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Russian Robot Knows How to Use Human Tools, and Now It’s Flying into Space

Ever since 1998, the International Space Station (ISS) has been the place where exciting and never-before-attempted experiments are conducted, in all fields of human activity. For the most part of its existence, the station has been crewed solely by humans, until GM’s Robonaut got there in 2011. And now a second robot is getting ready to reach ISS.
Skybot F-850 robot 12 photos
Photo: LA MAGRA / Youtube
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On Thursday (August 22), the Russian space agency Roscosmos is launching a mission to the ISS, aiming to test a new rocket type (Soyuz 2.1a) meant for crewed flights. This time, the rocket will fly with no humans on board, but one creature will be there to report back on how the rocket performs.

The creature is called Skybot F-850 and is part of the line of Fedor robots Russia is working on for years now. That supposedly is an acronym for Final Experimental Demonstration Object Research.

The robot has been under testing for years, and there’s proof of that in the videos at the bottom of the page. In time, it learned to handle tools (including a blowtorch), drive cars, and even fire weapons.

For the trip to the ISS though, few of these skills will be used. The robot’s movements have been limited with special algorithms to prevent potential damage to the station’s hardware, says Space.

On this particular trip to orbit, the robot will be seated in the rocket’s commander chair, and not in its cargo hold -that’s a first for space exploration programs.

The Soyuz 2.1a rocket is scheduled to depart the pad at Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 03:38 GMT on August 22. The launch broadcasts live on NASA’s YouTube channel.

As for the Robonaut we mentioned earlier, the fate of GM’s creation is not known at this point. The robot was sent back to Earth in May 2018 on a SpaceX Dragon capsule to be repaired. The machine spent nearly its last five years in orbit doing nothing but occupy space due to a malfunction.

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About the author: Daniel Patrascu
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Daniel loves writing (or so he claims), and he uses this skill to offer readers a "behind the scenes" look at the automotive industry. He also enjoys talking about space exploration and robots, because in his view the only way forward for humanity is away from this planet, in metal bodies.
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