Washington: Robonaut is set to take on a bigger role on the International Space Station when he gets legs early next year.
He is now eight feet tall and weighs about 500 pounds.
Astronaut Cady Coleman unpacked Robonaut when he arrived onboard the ISS in 2011. Engineers at NASA jokingly call her Robonaut`s big sister.
But what arrived then was a torso with a head and arms. Coleman said she`s now excited about the expanded potential of robots in orbit.
She said that bringing robots outside and having them do spacewalks would be a great use of robots in space.
Robonaut`s legs will allow him to move around the space station by himself, but Coleman said his size does concern astronauts.
But don`t expect Robonaut to be walking on the moon anytime soon. NASA moves slowly with new technology.
Robonaut is a 50-year project and designers are 17 years into Robonaut`s development.
When his legs arrive and are attached, he won`t immediately leap into action.
The crew will follow a careful process of attaching them and testing them before Robonaut starts moving around the space station.
