It looks like the robotic mission for Hubble may well go ahead, regardless, since NASA signed an agreement to have the Canadian robotics company (MacDonald Dettwiler, was it?) start drafting a plan... NASA already came out with a basic plan last March or April. That's when the Mission Concept Revie...

i kind of have to agree with you Meg it is kindof crepy but i can certainly see their practiicality...but couldn't you just make a program that can do the functions of a robot without all the complicated hardware? The article stresses the importance of using robots to monitor "complicted"...

I think if these virtual humans were to be used in actual space missions, it wouldn't necessarily allow "any scientist or observer to go into space". Instead, I think it's merely a more user-friendly interface to a complicated computer program. I doubt NASA would ever use one of these thin...

On a related note, I was glad to hear today that the U.S. Academy of Sciences recommended to NASA that Hubble be serviced by the Shuttle instead of robotically, saying that NASA and the nation are aware of and accept the risks inherent in any spaceflight, whether to the ISS or not. Yaaaay for recog...