MIT is making a humanoid robot to serve on future NASA missions

This week MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) received an unusual package: a six-foot-tall, 300-pound humanoid robot that NASA hopes to have serve on future space missions to Mars and beyond.
A team of researchers will program their new "Valkyrie" robot to autonomously perform a variety of challenging tasks that would allow it to help or even replace astronauts on missions.

http://www.csail.mit.edu/nasa_humanoid_robot_arrives_at_CSAIL

 

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Machines can be so unreliable. I would place my bet on biotech for future space explorations.

 

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Yeah. I know what you mean. The damn internet crashes every few minutes. I've never made it across the Atlantic without the damn plane ditching in the sea. Even my manual can opener can run rings around the electric one.

 

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I work with CNC machines on the job. They crash many times every night and require constant human attention. When we talk about a Mars mission where there will be no humans to maintain the machines, we are placing a lot of faith in the machines.

 

And yet Opportunity, designed for three months operation, is still functioning over twelve years later. Next year, in January, the Voyagers will have been going for forty years.
Before you point it out, I am aware that portions of these craft have failed, but work-arounds have been found. And in both theses instances we are talking old technology.

 

In general they are working fine, yes. I just don't hold much faith in machines because I've worked with them for years and know they are limited. My opinion is that a biological explorer in combination with technology would be more reliable. But such a thing is years away, so we are limited to our machines at this time.

 

While I favour human exploration of the system for philosophical reasons, in terms of value there is more bang for the buck with robots.

Remember that while humans can be on hand to repair failing equipment, the presence of humans requires much more equipment, of greater complexity.

 

I'm suggesting engineering our own little green men. I truly see that in the future of biotech.