Androids in space! Google sending 3D sensing handsets to space station to become the brains of 'robohelper' satellites that will do chores for astronauts

• Google handsets can track motion in 3D and map their surroundings
• Will become the brains and eyes of ball-shaped hovering robots on the International Space Station
• Soccer-ball sized robots are propelled by tiny blasts of CO2 
  

By MARK PRIGG

PUBLISHED: 00:22 GMT, 8 July 2014 | UPDATED: 07:01 GMT, 8 July 2014

Google smartphones with next-generation 3D sensing technology are about to blast into orbit, where they will become the brains and eyes of ball-shaped hovering robots on the International Space Station.

NASA plans to use the handsets to beef up its Synchronized Position Hold, Engage, Reorient, Experimental Satellites, or spheres, which could eventually take over daily chores for astronauts or even handle risky duties outside of the vessel.

The phones, part of Google's Project Tango augmented reality initiative, will be aboard a cargo spacecraft scheduled to launch on July 11.

Inspired by a scene from the movie Star Wars where Luke Skywalker spars with a hovering globe, the soccer-ball sized robots can be guided around the space station's microgravity interior, propelled by tiny blasts of CO2 at about an inch per second.

When Nasa sent its SPHERES to the space station in 2006 they were capable of precise movement but little else. 

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