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Will this be the first humanoid on Mars? Nasa gives 'superhero robots' to universities to train for deep space missions

Valkyrie, also known as R5, is a 6.2-foot, 275-pound humanoid machine
One prototype was given to MIT, and another to Northeastern University
In two years, modified robots will go head to head in robotics challenge
China also recently revealed a space robot that looks similar to Iron Man

By Ellie Zolfagharifard For Dailymail.com

Published: 17:19 EST, 17 November 2015 | Updated: 03:11 EST, 18 November 2015

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A 'superhero robot' is being designed by Nasa to help astronauts on a mission to Mars.

Named Valkyrie, the 6.2-foot, 275lb humanoid machine has been under development by the space agency for a number of years.

Now Nasa has teamed up with two leading universities to help develop the machine's dexterity and artificial intelligence for deep space missions.

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A 'superhero robot' is being designed by Nasa to help astronauts on a mission to Mars. Named Valkyrie, the 6.2-foot, 275-pound humanoid machine has been under development by the space agency for a number of years. Now Nasa has teamed up with two leading universities to help develop the machine's dexterity

The latest prototypes - officially named R5 - have been given to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge and Northeastern University in Boston.

They have Iron Man-style glowing chest emblems that contain linear actuators to help with waist movement.

Their power source comes from a battery in a backpack that lasts for around an hour.

Sensors include sonar and Lidar, and operators can see what the Valkyries are doing on cameras attached to their heads, arms, abdomens, and legs.

In two years, the universities will be asked to enter their modified R5s into Nasa's Space Robotics Challenge.

Here, the machines will compete against each other to prove they have the capability to survive on a deep space mission to the red planet.

Nasa says the robot could someday assist astronauts on a deep space mission to Mars. Just getting there will take up to nine months. The astronauts will be there waiting for a year until they can come back - a total of around three years

R5 - also known as Valkyrie - has an Iron Man-style glowing chest emblem contains linear actuators to help with its waist movement. Its power source comes from a battery in a backpack that lasts for around an hour

HOW LONG WILL A MANNED MISSION TO MARS TAKE?

Owing to the orbits of Earth and Mars there are specific windows of opportunity when a mission can take place.

Our planets come as close to each other as 33.9 million miles (54.6 million km), but can be as distant as 250 million miles (400 million km).

For this reason spacecraft to Mars, such as the Curiosity rover, have to launch in certain windows when the planets are aligned.

The next window is open from January 2016 to April 2016, and will see the launch of two more missions to the red planet.

For a future manned mission, they will need to launch out in one of the windows and return in one, which will take two years in total.

Just getting there will take up to nine months.

The astronauts will be there waiting for a year until they can come back - a total of around three years.

But no human has spent more than 14 months continuously in space so research is needed to see how the crew will cope.

'Advances in robotics, including human-robotic collaboration, are critical to developing the capabilities required for our journey to Mars,' said Steve Jurczyk, associate administrator for Nasa's Space Technology Mission Directorate.

The two university groups were chosen through a competitive selection process from groups entered in the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa) Robotics Challenge.

They also will receive as much as $250,000 a year for two years and have access to onsite and virtual technical support from Nasa.

R5 is an update to its existing Robonaut, which currently on the 260-mile-high ISS, performing mundane cleaning chores and fetching things for the human crew.

Each leg - 4 feet, 8 inches long - has seven joints. Instead of feet, there are grippers, each with a light, camera and sensor for building 3-D maps.

Nasa engineers based the design on the tether attachments used by spacewalking astronauts.

R5, however, will also venture outside on spacewalks. Nasa says that's where the real payoff lies.

A robot could stay out in the vacuum of space for days, weeks or even months, clinging to the station. Meanwhile, human spacewalkers are limited to eight or nine hours.

For base camps on the moon and Mars, robots could be deployed in advance and get everything running before the humans arrive — and stay behind when they leave.

This isn't the first time that a space agency has created a humanoid to send to space. Nasa has developed a similar robot, dubbed Robonaut, which the first out-of-this-world humanoid

Last week, Chinese space agency's main contractor, China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation, unveiled a space robot that looks remarkably similar to the Marvel comic book hero, Iron Man

And if there's a chore too risky for humans 'we could let the machine go out and sacrifice itself,' Robert Ambrose from Nasa's Johnson Space Center.

'And that's OK. It's not human. We can build another one. We'll build one even better.'

Nasa isn't the only space agency banking on the help of robots for deep space missions.

Last week, Chinese space agency's main contractor, China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation, unveiled a space robot that looks remarkably similar to the Marvel comic book hero.

The robot could pave the way for the first humans to arrive on the red planet. In the Martian (2015) with Matt Damon as Mark Watney.

As well as featuring the signature colours of Iron Man, the robot has a glowing emblem similar to Tony Stark's arc reactor.

The metallic red and gold robot is named 'Xiaotian,' which translates to 'Little Sky'.

Chinese state news agency Xinhua says that the robot is capable of a series of 'complex manipulation tasks' in moon landings or missions to space stations and unmanned probes.

Another Chinese news site claims the robot's hands have flexibility similar to that of human hands.