Canadian Robot Could Rescue Hubble

NETHED writes "We have all seen Stories about The Hubble Space Telescope and its current problems. Since then, NASA has okayed the fix of the HST. It seems that America's neighbor to the North has some answers. Dextre to the rescue. The mission would not be decided upon until next summer says Sean O'Keefe. It seems that NASA saw this as a good way to listen to the public for about 1.6 billion dollars." Update: 08/11 15:45 GMT by T : Reader Michael Mol dug up a link with a more technical explanation of Dextre, noting "It looks like Dextre's normally supposed to be attached to something before it performs work."

just hope Dee Dee...

[GillBates0]

doesn't show up to throw a wrench in the works.

Canadian Manufacturing

[isa-kuruption]

Dextre looks like a Lego bot. Is this how NASA plans to save money?

here's to...

[mantera]

A hope that Dextre won't be a prank in the good ol' tradition of Canadian sense of humor.

Got the arms down,

[Aerog]

Okay, we've proven that we're good at building huge robotic arms. Canada == Huge arms in space. Now what about some legs, eh? Then, once we have the legs, if we put some funding into it we could put the two together and build some giant Canada-space-mechs. It's cool even without the "giant robot" factor.

1. Build huge space-mechs
2. ???
3. Profit!

It practically sells itself!

$1.6B US or Canadian?

[allanc]

Is the $1.6B cost of this in US or CA funds? 'Cause I got about $1.6B Canadian back in change from my Value Meal yesterday...

--AC

Re:Popular opinion wins out?

[amightywind]

Does that make Mexico our ass?

Re:Canadian Robot to fix Canadian Telescope

[shufler]

The pride of Nova Scotia serves better purposes.

Re:$1.6B US or Canadian?

[Anonymous Coward]

Mod -1: Chose to insult a country other than America.

Re:Popular opinion wins out?

[shufler]

Wait. Wasn't it already?

Re:Got the arms down,

[chickygrrl]

Wonderful. Now I'm imagining Voltron with a maple leaf instead of the "crest" on the chest.

Re:Got the arms down,

[Saluton_Mondo]

I, for one, would welcome our giant Canadian-space-mech overlords!

Robot Mandark arm-wrestles for fixing rights

[Anonymous Coward]

Robot Mandark and Robot Dextre went at it in the depths of space over who would be able to repair the Hubble telescope better.

Re:Repairs

[Billy the Mountain]

Give me 1.6 billion dollars, a copy of photoshop and a computer and I'll crank out incredible images! Tell you what, I'm a bargain, I'll do it for half!

BTM

Re:NASA has become bloated, fat, and lazy

[kahei]

The whole organization should be nuked

from orbit -- it's the only way to be sure.

Sinister secret society

[revery]

We have the mod points everyday, Dexter...

--

You can't even do our secret handshake

If they try and things go wrong,,,

[Microlith]

HOSERS HOBBLE HUBBLE!

Would be an appropriate headline for the newspapers, I think :)

Re:Got the arms down,

[MindStalker]

2. Give it a giant vacumn cleaner.

Re:Cool

[AndroidCat]

I'm not going to make any jokes about left handed people being sinister

Yes, that would be rather gauche.

Re:Repairs

[Tackhead]

> That's $824.8 million in NASA budgetary estimate dollars, which are not the same as real dollars.

And it's scheduled to launch in 7 years, which any astronomer knows, doesn't imply that NASA is measuring time in Earth years.

As a rule of thumb, NASA schedules appear to use Martian years, occasionally using bodies in the Asteroid belt when Mars is feeling uncooperative. For instance, ISS will take 5 years to complete, the Galileo probe will arrive at Jupiter in 1986, and so on.

The Space Shuttle has an interesting history: initially projected to achieve 50 launches per year (using Martian years), revised down to 10 launches per year (using Ceres or Vespa in the asteroid belt for year measurement), and now targeted at 6 launches per Jovian year.

I for one ...

[Anonymous Coward]

I for one welcome our new Canadian overlords. And as a Canadian, I will be happy to round up americans to work in our subterranean robotic mines!

All Signs Point To World Domination

[Vagary]

Why do you think the Canadian government is so against the weaponisation of space? So when the space-mechs are launched, there will be nothing that can stop them. And what do you think we've been doing with all that money we're not putting into conventional military equipment?

Similarly, the X-Prize is just a front for the daVinci Project, the real purpose is so we can continue to launch space-mechs when all the rest of the worlds' launch pads are smoking holes.

yes, fully functional

[phyruxus]

>>Well, you COULD add a Head to Dexter

Look like they already worked that out... is that an ORU Temporary Platform on your chassis, or are you just happy to see me?

The Avro Arrow

[theonomist]

Let's not forget another Canadian technological triumph, the Avro Arrow.

According to the most reliable sources [canada.gc.ca] I've been able to find, the Avro Arrow...

1. Was the first fly-by-wire aircraft.
2. Was the first MACH2+ production aircraft.
3. Invented baseball.
4. Painted the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.
5. Made the Kessel Run in under twelventeen parsecs, provided that it got a good night's sleep and a running start.
6. Actually did know that a parsec is a unit of distance rather than time, but, being Canadian, was too polite to point out the error.
7. Ran Linux.
8. Was assembled entirely using those Robertson things.

Why the comedians migrated south:

[Anonymous Coward]

Relax. People make fun of Americans all the time. When we take harmless jokes personally, we look like humorless bozos, don't we? Right! So do you, dumbass.

As for why all your decent comedians end up in the US, I think you've given me the answer: I can imagine a comedian telling some stupid men-and-women-are-different joke, and an entire Canadian audience getting up in unison, calling the Mounties on their cell phones, and having the poor dumb bastard arrested for "hate speech".

Re:Got the arms down,

[Fishstick]

what's the combination?

ok, one... two... three... four... five!

<darkhelmet>So the combination is one, two, three, four, five? That's the stupidest combination I've ever heard! That's the kind of combination an idiot would put on his luggage!</darkhelmet>

(sorry, couldn't resist)

Little Known Fact

[red floyd]

Dextre has a sibling robot named Dee-Dee, which is always messing up his work.

Where's the outrage?

[Sloppy]

This robot (and a foreign outsourced one that that!) threatens to take jobs away from American workers!

Those of you who defend technology and globalism, I hope you can look an unemployed American astronaut in the eye while you explain your position. And be sure to explain who is going to put food on his family.

Re:$1.6B US or Canadian?

[udowish]

What does it matter, at the rate your US dollar is falling it will be known as the American paso in only a few years.

Re:Popular opinion wins out?

[DrCash]

Does that make Mexico our ass?

More or less ... especially considering the shape of the state of Florida, as well as what we're allegedly doing to Cuba! :-)

Re:The Avro Arrow

[Anonymous Coward]

And don't forget about the Avro Flying Car. We perfected that decades ago but decided to keep it under our toques. I'm not supposed to say this, but if your car was built in Windsor or Oshawa, you do the Canadian mod to switch it on. All you do is tur[NO CARRIER EH]

How could a robot do this?!?

[Anonymous Coward]

I watched NASA TV durring the first service mission. The astronauts had problems closing the doors on the telescope. I'm wondering how a robot would be able to close doors. Especially when those doors look like they do not align properly.

Re:As always...

[Anonymous Coward]

I guess the Shuttle Space Arm, and now this, still counts for making up of sacking the White House ;-)