New Scientist reports that Japanese robotic game organizers plan to take their event into space. A satellite carrying several small humanoid robots is planned to be launched into space in October 2010. It will release humanoid robots, who will then proceed to fight each other in the vacuum of space.

Some kind of April Fools joke? Apparently not.

Organizers of Robo-One (video), a robot combat event held annually in Tokyo, announced plans for their space combat mission at the robot combat event. Remote-controlled robot kits are popular in Japan. DefenseTech and Robots.net have more.

It’s getting cheaper to launch small armies into space.

For $99 anyone can now send a payload into space. Masten Space Systems said today their new suborbital space launch service will deliver “CanSats To Space” for as low as $99. The program will carry 350 gram, “soda can” sized payloads into space and back.

Typical payloads include science experiments such as amateur space telescopes, surveys of cellular mitosis in microgravity, and multi-spectral earth imaging missions for environmental science experiments. Experiments that until recently were only available to scientists with million dollar budgets.

The company’s XA 1.0 suborbital launch vehicle will carry the CanSats into space where they will experience several minutes of microgravity and can be exposed to the vacuum of space. The vehicle will then gently return to its take-off point where the CanSats are removed and shipped back to their owners.

Last week, Sea Launch placed a Japanese satellite in orbit. The JCSAT-9 spacecraft, a Lockheed Martin A2100AX model, carries 20 Ku-band and 20 C-band transponders. JCSAT 9 (JCSAT-5A), is the first of three satellites that Lockheed Martin is building for JSAT to launch over the next two years.

NASA’s “civilian” space program has been busy this month with a slew of microsat launches:

• A $100 million US-Taiwan microsat network, tagged Constellation Observing System for Meteorology, Ionosphere and Climate or COSMIC was launched last Friday. The mission of the constellation of six small satellites will reportedly study terrestrial and space weather. An Orbital Sciences Minotaur rocket lifted off from Vandenberg Air Force Base last Friday and placed the six-satellite COSMIC system into sun-synchronous orbit ten minutes later.
• NASA’s official report on the failure of a DART spacecraft has been squashed. The mission was to rendezvous with a Pentagon satellite without human help. A 70-page document on the DART spacecraft mishap contains details protected by the International Traffic in Arms Regulations, said NASA spokesman Michael Braukus. They plan to release a summary of the report that will explain why DART did not complete last year’s mission last. An analysis found the 800-pound spacecraft suffered a fuel problem, but engineers did not detect a fuel leak.
• NASA’s Space Technology 5 microsat constellation was launched a few weeks ago. The three spacecraft will conduct “science validation using measurements of the Earth’s magnetic field collected by the miniature boom-mounted magnetometers”. A phoney balony cover for researching next gen NRO platforms and space weapons? Nobody tells us nothin’.
• CALIPSO and CloudSat are expected to launch this week. CALIPSO will examine what roll atmospheric aerosols (airborne particles) play in regulating Earth’s weather, climate, air quality and particle beam weaponry (only kidding). It will use lidar to distinguish between aerosols and cloud particles. CloudSat has a 94-GHz Cloud Profiling Radar which measures cloud density. CALIPSO and CloudSat are complementary. Together they will provide new, never-before-seen 3-D perspectives of how clouds and aerosols form, evolve, and affect climate.CloudSat and CALIPSO will orbit at 438 miles (705 kilometers) and join Parasol, Aqua and Aura. They will fly in formation to form the A-train constellation (below). Each satellite within the A-Train has unique measurement capabilities that greatly complement each other. NASA scientists complain it’s hard for them to speak forthrightly about global warming, but they have designed lots of great instruments.
  
• Best guess for the world’s first CyberPort is Incheon. Meanwhile, the Hong Kong Government has spent $2bn, developing the newest “Cyberport ” on the planet.

No word on when their humanoid WiBro platforms will start calling the shots at DisneyWorld.

Bionics may come first. Philips is launching Motiva, which transmits vital signs. San Diego EMS uses a Palm Tungsten to send records from the scene of an emergency using Intellisync, now part of Nokia.

Posted by Sam Churchill on Tuesday, April 18th, 2006 at 4:51 am.