Re: CONGRATULATIONS BIGELOW AEROSPACE!

Joe Strout <joe@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

In article <44b82e4b.618419453@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
fairwater@xxxxxxxxx (Derek Lyons) wrote:

OTOH - I doubt any of them will actually last any length of time on
the Martian surface sans maintenance - even if Mars was an exact
terrestrial analog. To some extent comparing deep-sea ROV's with,
say, Spirit's arm is apples and oranges.

True; I was thinking more of things like Robonaut, designed for much
closer use (i.e. Earth orbit, Moon tops). A Mars rover is indeed a
rather different ball of wax.

Even a lunar rover is a different ball of wax, so is earth orbit - in
both cases the environment is utterly different.

As if the places where Chevron gets their arms builds arms that meet
NASA's various needs - which I doubt seriously.

I agree that NASA could define their needs so as to rule out any
commercially available arm -- and that'd be just the sort of thing
they'd do, too.

If there were commercially available arms would function in the space
or lunar surface environment - you'd have a point.

However, I don't agree that the manipulators on modern submersibles
would be inappropriate for use in space, with perhaps some minor
modifications.

If you define 'minor modification' as 'carefully peeling off the
identification plate and attaching it to a new arm', then yes - all it
will take is a minor modification.

D.
--
Touch-twice life. Eat. Drink. Laugh.

-Resolved: To be more temperate in my postings.
Oct 5th, 2004 JDL
.