Valkyrie, NASA’s Newest 6-foot-tall Robo-naut

Needless to say, space missions can be utterly detrimental for humans. Dangers not only involve ship malfunctions, but also an exposure to space radiation which can cause cancer. On top of that, staying in space for months can be taxing for astronauts, psychologically speaking, and expensive for NASA.

According to a news article on Business Insider, NASA in the not-so distant future may begin sending to space robo-nauts like Valkyrie, a 6-foot, 300-pound humanoid, which is designed to work on tasks that are too dangerous for astronauts to perform. Valkyrie's ultimate goal is to become fully autonomous in performing these dangerous tasks.

The robot prototype, designed by NASA engineers at the Johnson Space Center, can actually walk, balance on one foot, climb and navigate a room as cited in a news report on Tech Insider. Valkyrie, the robo-naut uses its 200 sensors and 4 body cameras in sensing its surroundings in real-time. According to Kris Verdeyen, the project manager of Valkyrie, the humanoid can also turn a valve as well as use a hand drill.

Originally created for terrestrial disaster relief work, the Valkyrie prototype has been designed and built by NASA for the 2013 DARPA robotics challenge, which is a prestigious robotics competition held annually.

The team, since then, has created more and even loaned them to universities where students are given the opportunity to program them so these humanoids carry out more complex tasks. Moreover, 2 robo-nauts were awarded to the University of Massachusetts Lowell and MIT in late April.

Valkyrie is not really the first robo-astronaut. NASA's Robonaut, in 2011, had arrived at the International Space Station. It was designed to aid astronauts in doing ordinary tasks such as turning valves and activating switches. In addition, a team of German researchers, just the other year, built a robot named Aila, which was designed to do the same tasks.

Even though Valkyrie will not be making it to Mars any time soon, it is still very exciting to know how humanoids can actually advance planetary exploration together with humans.