NASA's Spidernaut robot arachnid

We've heard tell of NASA's Spidernaut, a large robot designed to service spacecraft, but after finally seeing it in action we're not so sure humans are fully prepared to battle against robots in the coming rebellion -- this thing is pretty hardcore. Supposedly its current incarnation is only 1/4 of the final size, but the target is a 600 pound robot that can distribute weight evenly over its eight legs to avoid damaging the skin of the spacecraft or for scurrying across solar panels. NASA is even looking into a "web" deployment system for the bot, in which case we're hiding the women and children and locking the doors.

[Ben @ Feb 16th 2006 2:26PM]

I, for one, welcome our new robotic arachnid overlords

[LargePete @ Feb 16th 2006 2:36PM]

I've actually been able to go in and see this thing whilst it was being born. I kept telling them to go ahead and strap on fangs and lasers but (and to our continued saftey) they declined. Oh well, once it's out we can hack it up and then add the laserbeams.

[mr_black @ Feb 16th 2006 2:54PM]

pssst. it has 6 legs not 8....

[Mark @ Feb 16th 2006 3:52PM]

Wasn't there a movie with Gene Simmons of Kiss fame where he played a "bad guy" (doesn't he always) and he had these small robot spiders with hypodermic needles for injecting "stuff" (poison, acid) into people? I'm glad to see we are almost there. Now if they can just make this thing smaller......somebody call Japan.

[Terry Tolleson @ Feb 16th 2006 4:24PM]

Mr_Black: It has 8. You can see the 7th (or 8th, however you number them) just peeking out from behind the guy on the far left. The two foremost techs are inbetween legs 5-6 and 7-8.

To be sure... WHY?! Why would you create a mechanical version of those horrid spawns of Satan!?!?! Humanity will fall and be crushed by these eight-legged, drafted demons of death!

[Finished.Law.School @ Feb 16th 2006 4:35PM]

Mark, wasn't Tom Selleck in that film? I remember it as well and this thing looks like it came directly from that film...

[anonymous @ Feb 16th 2006 4:59PM]

Runaway, the movie was called Runaway.

[alfamale @ Feb 16th 2006 5:00PM]

Runaway. The movie is Runaway.

http://imdb.com/title/tt0088024/

[Barry @ Feb 16th 2006 10:04PM]

Ugh! What a missed opportunity! This pic SCREAMS "Caption Contest"!!!!

Here's my lame attempt:
"So, here's the plan. We mount the camera here, then send it after Bin Laden. If we're lucky, and if it doesn't act like a quail, it will make it past the US Naval Observatory without taking birdshot in the chest."

[Joel Miller @ Feb 16th 2006 11:30PM]

Leave it to Nasa to create probably the most expensive battlebot ever made. But with no weapons. Probably 10's of millions of dollars, and that was just for R&D. I think I remember seeing the team pictured in last years cage match finals!

[genr8r @ Feb 16th 2006 11:38PM]

This is cool and all...but shouldn't NASA be thinking about making a better space shuttle before they start making martian killing robots? Just thought that maybe that would be a good idea. These things are pretty useless unless we can actually get them (and astronauts) somewhere in one piece.

[Maniakson @ Feb 17th 2006 12:06AM]

I concur.

With the space shuttles we have now, it would probably be destroyed during take-off, and all that work would be for nothing.

[OddManOut @ Feb 17th 2006 12:21AM]

Ok...it looks like my Tachikoma is is coming along well enough, but I am really begining to worry that I'll be as old as Ima Kuruse before my cyberbrain is ready...

Then again, maybe not...

http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/robots/neuroscientist-aims-to-implant-electrode-in-own-brain-155091.php

[Cuba @ Feb 17th 2006 1:09AM]

"the target is a 600 pound robot that can distribute weight evenly over its eight legs to avoid damaging the skin of the spacecraft or for scurrying across solar panels"

Does this really matter if it's going to be used in space?

[vikijs klanis @ Feb 17th 2006 8:36AM]

why would this thing need perfect weight distribution in space where everything is wheitless and there is no gravity???
or am i just dumb?

[vikijs klanis @ Feb 17th 2006 8:39AM]

oops. didn't see the last comment

[Joe Bibby @ Feb 17th 2006 10:54AM]

Even in space putting torque on an object by pulling yourself along can damage the sensitive space station structure. Which is why it doesn't matter that it weighs 600 lbs(the one shown is full size already). The distribution over 8 legs is much smaller compared to an Astrounaut on EVA pulling him/herself along with only 2 arms.

genr8r- Aren't you being a little shortsighted? Do you really want all R&D to stop until a new space shuttle is created? If that happened, then sure we'd get Astronauts in space, but there would be no equipment to take with them. No robotics to support them, etc...

Besides, this robot has been under development for over a year, and at that time the Space Shuttle was still being used.

[Yannis @ Feb 17th 2006 11:08AM]

Hey, the link to nasa is dead, anyone have a backup? Or an updated link to the spidernaut article?

[xenocide @ Nov 2nd 2007 1:23AM]

http://spidernaut.jsc.nasa.gov

[aeo @ Feb 17th 2006 11:20AM]

I can't wait for the big robot-overlord vs. the zombies battle. I, for one, will be routing for the robots... that is if I'm not one of the zombies at the time.

The good news is that since zombies can do their evil in space as well as on terra-firma, this spider-bot will be ready for them. There's no better weapon against a zombie than to wrap it up in webbing just before you dispatch it old-school.

[Doug @ Feb 17th 2006 12:40PM]

If you want to see something similar but smaller, check out RiSE:
http://www.bostondynamics.com/content/sec.php?section=RiSE
http://bdml.stanford.edu/twiki/bin/view/Main/ClimbingRobot
There are several more team members, whose links I can't include here.

[Dan Frederiksen @ Jan 11th 2007 8:20AM]

Nasa is populated by idiots, cultivated by years of suppresion of the truth about UFOs and technological possibilities. This is in line with that as Nasa has birthed yet another pathetic product. many legs to distribute it's weight on the space craft??? ever hear of zero gravity mr. reporter
too much wrong with this spider to list. out