NASA’s new chatty robot astronaut is a regular on Facebook and Twitter

Melbourne, Aug 31 (ANI): NASA’s latest nut-and-bolt invention Robonaut 2 is quite a piece of work - the first humanoid robot set to blast into space is a regular on Facebook and Twitter, keeping his fans updated about his space journey.

Robonaut 2 will live aboard the International Space Station and perform tasks “too dangerous or too boring” for regular astronauts, reports News.com.au.

Called “R2″ for short, the robot has arms and hands and fingers - but no legs. It will be fixed to a pedestal to begin with, but will be given new attachments like legs and wheels as they are developed.

“I have my protective cover on for the night. What a busy day! glad I’m getting a break tonight,” it said after reaching the Kennedy Space Center, where it was packed for travel aboard flight STS-133.

“Good thing they labelled my box. I was worried they might forget about me,” read another update, attached to a photo of R2’s packing crate.

Joe Bibby, media and communications lead for NASA’s software, is the man behind it all.

“We try to keep it light and fun so that everyone can understand what’s going on, and we definitely like to put some humour in there,” he said.

“And we get a lot of interaction, from people asking fun questions like ‘are you related to HAL 9000?’ to technical questions like ‘what operating system are you running on?’” he added.

Bibby said during the robo’s stint aboard the ISS, he would keep R2’s fans updated with news of another project at Houston - to build a replica of the robot.

“As long as there’s a Robonaut around, I think we plan to keep on going with the Twitter account,” he said. (ANI)