1962 – Nonanthropomorphic Space Suit (Concept) – Douglas Aircraft Corp (American)

For Douglas Aircraft, in 1962,  their earlier space manipulator designs, i.e., the Project Mercury converted capsule and the "Humpty Dumpty" unit, can be considered as first-generation, feasible, nonanthropomorphic devices. A much more speculative concept, but in every sense within our technological reach, is shown in figure 3 above. This is basically a space tug and …

1965-8 – Space Pod – 2001: A Space Odyssey – Clarke (British) / Kubrick (American)

EVA Pod – The EVA Pod is a fictional spacecraft used for extra-vehicular activity seen in the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey. The Jupiter spacecraft Discovery One carries three of these small, one-man maintenance vehicles. [EVA – Extra-Vehicular Activity i.e. activity outside of the prime space vehicle.] Film stage. Detail of manipulator arms. Illustrations by …

1971-2 – Apollo-Soyuz Shuttle Manipulator – Caldwell Johnson (American)

Apollo-Soyuz Shuttle Manipulator Demo (1971-1972) –   By David S. F. Portree  ,    05.14.2012 During the 1983 STS-7 mission, the crew of  Shuttle Challenger used the Remote Manipulator System arm to deploy and retrieve the SPAS satellite, which captured this iconic image. The arm, bent to form the numeral “7,” is visible near the front …

1968 – Android Space Manipulator (Concept) – General Electric (American)

Android Space Manipulator Robots May Tend Ailing Satellites -One of the frustrations of scientists is "burned out" satellites, those which, because of a malfunction or a worn-out part, inertly orbit the earth, doing no worldly good. "Such a satellite becomes a million dollar bit of space debris for lack of a two-dollar part. It would …

1973-8 – Daedalus ‘Wardens’ (Concept) – Bond, Martin, Grant et al (British)

An autonomous Warden building, servicing and maintaining Daedalus.  Above image source: Robots, by Peter Marsh, 1985 Autonomy and the Interstellar Probe – Sourced from here. by Paul Gilster on March 19, 2013 daedalus_final_report …..The span between the creation of the Daedalus design in the 1970s and today covers the development of the personal computer and …