Eclectic junk from the four corners of the ‘Net. And pictures too!
Who the heck wouldn’t want one of these? Clearly the guys at AirHogs have been looking at the Japanese sumo robots that have been using vaccume systems to stick to the playing surface (you lose if your pushed out of the ring). This toy uses a suction device to let you drive around smooth surfaces like windows. I see that this is a prime canadate for some sumo ring sucking acton here in the states!
[via GadgetMadness]
Oh bother, looks like a mistake during a down link hand off from one ground station to another resulted in the robotic lander Minerva to be dropped at the wrong time. Hayabusa (it’s shadow is visible on the above photo, cool eh?) had been making burns to keep station over the asteroid Itokawa when the lander was commanded to release. The spacecraft was moving away at a speed of 15cm/sec, 2cm/sec faster than the asteroids escape velocity. So, Hayabusa launched Minerva into space. That sucks, I was looking forward to seeing that hop around on the surface. However, all is not lost. The laser range finder system on Hayabusa is working great, the thrusters are working pretty well to keep correct orientation, and plans for the slug to be shot into Itokawa is still on the short list of planned events.
I like the look of this robot design. The text to speech would be cool to use if your having it do guard duty.
[via OhGizmo! ]
The Japanese mission to land a 10cm high robot names ‘Minerva’ on an asteroid is still on track even if the spacecraft is not in the best of health. Three of its four reaction wheels (devices used to maintain correct orientation) have failed and is now using precious propellant to stay on target.
The images that are being sent back are stunning. The survey of asteroid Itokawa is sure to produce a wealth of data on solar objects.
I’m looking forward to seeing if the tiny rover will be able to stay on the surface for any length of time or if it will bounce off and float away. If everything works as planned this will be the fist controlled landing and exploration of an asteroid in the history of mankind.
[ via BBC News ]
Awww, I want to go back to New York and visit this place! The last all robot store I saw was in Akihabara Japan and the chances of getting back there are pretty slim. Next time I’m in New York city this is going to be my number one stop to be sure.
