Small robot will give astronauts a big hand.
Now being built at NASA-Ames is a small robot that will work independently alongside astronauts in space.  About the size of a softball, the 5-in.-diam. Personal Satellite Assistant (PSA) will serve as an intelligent robot, providing another set of eyes and ears and an extra nose to the crew and ground support personnel.  The device will move and operate on its own in the microgravity environment of space-based vehicles.  Yuri Gawdiak, principal investigator for the projects, expects astronauts to fly a demonstration model of the device aboard a Space Shuttle in about two years.  The first crew to use PSAs will test the examine safety issues.  Those tests, if successful, will lead to a demonstration aboard the International Space Station.  Gawdiak says the project has an annual budget of about $500,000.
Flinn
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edflinn@pipeline.com
D001185:Artificial Intelligence; D015374:Biosensing Techniques; D004784:Environmental Monitoring; D004867:Equipment Design; D012371:Robotics; D012984:Software; D013026:Space Flight / Q000295:instrumentation*; D018531:Spacecraft / Q000295:instrumentation; D013685:Telecommunications; D013686:Telemetry