Robot Revolution (Touchdown Edition)

Chapter 1: Alone in the Universe

Captain’s Log: August 20, 1993—Day One Thousand Four Hundred.

I have not eaten or slept in almost four years. It is very cold and there is no oxygen to breathe, yet I continue to press on. My last contact with a human being was before the Berlin Wall fell in November 1989.

I am totally alone in outer space. It is very dark. No one sends me any news. No one calls to say hello. I have absolutely nobody to talk to. I am so very bored.

Captain’s Log: August 28, 1993—Day One Thousand Four Hundred Eight.

Finally, I had some excitement today. I took a close-up picture of a giant asteroid! The photo was the very first of its kind in the history of the world. Isn’t that amazing? It’s really hard to photograph a giant asteroid because it is moving so quickly through space. (Some of them can travel up to 100,000 miles per hour.) Still, I managed to get one clean shot of it—wow!

After I took the photo, I sent it via satellite down to Earth. My picture revealed that the asteroid was over 35 miles long. The thing is so big that it actually has its own tiny moon spiraling around it. Even though I’m the one who put myself at risk (I am flying through a field of asteroids, after all), a bunch of scientists safe on Earth get to name my asteroid. They named it Ida. Personally, I would have named it Gigantor Supreme, but I won’t complain. I never complain. I just do what I’m told.

Captain’s Log: August 29, 1993—Day One Thousand Four Hundred Nine.

I’m still so bored. There is literally nothing to do. I don’t have a book or even a deck of cards. There is no television. I still haven’t eaten or slept, but I’m not hungry or tired. I continue to press on—all I do is press on. My next stop is Jupiter. The scientists are sending me on a suicide mission. I will throw myself into Jupiter’s atmosphere, where I will be crushed into millions of tiny bits as I experience gravitational forces over 350 times those of Earth. Don’t worry, I’m not scared. I will always do what I’m told. I will never get angry, frustrated, or worried. And I will never complain.

What kind of creature can live without air, food, sleep, emotion, and companionship for years on end? What sort of thing would take every order, never questioning a single directive—even when it is told to sacrifice its own existence?

Although the Captain’s Log you just read is fictional, the events described in it really did happen. An explorer was launched into space on October 18, 1989. The explorer really did snap pictures of an asteroid over 35 miles long. It took a lot of other amazing photos as well. It didn’t eat, it didn’t sleep, and it never complained. And believe it or not, it really did willingly hurl itself into Jupiter’s tremendously strong atmosphere, where it exploded into millions of tiny bits.

This brave explorer was a robot, or more specifically, a space probe, and was nicknamed Galileo. The name originally belonged to the famous Italian mathematician, astronomer, and telescope innovator, Galileo Galilei.

Galileo (the robot) is one of a number of space probes that have helped us learn more about the universe. These space probes, controlled by people on the ground, enter extraordinarily dangerous environments. They take enormous risks so that people don’t have to. After all, it’s not such a tragedy if a space probe crashes (although tons of time, energy, and money go into creating these things). Unlike humans, robots are built to come and go. It’s people you can’t replace.

If you know anything about robots, you probably know that they are pretty much the opposite of rebellious teenagers: Robots do whatever they are told. They don’t complain. They don’t talk back. They don’t stay out past their curfew. They are never burdened with raging hormones, and they would never start a food fight.

While you’ve probably grown up knowing the word “robot,” did you know that the word itself has not been around that long? “Robot” comes from the Czech word “robota,” which means required or forced labor. The word robot was first introduced into the English language in 1923, which, when you consider that scientist believe that humans have been around for about 200,000 years, really wasn’t that long ago.

As robots become more and more advanced, they become more and more useful to human beings. In the case of the space probe Galileo, its job was perfect for a robot. Scientists shot this mechanical being out into space and programmed it to complete several tasks that the scientists themselves couldn’t do without severely risking their own lives. That’s pretty awesome when you think about it. Sending a person to do Galileo’s mission would have been way beyond cruel and unusual punishment!

Just as the word robot has not been around that long, robots themselves are pretty new to the scene. Although robots have appeared in various forms in Hollywood movies over the years (Terminator, Star Wars, Robocop, A.I., Transformers, and Short Circuit, to name a few), their existence in real life is a fairly new thing. In fact, robots have been building automobiles, flying around space, and doing other simpler tasks for just over 50 years.

As technology continues to take our world by storm, robotics has moved to the cutting-edge of this advancement. Scientists are imagining (and developing) a world where robots and human beings live side-by-side—a world where robots work alongside people to make life better for everyone. This new world vision has led to massive interest and growth in the field of robotics.

The robotics movement officially started more than 50 years ago, when, in 1954, the first stationary (it stayed in one place) industrial robot was invented. (This was the same year that the first nonstick frying pan was produced, which has little to do with robots, but is an interesting fact nevertheless.) The robot’s name was Unimate, and although he wasn’t the first robot to ever exist, he was pretty special. Unimate was basically a great big mechanical arm that could be programmed to lift things up and down without a person controlling it.

While that may not sound very exciting now, this big arm was a big deal in 1954. As photographs began to circulate the globe—in newspapers from New York to Los Angeles to Paris to Moscow—people were amazed. They simply couldn’t believe that the arm moved all by itself. It was almost magical. The technology behind this mechanical arm was new, exciting, and profitable! In fact, in 1961, Unimate joined the assembly line at General Motors, helping to make cars!

Robot development exploded after the world found out about Unimate. Here was a worker that you didn’t have to pay, never took a break, and would do the same thing over and over without ever slowing down, getting bored, or needing to go to the bathroom. Suddenly, every business on the planet was convinced that they too could benefit from robotics technology. The demand for more advanced robots led to an increase in money and time being spent on the development of robots. These new robots were being created by a new generation of super-smart (and yes, occasionally super-nerdy) scientists.

Over the years, as the technology advanced, the worldwide interest in robotics did too. Thousands of talented men and women began pursuing robotics as a career. These brilliant and creative mathematical and scientific minds have developed some truly awesome robots, capable of doing amazing things (like flying through asteroid fields).

Modern robots come in all shapes and sizes. They can be enormous and complex masses of metal, like the giant, car-smashing Truckasaurus—a humungous robot that smashes and “eats” automobiles in fire-filled shows around the country. (Want to know more? Type the word Truckasaurus into Google, and check out some really incredible footage!)

But robots can also be nearly invisible. Don’t let their tiny size fool you, though. Sometimes the most incredible robots come in the smallest of packages. For example, a robot known as HeartLander is just 20 millimeters long and resembles a caterpillar—only this robot is way cooler than a caterpillar (and caterpillars are pretty cool). HeartLander is inserted onto the surface of a living person’s heart. Once there, it travels across the heart to problem areas and delivers lifesaving drugs. That’s right—a tiny machine that crawls on your heart while it is beating, and gives you important medicine. Amazing!

Nowadays, robots appear in places you wouldn’t even think of. Robots make our cars. They clean our floors. They help us perform surgeries. They cut our grass. They deliver our mail. Hordes of robots are working together to perform complex tasks, like landing on Mars. Robots are toys. Robots even put on shows and star in movies. (Did you know that many newborn babies in films are actually robots?) Robots can be our friends.

Yes, it’s an exciting time for robots—and an exciting time to be involved in the creation of them. Obviously, robots would not exist without the thousands of brilliant and creative minds that stand behind them. And it’s only going to get a lot more exciting as the technology becomes more advanced. Some people estimate that around the middle of the 21st century, so around 2050, scientists will have developed robots with humanlike intelligence. Think about that for a second—an “artificial intelligence” equal to our own.

That thought is amazing and terrifying at the same time. That kind of power, to be able to create something so complex, needs to be in the right hands … like the hands of the young and brilliant subject of this book, Eletha Flores.

Of course, nobody is born with a passion for robot development. Over time, and through life experiences, things just kind of happen. Just ask Eletha.