NASA Mania

It seems everyone in the auto industry wants to be Robonaut’s friend these days. First it was the National Highway and Traffic Safety Administration tapping NASA engineers to investigate cases of unintended acceleration, then General Motors announced it was teaming up with NASA to develop a humanoid robot. Now, Chrysler is reportedly jumping on the bandwagon with its own agenda.

GM’s claims Robonaut 2 is ready for space duty and is expected to be launched into space this year, and become a permanent addition to the team of the International Space Station. Once at the station, engineers will study R2′s functionality in a zero-gravity environment, as well as tasking it with various operations within the station’s interior. If the robot is developed further and moved beyond the prototype stage, it could become a more significant member of the station crew, even performing spacewalking maneuvers on the exterior of the station.Meanwhile, Chrysler has teamed with NASA for a three-year partnership that will see the two groups share research and information on areas related to materials, engineering, robotics, radar, battery systems and other energy storage mediums.

NASA is particularly interested in Chrysler’s lane departure warning and adaptive cruise control systems, which it believes could help with lunar module navigation. While no specific goals have been announced, the pair is likely looking to make headway in the area of battery packaging and storage capacity which is a fundamental component of space exploration and an increasingly vital research area in the automotive industry.