Dextre Robot at Work on the Space Station
What's the world's most complex space robot doing up there?
Last week, Dextre was imaged moving atop the
Destiny Laboratory
Module of the
International Space Station (ISS),
completing tasks prior to the deployment of
Japan's
Kibo pressurized science laboratory.
Dextre, short for the
Canadian-built
Special Purpose Dextrous Manipulator,
has arms three meters in length and can attach power tools as fingers.
Behind Dextre is the
blackness of space,
while Earth looms over Dextre's head.
The Kibo laboratory segment being deployed during space shuttle Discovery's trip to the ISS can be pressurized and contains racks of scientific experiment that will be used to explore many things, including
how plants brace themselves against gravity, and
how
water might be inhibited from freezing in cells under microgravity.