Over two years ago, a tiny robot was in the process of being developed to travel to space and accompany an astronaut living on the International Space Station.
Some changes were made to the original concept, but the 13-inch tall humanoid robot, Kirobo, was created and did head to the ISS in August 2013 where he kept company with Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata.
When Kirobo arrived in space, his first words were“On August 21 2013, a robot took one small step towards a brighter future for all.”
After 18 months, Kirobo, developed by Toyota and advertising company Dentsu, hitched a ride back to Earth on Elon Musk’s SpaceX CRS-5 Dragon.
The spacecraft plunged into the Pacific Ocean along the California coast on Tuesday and Elon Musk took to Twitter to give us the view.
Image of Musk's craft plunging into Pacific Ocean. (Image via Twitter)
While Kirobo was aboard the ISS, the robot conducted the world’s first conversation experiment between a human and robot in outer space. The research was part of a project to determine how humans and robots would co-exist in the future.
In addition, Kirobo was created to keep astronauts company since loneliness is a serious problem up in space which could lead to depression.
The robot will engage in a debriefing session in late March so scientists can collect data and figure out how to use it to improve lives.
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