NASA has asked Brampton-based MD Rotobotics, best known for the Canadarm, to develop a double-armed robot and a grapple arm for a robotic spaceflight mission to service the Hubble Space Telescope. If Canada does not step up, Hubble’s batteries and system of gyros, used to point the telescope properly, are predicted to fail within the next three years.
While fourteen year old Hubble has been serviced four times before, this will be the first time that a robotic ground controlled mission is being used in place of a human shuttle mission. It is hoped that this mission will provide Hubble, which has already revolutionized our conception of the universe, with an additional eight years of life.
Source: Space.com
