Unmanned Space Droids

Read:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23512686/

The alternative would be unmanned humanoid droids with small booster engines and robust communication systems and fault tolerant systems. By the standards of current chip and processor technology and huge improvements to robotics technology, I don't see why it would be hard to make a couple or an army of unmanned humanoid droids for space as repair crews , pilots and reconn units. The Japanese managed to create child size robots with good amount of intelligence and even the capability for robots to learn. If the technology were to be used for these space droids, missions would be less risky and if you lose a robot ... it would be less painful than losing a living human and robots can be far more tolerant and longer lasting than humans. you don't need the robots to have very very good leg walking skills which many robots still lack ... all you need is small thrusters on the robots to move them around. If they need 'food', they can just be plugged in and recharged or they maybe able to carry a mini solar panel array so they can continue their work for longer period of time. Like unmanned UAVs, all they need is a ground control station or a couple of stations and backup system that are fault tolerant. If staff on the ground want to inspect and repair,they just need to remotely control the robot from Earth to carry out missions directly or crews from the Space Station can use an inbuilt control center too.

I think it all needs 4 years of intensive research and the robots would be fine on their way.

A module for housing the robots and recharging them should be used as a package too.

Virgin and SpaceX can be considered for supplying and transportation.I think it's time for cooperation between government and public sectors to improve space technology instead of any hold backs.

Sci-fi and games are becoming more real as technology advances... but are humans' consciousness and spirituality ready for it ?