Who can forget Obi Wan Kenobi instructing Luke Skywalker with a floating Jedi remote, like a robotic softball? NASA has worked to recreate these functioning bots with miniature satellites called Spheres (Synchronized Position Hold Engage Reorient Experimental Satellites).
The NASA Spheres are currently floating around in the International Space Station, powered by smartphones!
I want to reiterate this for all of the sci-fi fans out there that have wondered when the genre of Star Wars would change to read science non-fiction: floating, working robots, the size of soccer balls, have been traversing about in space.
NASA engineers on earth are directing the Spheres to inspect parts of the ship and to conduct experiments. For instance, two Spheres – lets call them Darth and Emperor Palpatine – work together hauling objects across trays of fluid to see how liquids work in microgravity.
The hurdle for these mini-satellites is functioning in zero gravity. The Spheres are equipped with carbon dioxide tanks, thrusters, and a digital signal processor that interprets infrared sensors and utilizes sound to act as a GPS that tells the unit where it is currently floating and where it can go safely.
NASA has been using the Google Nexus S as the source of the bot’s brain, leading us back to the question: what can’t my cell phone do?
“You’ve got the accelerometer, you’ve got a high-end computer, you’ve got a magnetometer, you’ve got a camera… location, all the comm, all the memory. We thought why not just take that [phone] and see how much of this can be turned into an actual satellite,” said David Korsmeyer, the director of Engineering at the NASA Ames Research Center.
Spheres are hoped to become the next wave of satellite technology and are believed to be able to run for millions of dollars less than the costly traditional satellites.
