The media this weekend was full of sensational headlines. The portal Mashable has announced that Russia sends to the International space station armed to the teeth with killer robot. “Pravda” reported that Russian cyborg Fedor is afraid of the West. He’s like the Terminator, only in space and very real.
In fact, it is unlikely. All these stories appeared after responsible for military industry and space, Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin wrote on Facebook and Twitter about the Russian robot-humanoid by the name of Fedor. Rogozin stated with pride that the robot has demonstrated the ability to shoot with two hands. “Fine motor skills and decision algorithms are being finalized”, — he said on Twitter. But perhaps it is not yet time to call for help, Arnold Schwarzenegger. “That gun training is a method of machine learning to prioritize, and instantly, and make decisions. We don’t create the terminator and artificial intelligence,” — said Rogozin.
Previously Rogozin said that Russia in 2021 will send this robot to the space station. “Pravda” States that this date is tentative, and Fedor will go into space aboard the Russian spacecraft of new generation “Federation”. So it is necessary for NASA to worry about the fact that after four years on the ISS will appear armed and deadly robot?
Rise of the machines?
Rogozin often makes provocative statements. Recall that in 2014 at the peak of the Ukrainian crisis, he is among the Russians against whom the Obama administration has imposed sanctions. Then Rogozin tweeted: “after Analyzing the sanctions against our space industry I suggest the US send its astronauts to the ISS using the trampoline”. Three years later, Russia is still happy to take NASA’s money for the use of spacecraft “Soyuz”. In General, this country remains a reliable partner in space.
Among other statements about the cosmos Rogozin said: “We will always come to the moon.” In reality, Russia cut its space budget (following the crew will fly to the ISS as part of the only two people instead of three, because Russia is in the interest of saving reduces the amount of astronauts in orbit). She had no money for a lunar program. As for the space ship, Federation, which, according to the “Truth” in 2021 will bring Fedor into space, the unmanned test flights to the station until 2023 is very unlikely. While some of the sources recently told Russian Space Web that this graph “would be virtually impossible to accomplish.”
The conditions for the Russian space Agency a few years may get worse when the company United Launch Alliance will cease to buy its rocket engines RD-180, and NASA will no longer rent space for its astronauts on Soyuz. The reality is that if Russia wants to do something truly meaningful in orbit and especially in open space, she will certainly have to enter into a partnership with NASA or China’s space Agency.
Answering the question about the chances of Fedor to go to the ISS, official NASA representative Daniel Hot (Daniel Huot) diplomatically said that the space Agency will closely examine any proposal emanating from Russia. “NASA is interested in developing robotic capabilities to push the boundaries of possibility in space exploration by man and to improve life on Earth. The Agency is actively involved in a number of demonstration projects robotic capabilities on Board the International space station,” he said.
