Monday astronauts stepped out for the third time to give Dextre the giant robot a set of eyes and tools. The eyes are made of cameras and are placed upon the robots tool belt. The work done by Linnehan and Behnken should complete the assembly of the robot outside the International Space Station. The robot is 12 feet tall and contains two 11 foot arms. Both arms have 7 joints and when checked out by the crew everything seemed to be in working order.
The robot Dextre costs over 200 million dollars and is supposed to help assist with spacewalking astronauts and maybe help with some of the duties in space. Maybe eventually Dextre will end up replacing batteries and some other space station parts. The robot is very strong, lifting up to 1300 pounds. Dextre can also sense touch and force and movement, hence the name Dextre derived from the word dexterous.
At the end of the space walk expected to come to a close Tuesday Dextre should have three different types of tools and a platform for holding bigger items such as batteries. It will take five space walks in all to complete everything for Dextre.
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