Canada knows a thing or two about robots and space. Did you non-Canadians know that the robotic arm in the Space Shuttles was designed, built and delivered by the Canadians to NASA? It’s True.

Now they’re doing their part again to help build out the rest of the International Space Station in the form of Dextre, a $200Mil robot that will perform exterior construction and maintenance. The value here is that it means the astronauts will have to make fewer trips outside the capsules, enabling the ‘bot to do more of the grunt work, riding along the Canadian-built ‘mobile servicing system’ on the exterior.

Here’s some of the specs:

- Can be remotely controlled from the ground or the ISS

- Size is about 3.7 meters

- Lifespan is about 15 years

- Dexterous enough to manipulate objects the size of a phone book to a phone booth

redOrbit has much more information.

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