Dextre on its new perch at ISS
2008-03-19 11:22
Cape Canaveral, Florida - Astronauts moved Dextre the robot to its new perch outside the international space station after devoting nearly a week to putting together and creating the monster-size machine.
Dextre - a 3.6m hulk with 3.35m arms - will remain at its new location on the US lab, Destiny, for at least a few months.
Before they could move the robot on the end of the space station's mechanical arm, astronauts aboard the linked shuttle Endeavour and space station had to fold up its arms. It was a slow process that took an hour for each arm, with its seven joints.
When the robot finally clamped onto the lab, flight controllers had to take extra steps on Tuesday to resolve a computer software problem. It was not unexpected, and the robot had a solid grip on the lab, said flight director Kwatsi Alibaruho.
Dextre was launched into space in nine pieces aboard a transport bed, or pallet, that served as the robot-construction zone. Three spacewalks were needed to put the robot together. First, the hands were attached to the arms. Then the arms were connected to the torso. Finally, on Monday night, the eyes and tool belt were added.
The Canadian Space Agency supplied the $200m-plus robot, conceived as an assistant to spacewalking astronauts. It may be months, possibly even a year, however, before the robot is put to the test. That is how long it will take to check out the robot and have an appropriate job present itself.
Dextre's initial checkout went well, with just one minor flaw. When the waist joint was commanded to turn in preparation for the robot's relocation, it moved in the opposite direction, Alibaruho said on Tuesday night. Engineers believe the problem can be easily remedied via software.
At its new location, Dextre will be out of the way when Japan's massive Kibo lab arrives in May. The first part of Kibo, a storage compartment, flew up on Endeavour.
With their 16-day mission hitting the halfway mark, Endeavour's astronauts finally got some time off. It is the longest planned shuttle flight to the space station to date. The crew will get more free time on Wednesday afternoon.
The pace will ramp back up on Thursday evening, when two of the crew float outside to test a caulking gun and high-tech goo. Nasa wants to see how well the astronauts can fix deliberately damaged shuttle tile samples.
The experiment should have been conducted last year but was bumped because of a more pressing space station problem.
- AP