Monday, April 2, 2007

Repairman Satellite

Looking back on your discussion last week on Nanotechnology and self-repairing computers, I started to search the Internet for information pertaining to how technology today can repair itself. I stumbled upon this little tidbit from the New Scientist.
http://space.newscientist.com/article/dn11511-mechanic-satellite-looks-under-its-own-hood.html

This article discusses a new satellite launched and run by the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), which undergoes repair upon itself and has the ability to repair other satellites in orbit. Are we one step away from a world controlled by self-repairing machines? I think not. The technology places us one step closer to developing technology that can maintain themselves in orbit and not risk the lives of astronauts to do repair.
Shown in this video is an example of what the satellite could do in orbit.
http://www.darpa.mil/orbitalexpress/video/NewSpace.wmv

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