Two years after arriving at the International Space Station, the Canadian-built Dextre robot is ready to get to work.
The robotic handyman, which is attached to the station’s exterior crane, was designed to tackle some simple maintenance chores to cut down on time-consuming and risky spacewalks by station crewmembers.
Ground control teams at the Canadian Space Agency and at NASA's Mission Control Center in Houston put Dextre through a practice run this week to remove a failed circuit breaker on one of the station’s trusses.
It took more force than expected for Dextre to remove the device, called a Remote Power Control Module, from its housing, so engineers decided to hold off while they checked for problems.
The robot is expected to give it a second try on Wednesday. Engineers have been fine-tuning the station’s complicated robotics system as they better understand how it operates in the space environment. Dextre -- short for Special Purpose Dexterous Manipulator -- is ground-controlled and doesn’t require much oversight by astronauts living on the space station. It can handle about 60 different types of station spare parts.
Though it has had a bit of slow start, Dextre is expected to make up for lost time: NASA spending bills working their way through Congress all extend the station's lifetime at least five years to 2020.
Image: Dextre, the space station's robotic handyman, reports for duty. Credit: NASA
Tags: Astronauts, NASA, Robotics, Space Station
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