ISS robot arm). SPDM will likely be launched to the
: ISS sometime in the 2007/2008 timeframe.

: So, yes, you could say that ISS is being used to develop and test Dextre,
: though in reality the SPDM was under development long before a robotic
: Hubble repair mission became necessary. Considering also ISS's "inch-
: worm-like" robot arm, the mobile transporter / mobile base system, and
: the Japanese robot arm on the JEM, ISS should advance space robotics by
: a pretty fair amount.

Glad to hear that! I will be looking forward to ISS making breakthroughs
in that regard.

Eric

: Mike

: -----
: Michael Kent Apple II Forever!!
: St. Peters, MO
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