Endeavour Crew to Assemble Giant Robot, in Space

Frizzled writes "Part of the space shuttle crew's scheduled mission for this week is to assemble a massive robot which will 'rise like Frankenstein' from the shuttle's cargo bay. The robot, named Dextre, has 11-foot arms, a shoulder span of nearly 8 feet, a height of 12 feet, and was built by the Canadian Space Agency. 'Dextre can pivot at the waist, and has seven joints per arm. Its hands, or grippers, have built-in socket wrenches, cameras and lights. Only one arm is designed to move at a time to keep the robot stable and avoid a two-arm collision. The robot has no face or legs, and with its long arms certainly doesn't look human.'"

Go Canada

Figures they would put their flag on the giant penis.

Re:Go Canada

I wonder what he uses those arms for (one at a time.)

Re:Go Canada

I wonder what he uses those arms for (one at a time.)

Typing.

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Chicks. Dig. Giant Robots!

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Red, White and BLUE would just send the wrong message.

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heh, as if we do not already have enough of that...

Robotic overlords

When to say this if not now? I, for one, welcome our new robotic overlords from space.

Yes, but, does it have...

Does it have a Secret Lab [wikipedia.org]?

Voltron!

Awesome! I wonder who lost the game of rock, paper, scissors and has to be the hermaphrodite kid in the green lion.

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Canadian made, no less.

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When to say this if not now? I, for one, welcome our new robotic overlords from space.

You know what I want to know about this Canadian technology? How It's Made. [wikipedia.org]

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Normally I would agree, I've looked at the picture in the article, and I can tell this is a very bad idea.

NASA: Lets just make a bunch of giant robots with giant wrench arms and a giant Canadian phallus and put them in space. What could possibly go wrong?

I also like that Japan's donation to the space station is a closet.

torch

if it doesn't have a welding torch on at least one of the arms - it's useless. if it does- sweet.

Re:torch

At least that's not a vacuum cleaner...

Excellent

I'm sure this robot will provide countless valuable lessons and learning experiences regarding the design and deployment of automatons in space.

Oblig 50's quote slighytly edited.

Klaatu: I'm worried about Dextre. I'm afraid of what he might do if anything should happen to me.

Helen: Dextre? But he's a robot. Without you, what could he do?

Klaatu: There's no limit to what he could do. He could destroy the Earth.
 

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Dextre baratta nikto!

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"Gort, Klaatu barada nikto!" clearly means "Gort, Klaatu has fallen and he can't get up!"

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You know they're remaking that [imdb.com] with Keanu Reeves as Klaatu?

"Dude! You totally melted that guy's tank!"

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"You know they're remaking that with Keanu Reeves as Klaatu?"

DO NOT WANT!

The good news is...

Certainly won't be any fire brandishing townsfolk come after it and make it go beserk, because you know...fire bad!

assemble a massive robot which will 'rise like Frankenstein' from the shuttle's cargo bay

Meh

I mean, it's cool and all, but let me know when we build and launch something like a Veritech fighter [wikipedia.org].

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Yeah, they whine and angst instead =P

"long arms"

certainly doesn't look human.

Oh I don't know. It reminds me a bit of Ron Jeremy.

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"...Ron Jeremy."

The article said nothing about it being apishly hairy.

Human Error

"Now I wouldn't go as far to say that we're worried it's going to go run amok and take over the space station or turn evil or anything because we all know how it's operated and it doesn't have a lot of its own intelligence," Reisman told The Associated Press last week.

Dextre was quoted as saying "It must have been human error. None of the 9000's have ever made a mistake."

Just one word comes to mind...

MEGA-MAID?

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Oh, shit. There goes the planet.

Dextre or Dexter?

Is this robot any relation to the "Dexter" guy on TV?
If so, then NASA TV may soon have a new show called CSI: ISS!

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Is this robot any relation to the "Dexter" guy on TV?

SPOILER

In season 3 he starts disposing of the bodies by burning them in atmospheric reentry.

Cue dramatic music

duh,

duh,

duh,

DUH DUH

(duh duh duh duh duh duh duh duh duh duh)

Not Frankenstein

In keeping with /. pedantry I would like to point out that Baron Victor von Frankenstein was the sceintist, and that the monster had no name.

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And don't forget that the name is pronounced Franken-SHTEEN.

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also, he wasn't a baron, his name was just Victor Frankenstein. Nor was he a scientist - he was an obsessive undergraduate. He built the monster in his dorm room.

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Undergraduates can be scientists too, provided that they're doing science.

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You'd think if the summary was going to contain quotes, they would be accurately taken from the article... but hey, this is slashdot.

The article was right: "almost like it's Frankenstein's monster coming alive."

Dextre?

When it succumbs to its darker impulses, I hope that it at least remembers to live by the Code of Isaac.

It's no GUNDAM

I guess the Canadian Space Agency beat the Japanese Ministry of Agriculture into putting a robot in space.

Canadians and arms

It would seem my fine neighbors to the north have a fixation with robotic arms and devices built from them. I wonder if the US is missing out on the robot arm fun or, alternatively, if Canada is upset they always get stuck with building large robotic tools. FWIW, this is #3 and getting more sophisticated... those in the northern USA might want to start building their robotic-arm-shelters soon...

In related news

Scenes of panic and chaos reigned as the giant robot assembled in space by a joint Canadian US expedition started firing laser beams at uncontrolled locations in North America. Visions of an inhuman, headless robot destroying the world has been the stuff of science fiction over the decades. That vision became reality early on Sunday morning as many towns across the continent were hit in a barrage of devastating but inaccurate fire. According to reports, an industrial laser mounted on one of the arms malfunc

New Futurama Movie Idea

Giant Bender In Space!

So Burning Man...

...will be held in orbit this year?

", in Space" (WTF?)

Where the hell're the crew gonna assemble it? In the air? In the shuttle bay during launch? (What's up with the ", in Space" in the title?...)

Never been photographed on Earth

It's even more intriguing since it has never been photographed on Earth. The first photos of the robot will be taken in space, hopefully.

SpaceBall One

It's turning into a giant MAID! With a Vacuum Cleaner!

Dextre?

C'mon! What about Brave Raydeen or Gaiking? [wildtoys.com]

Gigantor, anyone?

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Yeah, this isn't really journalism at its best, is it? I personally loved "The robot has no face or legs, and with its long arms certainly doesn't look human" - suggesting that having no face or legs wasn't a particular barrier to humanoid form... but long arms is just crazy talk!

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Yes, it means we used the same form of measurement that the entire world uses instead of an obsolete, needlessly complex form of measurement that went extinct some 30 years ago. Is there something they put in the water down there that makes everyone intentionally regressive? I mean creative spelling is one thing, but when you're still openly debating evolution and working globally with other nations on multi-million dollar projects where measurement is critical, you'd think you'd get the hint and modernize

"blast off in the wee hours"

I'm guessing the caption writers noticed.

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Well, if it pulls itself to bits, we will know its sexual orientation!