[Sixstrings]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', '[')img]http://l.yimg.com/a/p/fi/qa/36/09/41.jpg[/img]
TOKYO (AP) -- Lonely astronauts on the International Space Station may soon be getting an android friend from Japan.

And for the folks back home, it will tweet.

Japan's space agency is considering putting a talking humanoid robot on the International Space Station to watch the mission while astronauts are asleep, monitor their health and stress levels and communicate to Earth through the microblogging site Twitter.

Japan's space agency JAXA announced this week that it is looking at a plan to send a humanoid robot to the space station in 2013 that could communicate with the ground through Twitter -- primarily feeding photos, rather than original ideas -- and provide astronauts with "comfort and companionship."

Following up on NASA's "Robonaut" R-2 program, which is set for launch on the Discovery shuttle next week, the Japanese android would be part of a larger effort to create and refine robots that can be used by the elderly, JAXA said in a statement.

Japan is one of the leading countries in robotics, and has a rapidly aging society with one of the world's longest life-expectancies.

Improving robot communication capabilities could help the elderly on Earth by providing a nonintrusive means of monitoring the robot owner's health and vital signs and sending information to emergency responders if there is an abnormality, JAXA said.

"We are thinking in terms of a very human-like robot that would have facial expressions and be able to converse with the astronauts," said JAXA's Satoshi Sano.
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Japan-may-send-chatty-apf-2190521386.html?x=0&.v=1

[vaseline2008]

The asteroid mining industry is hiring, needs YOU!
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'P')lanetary Resources is a bizarre new future-tech startup launched by famed Titanic director James Cameron and Google co-founder Larry Page. The organization believes there are billions of dollars to be made harvesting the raw materials found in near-Earth asteroids.

[Keith_McClary]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'p')aid cooperative education positions
...
You'll need a GPA of 3.2 in your current studies in aerospace, mechanical, electrical, or computer systems engineering; engineering physics; engineering mechanics; or computer science.

[KaiserJeep]

I believe that we have the technology to construct habitats in space. I think we should start doing so NOW.

[KaiserJeep]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('pstarr', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('KaiserJeep', 'I') believe that we have the technology to construct habitats in space. I think we should start doing so NOW.

[thylacine]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Kaiser Jeep', ' ')I believe that we have the technology to construct habitats in space. I think we should start doing so NOW.

[SeaGypsy]

Nothing upsets me more than seeing/ hearing otherwise intelligent people fantasizing about 'off world salvation'- a total crock of shit that it is. I can forgive Hawkins as he has had to live in an extremely difficult bodily state all his life and he does an amazing job at it. For ordinary functioning humans to accept that our species is in the process of utterly destroying this ecosystem, then talk about hubris OMG- it's time to find and wreck (yes it's find first) another ecosystem- well I can't find the words or the ones I want to type don't belong on a family friendly forum. How does one scream 'When will you wake the f#@k UP?' on the internet?

[KaiserJeep]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('SeaGypsy', 'N')othing upsets me more than seeing/ hearing otherwise intelligent people fantasizing about 'off world salvation'- a total crock of shit that it is. I can forgive Hawkins as he has had to live in an extremely difficult bodily state all his life and he does an amazing job at it. For ordinary functioning humans to accept that our species is in the process of utterly destroying this ecosystem, then talk about hubris OMG- it's time to find and wreck (yes it's find first) another ecosystem- well I can't find the words or the ones I want to type don't belong on a family friendly forum. How does one scream 'When will you wake the f#@k UP?' on the internet?

[ritter]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('KaiserJeep', 'H')aving space habitats including living arks of all the biodiversity we now enjoy is a sensible precaution and one that might short-circuit the re-population of the planet by millions of years.

[KaiserJeep]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('ritter', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('KaiserJeep', 'H')aving space habitats including living arks of all the biodiversity we now enjoy is a sensible precaution and one that might short-circuit the re-population of the planet by millions of years.

[KaiserJeep]

You either believe in technology, or you don't. We know everything we need to know to build space habitats, we lack only the will. Hubbert is not the only one looking forward.

Try the Kindle edition of this work (the hardcopies are out of date):
http://www.amazon.com/Step-Farther-Out-Jerry-Pournelle/dp/0441785832

It's a work by Jerry Pournelle called "A Step Further Out". A review:

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', '
')"Among non-fiction books, one of the best is Jerry Pournelle's A Step Farther Out. It contains essays he wrote throughout the seventies. One of the main goals of the book is to show that we can escape the Four Dooms--starvation, pollution, overpopulation, and depletion of natural resources.

How? By developing the resources of the entire solar system; not just Earth. It isn't just a fluffy, "let's go to space" dream, either. Dr. Pournelle goes through the numbers, demonstrating that by developing the natural resources of the entire solar system we can survive, happily and with our high-energy society, for thousands of years. We can't survive if we stay on Earth--we'll run out of natural
resources and starve--but we will survive if we use our solar system.

Pournelle makes a compelling and entertaining argument in a book so well written you just can't put it down. He also reviews many fascinating scientific and technological breakthroughs and developments. I can't possibly do this book credit here. You'll just have to read it."

[SeaGypsy]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('KaiserJeep', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('ritter', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('KaiserJeep', 'H')aving space habitats including living arks of all the biodiversity we now enjoy is a sensible precaution and one that might short-circuit the re-population of the planet by millions of years.

[KaiserJeep]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('SeaGypsy', '
')The biggest turd in the Universe- complete with extremely dangerous pathogens. Fricken brilliant.

[SeaGypsy]

You are the pathogen dummie. (does this really need spelling out?)

[SeaGypsy]

There is nothing uniform about intelligence. One can be brilliant in one area and dumb as doggie doodoo in another. Those of moderate intellect such as KJ tend to blur this reality and think if they meet someone really brilliant in some area or other, everything they say must be close to Gospel- regardless of the well studied nature of specialized intelligence.

The idea that because we are well on the way to screwing this planet into a Mars or Saturn like desert or toxic soup we should therefore rush towards off planet reality to sustain our genus really reeks to betsy.

Before we have any right to declare ourselves worthy of outliving this planet- we MUST prove that we can be worthy occupants of this one. If we cannot then we are nothing but a hideous pathogen- intelligence or no intelligence. Those claiming otherwise and simultaneously claiming to be intelligent are certainly not worthy of a place on the eventual star fleet- if there is to ever be one- in the few million years it is likely to take to cross the physical, intellectual and MORAL boundaries to such endeavor.

[KaiserJeep]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('SeaGypsy', 'Y')ou are the pathogen dummie. (does this really need spelling out?)

[SeaGypsy]

I have done enough reading on such stupidity and moral cowardice. Not interested. The best you can come up with in your argument is 1/appeal to 'authority', 2/ dismissing everything I say as 'uninformed' and 3/ picking on my spelling- (Lol! as if I don't know how to use spell checker or as if this adds weight to your perverse intention to inflict your evil upon the entire Universe).

[KaiserJeep]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('SeaGypsy', 'T')here is nothing uniform about intelligence. One can be brilliant in one area and dumb as doggie doodoo in another. Those of moderate intellect such as KJ tend to blur this reality and think if they meet someone really brilliant in some area or other, everything they say must be close to Gospel- regardless of the well studied nature of specialized intelligence.

The idea that because we are well on the way to screwing this planet into a Mars or Saturn like desert or toxic soup we should therefore rush towards off planet reality to sustain our genus really reeks to betsy.

Before we have any right to declare ourselves worthy of outliving this planet- we MUST prove that we can be worthy occupants of this one. If we cannot then we are nothing but a hideous pathogen- intelligence or no intelligence. Those claiming otherwise and simultaneously claiming to be intelligent are certainly not worthy of a place on the eventual star fleet- if there is to ever be one- in the few million years it is likely to take to cross the physical, intellectual and MORAL boundaries to such endeavor.