"There will be plenty for R2 to do while waiting for its lower extremities." (Imaghe by NASA.)
The specimen pictured on your left is Robonaut 2 (or R2 for short), the first human-like robot that NASA will send into space. In February, R2 joins the International Space Station to aid in conducting scientific projects. The robot’s legs aren’t ready yet, so it’s launching ahead of them and they will be sent up and attached in space when they’re ready. The same thing happened with Buzz Aldrin, who was merely a torso when he first went to the moon. His limbs and genitals were shipped separately. An excerpt from a NASA news release:
“NASA’s Robonaut 2 is primed and ready for launch aboard space shuttle Discovery in February. R2 is so ready, in fact, that it’s going up ahead of its legs, which will follow on a later launch.
‘The robot’s legs aren’t ready yet,’ says Rob Ambrose of NASA’s Johnson Space Center. ‘We’re still testing them. But there will be plenty for R2 to do while waiting for its lower extremities.’
R2 will be the first humanoid robot to travel and work in space, so it’ll be training for some big responsibilities.
‘This robot will eventually become the space station crew’s right-hand ‘it.” (Ambrose says R2 is neither male nor female.)
Thanks to the legs and a few other upgrades, ‘it’ has a bright future. In fact the ultimate goal is for R2 to help the astronauts with EVAs. But first, like a student in school, the robot must progress stepwise as new features – like legs — are added and it acquires new abilities.”