Discovery space shuttle launch with a new passenger.

When space shuttle Discovery blasts into space next week, there will be an unusual passenger onboard. A 300-pound humanoid robot named Robonaut 2, or R2, will hitch a ride along with the six astronauts who are making their way to the International Space Station. With its gold helmet and shiny metallic visor, R2 looks a little like a toned-down Metroid from the popular Nintendo video game, but it’s solely made up of a torso, two arms and two five-fingered hands. The idea is that R2 will be an astronaut’s assistant, helping out with routine tasks such as holding tools and vacuuming air filters.

Initially, R2 will be deployed on a fixed pedestal inside the space station, NASA said. Next steps include a leg for climbing through the corridors of the space station. Once fully built, NASA envisions R2 assisting astronauts during space walks, lending a hand with mechanical fixes to the outside of the space station. This might enable us to eliminate the astronaut’s space walks altogether, said Brandi K. Dean, a NASA spokeswoman. Space walks are very dangerous and it would be beneficial to have a robot do that sort of work. R2 was jointly developed and built by NASA and General Motors engineers at NASA Johnson Space Center in Houston. But some of engineering know-how and robotic innards came out of California locations, such as Malibu’s HRL Laboratories, Woodland’s JR3 Inc. and Santa Clara’s Cirexx International Inc.

Rigel Networks' offers unmatched competence in designing and development of high performance and scalable web applications. Here is the bigger picture http://goo.gl/ZsDu