/ News
NASA-funded program will use SPIDER robots to build a home for mankind in SPACE
The futuristic new system – dubbed SpiderFab – is being developed by a company called Tethers Unlimited.
The system uses arachnid-like droids to construct large objects in orbit around the Earth or further into the Solar System.
Our really long-term objective... is to eventually enable the use of in-situ resources to construct the infrastructure in space needed to support humanity's expansion throughout the solar system
Dr. Robert Hoyt
Tethers Unlimited CEO and chief scientist Dr. Robert Hoyt believes the SpiderFab system could be used to build radio antennas, spacecraft booms and solar arrays within the next decade.
But Dr. Hoyt also sees the robotic spiders helping humanity toward a long-term goal – sustaining mankind as it travels across the universe.
"Our really long-term objective for all of this work is to eventually enable the use of in-situ resources to construct the infrastructure in space needed to support humanity's expansion throughout the solar system," Dr. Hoyt claimed last month, during a presentation with NASA's Future In-Space Operations (FISO) working group.
Dr. Hoyt believes the current method of manufacturing a spacecraft – assembling everything on Earth and then launching the finished product in one piece – is unnecessarily wasteful.
"It's a very expensive and time-consuming process, and also, the size of systems is somewhat limited by the size of the deployables that are possible to fold up and fit within a launch shroud," he said.
SpiderFab could cut construction costs by only launching raw materials – such as carbon fibre – into orbit.
The robot spiders will transform raw materials into the construction pieces needed for the build
Limbs are used to piece together the materials and will also allow the droid to grip the structure
"The primary [advantage] will be that we can deploy apertures and baselines that are much larger than we can currently fit into launch shrouds," Dr. Hoyt added.
"The payoff of that will be higher power, higher resolution, higher sensitivity and higher bandwidth for a wide range of NASA, DoD [Department of Defence] and commercial space missions."
Crafts built entirely in space have the potential to be sleeker and simpler than current designs – as they do not have to survive the trauma of launch.
This would lead to further cost savings, Dr. Hoyt has predicted.
At the heart of Hoyt's ambitious project are the space spiders – a multi-armed robot capable of making many of the structural elements needed for the build, like an eight legged 3D printer.
Once the piece has been produced by its spinneret, the spider can piece together the structural elements using its metal limbs.
"Under the NIAC and SBIR work (NASA's Small Business Innovation Research) I think we've already validated the basic feasibility of the key processes required" for the SpiderFab concept, Dr. Hoyt said.
Tethers Unlimited hopes to launch its first working construction robot into space within the next couple of years.
"In a perfect world — if funding flowed and the contracting process didn't drag on forever — we think we could get to be able to build very large support structures for antennas and solar arrays, and those sorts of components, in the early 2020s," Dr. Hoyt added.
Source: http://www.express.co.uk/life-style/science-technology/568718/NASA-Robot-Spiders-Build-Space-Ships-Crafts-in-Orbit-Tethers-Unlimited-Earth
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Founded by Russian entrepreneur Dmitry Itskov in February 2011 with the participation of leading Russian specialists in the field of neural interfaces, robotics, artificial organs and systems.
The main goals of the 2045 Initiative: the creation and realization of a new strategy for the development of humanity which meets global civilization challenges; the creation of optimale conditions promoting the spiritual enlightenment of humanity; and the realization of a new futuristic reality based on 5 principles: high spirituality, high culture, high ethics, high science and high technologies.
The main science mega-project of the 2045 Initiative aims to create technologies enabling the transfer of a individual’s personality to a more advanced non-biological carrier, and extending life, including to the point of immortality. We devote particular attention to enabling the fullest possible dialogue between the world’s major spiritual traditions, science and society.
A large-scale transformation of humanity, comparable to some of the major spiritual and sci-tech revolutions in history, will require a new strategy. We believe this to be necessary to overcome existing crises, which threaten our planetary habitat and the continued existence of humanity as a species. With the 2045 Initiative, we hope to realize a new strategy for humanity's development, and in so doing, create a more productive, fulfilling, and satisfying future.
The "2045" team is working towards creating an international research center where leading scientists will be engaged in research and development in the fields of anthropomorphic robotics, living systems modeling and brain and consciousness modeling with the goal of transferring one’s individual consciousness to an artificial carrier and achieving cybernetic immortality.
An annual congress "The Global Future 2045" is organized by the Initiative to give platform for discussing mankind's evolutionary strategy based on technologies of cybernetic immortality as well as the possible impact of such technologies on global society, politics and economies of the future.
Future prospects of "2045" Initiative for society
2015-2020
The emergence and widespread use of affordable android "avatars" controlled by a "brain-computer" interface. Coupled with related technologies “avatars’ will give people a number of new features: ability to work in dangerous environments, perform rescue operations, travel in extreme situations etc.
Avatar components will be used in medicine for the rehabilitation of fully or partially disabled patients giving them prosthetic limbs or recover lost senses.
2020-2025
Creation of an autonomous life-support system for the human brain linked to a robot, ‘avatar’, will save people whose body is completely worn out or irreversibly damaged. Any patient with an intact brain will be able to return to a fully functioning bodily life. Such technologies will greatly enlarge the possibility of hybrid bio-electronic devices, thus creating a new IT revolution and will make all kinds of superimpositions of electronic and biological systems possible.
2030-2035
Creation of a computer model of the brain and human consciousness with the subsequent development of means to transfer individual consciousness onto an artificial carrier. This development will profoundly change the world, it will not only give everyone the possibility of cybernetic immortality but will also create a friendly artificial intelligence, expand human capabilities and provide opportunities for ordinary people to restore or modify their own brain multiple times. The final result at this stage can be a real revolution in the understanding of human nature that will completely change the human and technical prospects for humanity.
2045
This is the time when substance-independent minds will receive new bodies with capacities far exceeding those of ordinary humans. A new era for humanity will arrive! Changes will occur in all spheres of human activity – energy generation, transportation, politics, medicine, psychology, sciences, and so on.
Today it is hard to imagine a future when bodies consisting of nanorobots will become affordable and capable of taking any form. It is also hard to imagine body holograms featuring controlled matter. One thing is clear however: humanity, for the first time in its history, will make a fully managed evolutionary transition and eventually become a new species. Moreover, prerequisites for a large-scale expansion into outer space will be created as well.
Key elements of the project in the future
• International social movement
• social network immortal.me
• charitable foundation "Global Future 2045" (Foundation 2045)
• scientific research centre "Immortality"
• business incubator
• University of "Immortality"
• annual award for contribution to the realization of the project of "Immortality”.
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