Lego Mindstorms In Space

ribbiting writes: "A father-son team have won the "Ultimate Builder Competition" (Lego Mindstorms) with their entry named "Jitter". The robot will fly to the ISS in November. It fits (whole) into a approx. 1'x1'x1' box and weighs less than 3 lbs. It's main mission is to collect small, flying debris. It can interact with the station walls and crew and supposedly has some light "mischief" programmed in as well (sneaking up on people, dancing). The story can be found here, de.news.yahoo.com, it's in German (sorry)." We mentioned the contest a few months ago. Altavista gives a semi-readable machine translation.

Question?

[merlin_jim]

Did anyone understand the part about "It moves primarily through a cam in a cage. On contact with the wall, it applies through moving disc cam in cage, to the opposite axis"

I understand that this says basically that it moves away from walls when it contacts them, but I can't figure out for the life of me what a "disc cam in cage" is, or how this would help it push off of the wall?

weight?

[Anonymous Coward]

It fits (whole) into a approx. 1'x1'x1' box and weighs less than 3 lbs.

Won't it weigh 0 lb in space? Surely you meant to give its mass in slugs.

Re:weight?

[13013dobbs]

That is how much it weighs on Earth. They need to keep these things light because the more weight you have to lift the more fuel you need. It may not seem like much, but it all does add up.

Strength

[Spankophile]

I wonder how well it will all hold together during the launch.

Half of the crap I build in lego falls apart when I bring it anywhere to show someone. I can't imaging making something that would withstand the rumbling/g-forces etc. of take-off.

Re:Check your links, please.

[FFFish]

What is "the slashdot type"? A generally underinformed, overopinionated, social outcast with far too much interest in programming languages and far too little interest in things like face-to-face human interaction?

Re:weight?

[theancient2]

I have never, ever heard of this unit of measure called a "slug." Wouldn't NASA use the metric system, anyway? I was under the impression that the scientific community in the U.S. often uses metric measurements, so they can communicate with the rest of the world. (After all, there's no point in doing research if the rest of the planet can't understand your results.) (Isn't Joules actually a metric unit? It's been a while since high school physics...)