Japan taking humanoid robots to moon by 2015

[jefferiestubes8]

plan to build a 2 leg Robot, Madio-Kun, or humanoid in order to be fully operational for space travel and especially to be operated on the surface of the Moon by 2015.

This $10.5 Million project seem very ambitious indeed, and while the SOHLA recognize the difficulty of the task they are however very confident in achieving it within 5 years…

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?

[CorporalClegg]

It'll probably be a Mecha.

[Crazy Eddie]

Coincidentally, I happened to get a look at their prototype when they were testing it a few months ago.



Tee hee.

[Snaploud]

I assume it would be some sort of radio-controlled device (ala the mars rover rather than some sort of AI).

[SamuraiBlue]

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.

[Bisz]

I work for Toyota, I have already welcomed out Japanese overlords, and so should you.

[publiusr]

A lifeless robot striding over a lifeless moonscape--uncanny valley indeed.

[jefferiestubes8]

ther 2015 humanoid robots are part of a larger plan.

the droids will begin construction of an unmanned base near the south pole of the moon that will be powered by solar panels,

$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/2...ssia-moon.html

[Brent]

I'm tellin ya, we are making a mistake to not make a manned mission to the moon

[CuttingEdge100]

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.

[CorporalClegg]

Didn't you hear? Th Japanese have a thing for robots.

[CuttingEdge100]

CorporalClegg,

Yeah, but it's excessive

[MeanJoePhaser]

I bet they think evil Gamilons are there.

[EyalM]

Why humanoids? Surely there are better designs for operating in such an environment?

[jefferiestubes8]

I wonder which country will be seriously considering this new location for a base in or nearby?

Back in 2009, the Japanese Space Agency JAXA announced moon hole deep enough to contain a small human base. Now, the Indian Space Research Organization has discovered a "giant underground chamber" near the Moon's equator, in the Oceanus Procellarum area.

The huge cave— discovered by the Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft—is more than one mile long (1.7 kilometers) and 393 feet wide (120 meters). By comparison, the vertical hole that Jaxa discovered was only 213 feet (65 meters across) and 289 feet deep (88 meters).

Obviously both locations must be explored with robots and LIDAR before any construction begins.
LiDAR like this.

LiDAR technology offers one of the most accurate, expedient and cost-effective ways to capture elevation information. LiDAR data is directly processed to produce detailed bare earth models in a variety of formats

LiDAR point clouds can be used to derive a wide variety of geospatial deliverables including:

Intensity images
Breaklines
Digital Terrian Models
Digital Elevation Models
Digital Surface Models
3-D models

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.

Downward-looking LIDAR instruments fitted to aircraft and satellites are used for surveying and mapping – a recent example being the NASA Experimental Advanced Research Lidar.[3] In addition LIDAR has been identified by NASA as a key technology for enabling autonomous precision safe landing of future robotic and crewed lunar landing vehicles.

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:

future human base. The settlement would be protected from radiation, micro-meteor impacts, dust and extreme temperature changes by the lava structure:

source
http://www.siliconindia.com/shownews...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.