NASA is known for their futuristic technology and they haven’t failed scifi fans with this one.

The space agency took to social media today to boast of a new humanoid robot, like NASA’s R5, that “will be helpful to astronauts on our journey to Mars.”

Two universities, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Northeastern University, have awarded prototypes of R5 for advanced research and development work. Meaning, the two universities will “serve as critical partners in NASA’s upcoming Space Robotics Challenge.” Their goal will be to create better software for dexterous humanoid robots used in space missions, giving the robots more autonomy. Space Technology Mission Directorate is funding the research.

Humanoid robots will be helpful to astronauts on our journey to Mars, so we have awarded prototypes to two universities for advanced research and development work. We're interested in humanoid robots because they can help or even take the place of astronauts working in extreme space environments. Robots, like our R5, could be used in future NASA missions either as precursor robots performing mission tasks before humans arrive or as human-assistive robots actively collaborating with the human crew. R5 initially was designed to complete disaster-relief maneuvers, however, its main goal is to prove itself worthy of even trickier terrain — deep space exploration. Image Credit: NASA #nasa #nasatech #space #robot #r5 #journeytomars #technology #321techoff

A photo posted by NASA (@nasa) on Nov 18, 2015 at 8:53am PST

NASA says on an Instagram post, “We’re interested in humanoid robots because they can help or even take the place of astronauts.” Now, before getting in a uproar over astronauts loosing their jobs to machines, NASA points out that the robots would be used in “extreme space environments.”

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