Auuuuugh! There's A Shuttle Arm For Sale on eBay!

[Tuckerfan]

At least that’s what the seller thinks it is.

I’ve had a local professional who is retired from a company which contracted to NASA for most of his career, to check out this Robotic Arm. He was directly involved with the NASA SPACE SHUTTLE PROGRAM.

He is amazed at it and stated with his experiences in working with the SPACE SHUTTLE program, he had never seen anything exactly like this but he’s convinced that it cost well over ONE MILLION Dollars to build. It shares some similarities to the Robotic Arm inside the SPACE SHUTTLE but that is not what this was.

Best guess of someone on space.com is that it’s used to test ORC-DIPS. (organic Rankine cycle-dynamic isotope power system) Whatever it is, I want it and I don’t have the fucking money to buy it!!!

[Charlie Brown] Auuuuuuuuuggggggggggggghhhhhhhhhh!!! [/CB]

[astro]

Not really. If you read the description he admits he really doesn’t know exactly what it is. Based on the way it looks I bet it cost a bundle to put together, and a lot more than the BIN price $ 25,000. It 's probably (legitimately) some early prototype of a remote robotic arm.

The real 50 foot long shuttle arm is a lot larger

I’m not sure what we have here but I’ll tell you everything I’ve been able to find out about it. If anyone of you know what it is, I’d appreciate your email and information or have any contact information that I could check with.

It definitely appears to be a six degree of motion platform.

It is definitely a specific item made for NASA or by NASA as you can see, it has NASA all over it and machined into many of the parts. I’ll call it a ROBOTIC ARM until proven otherwise

[Tuckerfan]

Well, yeah, I knew that, but putting

Auuuuugh! There’s A Giant Robotic Arm With NASA Stickers All Over It For Sale on eBay!

Just doesn’t have quite the same zing to it, ya know? And it may or may not have been used on a shuttle mission, or for something shuttle related (I’m not sure what the organic Rankine cycle-dynamic isotope power system is used for.), so I’m not totally out of line in using that in the thread title.

[GuanoLad]

Why would you want that? It looks big and ungainly and would occupy a lot of space, and would surely very rapidly end up as a mysterious rusting hulk in somebody’s farming shed.

[Bryan_Ekers]

I know masturbation can get a bit dull after a while, Tucker, but wouldn’t this be going a bit far?

[astro]

@GuanoLad

Why would you want that? It looks big and ungainly and would occupy a lot of space, and would surely very rapidly end up as a mysterious rusting hulk in somebody’s farming shed.

Star Wars SDI!

possibly used to aim a laser beam of some type

[Tuckerfan]

@GuanoLad

Why would you want that? It looks big and ungainly and would occupy a lot of space, and would surely very rapidly end up as a mysterious rusting hulk in somebody’s farming shed.

Dude, I’m a space geek!!! Asking me why I want it, is like asking Comic Book Guy why he has action figures when he’s in his thirties.

Besides, I could use it as a bar monkey for the living room I someday want to have.

[Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew]

Aw, the pawn shops around here are full of those.

[Squink]

Organic Rankin cycles at Honeywell

DIPS produces electric power by use of an organic Rankine cycle power conversion system and the proven plutonium oxide heat source.

There’s lots of nice bits of metal on that unit. If the hydraulics are fixable, you might be able to add a high torque motor and chuck, and convert the whole thing into a giant 6 axis milling machine!

[Uvula_Donor]

@Squink

. . .convert the whole thing into a giant 6 axis milling machine!

…which Pete Puma would immediately break.

[Tuckerfan]

@Uvula Donor

…which Pete Puma would immediately break.

Not if the first thing I milled was Pete!

[CynicalGabe]

I must purchase this robotic device and merge it with my latest strain of petri dish rat brains.

It is known that my brains are capable of piloting a fighter-jet. A robotic exoskeleton and assorted heavy weaponry will pose no challenge.

[GuanoLad]

@Tuckerfan

Dude, I’m a space geek!!!

Oh. I thought you were a classic car geek. I guess you’re both.

[Scissorjack]

Does it have a Claw? If it has a Claw, I’m buying it. I’m going to mount it on the roof and use it to take out the rubbish from the comfort and safety of my own sofa, pick up and throw the neighbours’ cats back from whence they came, fling empty beer cans at Jehovah’s Witnesses, and make rude gestures at passing aeroplanes. The Claw is our Master.

[butter_pie]

I live about a twenty minute drive from NASA… the toys out there are indeed neat, but I think they belong best in museums and other public centres rather than someone’s garage.

I personally like running around the Saturn moon rockets.

Have you ever seen a shuttle launch Tucker? I won an art contest back when I was about 15 and got to go see an Endeavour night launch. It’s pretty awesome. We saw it from the employee viewing centre, about 2 miles away (I think.)

[Ale]

@Case Sensitive

Does it have a Claw? If it has a Claw, I’m buying it. I’m going to mount it on the roof and use it to take out the rubbish from the comfort and safety of my own sofa, pick up and throw the neighbours’ cats back from whence they came, fling empty beer cans at Jehovah’s Witnesses, and make rude gestures at passing aeroplanes. The Claw is our Master.

Even more, imagine the fun you´ll have if you install it on your car´s roof.

[CynicalGabe]

@Ale

Even more, imagine the fun you´ll have if you install it on your car´s roof.

I assumed he meant his car’s roof.

[Scissorjack]

@CynicalGabe

I assumed he meant his car’s roof.

Sadly, my car lacks a sofa - although I must admit that the idea is tempting: mind you, it’d probably have to be tricked out in chrome and fluorescent lights for a Pimp My Robot Arm effect.

[CynicalGabe]

@Case Sensitive

it’d probably have to be tricked out in chrome and fluorescent lights for a Pimp My Robot Arm effect.

The robotic arm or the sofa. If the former, I am amused by your notion that a vehicle-mounted robotic arm needs to be tricked out.

[Tuckerfan]

@jinwicked

Have you ever seen a shuttle launch Tucker? I won an art contest back when I was about 15 and got to go see an Endeavour night launch. It’s pretty awesome. We saw it from the employee viewing centre, about 2 miles away (I think.)

Not yet, I vowed after the Columbia disaster that I’d make it down there to watch one. Now, if they would just get off their asses and launch one.