Wednesday, July 9, 2014

NASA’s new astronaut-replacing robots, powered by Google Tango smartphones, launch into space this week

NASA’s new astronaut-replacing robots, powered by Google Tango smartphones, launch into space this week   First robots stole our jobs here on Earth -- and now Google and NASA want to do the same to our astronauts. Later this week, Google and NASA will launch some Tango smartphone-powered SPHERES robots to the International Space Station. As their name suggests, SPHERES are spherical robots that will float through the halls of the ISS, powered by small CO2 thrusters, performing chores that would normally be carried out by astronauts. Tango, Google's sensor-laden prototype depth-sensing smartphone, will be the brain of each robot. Read more >