The robot R2 is three hundred pounds of electronics and has a head, torso, two arms and two hands.  It’s been designed to look and work like a human and therefore will be able to use the same tools as the astronauts.

It’s planned that R2 will launch on space shuttle Discovery (STS-133 mission) which is scheduled for launch in September.  As the space station is the perfect place to test human and robotic team construction, this is the ideal environment to observe how R2 functions in a weightless environment.  Initially R2 will stay in the station’s Destiny laboratory, but it’s hoped that with future enhancements and modifications it will eventually be able to move more freely around the station.  The prototype currently does not have the protection it needs to be able to work in the extreme temperatures outside the space station.

It’ll be interesting to see how this project progresses between now and the launch in September.

http://www.nasa.gov/topics/technology/features/robonaut.html

For more information about the International Space Station, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/station

Check out this beautiful crystal structure.  It’s actually a close up of a salt crystal (sodium chloride) that was grown on the International Space Station.  The crystals were kept  in a water bubble inside a 50 millimeter metal loop that was part of an experiment in the Destiny laboratory.

Photo: NASA

NASA is all set to launch its Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) on Tuesday 9 February at 10.30am EST and its mission is to study the behaviour of our own star, the Sun.  It is hoped that this mission will help further our understanding of how the Sun works, it’s atmosphere and how to predict its behaviour and thereby limiting it’s effects on satellites and astronauts in space.

Due to the humongous amount of data that the Solar Dynamics Observatory will collect, it’s going to behave a little differently to the usual type of satellite.

Generally satellites share a ground station, which is a place where they send the data they have collected, which they store on a recording system until they connect to the ground station.  The Solar Dynamics Observatory doesn’t have a recording system due to the amount of data it is expected to collect, so it will have its own dedicated ground station.  This means that the observatory will be in a geosynchronous orbit (this means it will rotate at the same speed as the Earth) as this is the only way that it can stay in constant communication with the ground station in New Mexico.

For further information why not check out NASA’s website for the Solar Dynamics Observatory.

Flight Engineer TJ Creamer was the first to make use of the internet conncetion which now enables him to update his Twitter account @Astro_TJ whilst aboard the space station.  Previously tweets had to be emailed and support staff posted them to the astronauts account.

“Hello Twitterverse! We r now LIVE tweeting from the International Space Station — the 1st live tweet from Space! More soon, send your ?s” was the first tweet from space.

The web access takes advantage of existing communication links to and from the station and allows the astronauts to browse and use the web.  This will provide astronauts with direct private communications which will enhance their quality of life and help ease the isolation of the long duration missions.

The astronauts will of course be subject to the same computer use guidelines as other government employees on Earth.  In addition to the web access the crew will continue to have official email, Internet Protocol telephone and limited video-conferencing facilities.

To follow Twitter updates from Creamer and two of his crewmates, ISS Commander Jeff Williams and Soichi Noguchi, visit:

http://twitter.com/NASA_Astronauts

Check out this months fantastic Symphony of Science.