I was surfing the NASA site just now trying to find out a little info about the shuttle payload, namely Luke Skywalker's lightsabre that was carried aboard in celebration of Star Wars 30th anniversary. While that is a pretty cool event, I found an interesting story that I don't recall ever reading about before and it's totally inspired by Star Wars with a little Star Trek for good measure! It's describes as "a self-propelled, floating, talking, computerized personal assistant with artificial intelligence" that was inspired by the floating globe that Luke Skywalker used for lightsabre training in the original flick. The "robot will fly autonomously around the shuttle or space station, floating effortlessly in orbital free fall and propelling itself with 6 small ducted fans.", with Star Trek tricorder like capabilities, "the PSA will have sensors that can detect the pressure and temperature of the ambient air, as well as concentrations of gases such as CO2." This is awesome!
