For these tests, we
shipped a section
of a high fidelity mockup to Canada, and outfitted the GT
with special tools such as this nut driver. Here, the robot
is
opening one of the doors to HST.

A wider view of the task. Rich Fink is taking a close-up
picture
of the robot's operation. The name of the
location that the robot is operating on is called 'Bay 1'. It
contains the HST Advanced Computer. The
GT is unable to support its own weight on the ground, and is
'offloaded' by the cable assembly.

View from opposite angle with Bay 1 open. The arm can be
clearly
seen here. Just like the flight
SPDM, this is 7 degrees-of-freedom, although only 6 are used.
The
bottom black box inside the
bay is the Advanced Computer. The robot's task is to remove a
connector cap and plug in
a new connector.

Another task that was tried at MDR was the Diode Box connectors.
Both tasks were successfully performed using these specialized tools,
and the whole expermiment was declared a success.

The flight to and from MDR goes over Niagara Falls. On a
previous
trip, I snapped this
aerial picture of the Horseshoe Falls. Snow can be seen on
the
ground. Compare with this
image.
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