Japan plans to send humanoid to the moon by 2015 related threads: US retreat leaves China leading way in race to return to Moon NASA sending Robonaut 2 (R2) to ISS in Sept.2010 older but related threads: Obama Space Plan: Return to Moon: "No Go" Obama orders a review of NASA's plan to return to the Moon To Moon, Or Not To Moon?
Coincidentally, I happened to get a look at their prototype when they were testing it a few months ago. Tee hee.
I assume it would be some sort of radio-controlled device (ala the mars rover rather than some sort of AI).
Well on the moon maybe since the time lag is only one second but on Mars with a time lag of four minutes+ making on time maneuver impossible so a task batch will be sent and the robot will follow through accordingly with some flexibility for the computer to follow through autonomously. For example robot is given instructions to build a house with step by step instructions using nuts and bolts. The robot can not lose any pieces in completing the instructions but lets say he dropped one. At this point the AI sub-routine kicks in and starts to search the missing piece then the next routine kicks in for the robot to navigate to the found piece and then another routine kicks in to retrieve the piece and lastly another routine kicks in to return to the place of origin. There will be other autonomous instructions such as recharging batteries and or even the most mundane routine like standing back up after falling down.
$2.2 billion robot-built Moon base by the year 2020. ther 2015 humanoid robots are part of a larger plan. $2.2 billion robot-built Moon base by the year 2020. related: Russia plans its own moon base (inhabited) around 2027 http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2007/08/31/science-russia-moon.html
Why don't they just send a person to the moon in 2015? They have the knowledge to build a powerful rocket, the guidance technology to do this is 40 years old or so.
Oceanus Procellarum area cave I wonder which country will be seriously considering this new location for a base in or nearby? Obviously both locations must be explored with robots and LIDAR before any construction begins. LiDAR like this. They could generate a 3-D model of the interior cave in a 1/10th scale with 3-D printers. With a rover with LIDAR & digital cameras they could have this 3-D data and color photos of the entire interior of this cave. From Wikipedia. This is how robots would land on the moon anyway. The LIDAR could be put onto rover vehicles for closeup mapping of insid a cave chamber. Other benefits of using a large cave: source http://www.siliconindia.com/shownew...as_base_station_for_astronauts-nid-79567.html via A cave surely sounds like the way to go but it would take many months or years to build it out to be habitable with life support pods.
Re: Oceanus Procellarum area cave I think you could'a just made a new thread. Interesting stuff though. Moon caves have lots of potential for bases.
Re: Oceanus Procellarum area cave . Felt like first time seen someone hijack their own thread . But yes, interesting stuff.
Re: $2.2 billion robot-built Moon base by the year 2020. Which will then be wiped out by the robots in 2028.
This might actually be rather useful http://nextbigfuture.com/2013/01/nasa-makes-prototype-ice-and-water.html