The headline is not made up, this is actually happening as NASA announced today that humanoid robot Robonaut 2, or R2 for short, will be heading for the International Space Station.
The R2 is a joint development of NASA and GM and will soon become a permanent resident of the International Space Station destined to work along side astronauts and another robot known as Dextre (Dextre was developed by the canadian space agency).
The main difference between Dextre and R2 will be in work places, Dextre is located on the station’s exterior while R2 will get a job in the station’s “Destiny” laboratory. For now, R2 will be pretty much glued to his workspace but in the future may see him gaining the ability to move freely within the space station or perhaps even work along side Dextre.
NASA’s Exploration Systems Integration Office director, John Olson stated that the R2 will be just a new step in the ever process of robotic exploration of space along humans and that this process is vital in opening up the solar system and perhaps a lot more than we can imagine now.
