This is the kind of thing we’ve always wanted to see from NASA:

Astronauts bound for orbit this week will dabble in science fiction, assembling a “monstrous” two-armed space station robot that will rise like Frankenstein from its transport bed.

It seems DEXTRE, as this monster robot is known, is guaranteed not to run amok or eat Tokyo — but its might eat up some jobs for astronauts. At least one Astronaut was a little defensive.

Even though it’s suited for space station maintenance, astronauts are faster, Linnehan said. As for Hubble, he said Dextre cannot compare to a human repairman because it lacks fine motor control, and cannot think and react to problems that might crop up.

Dextre can’t think and react yet — but wait until he gets hit with a massive dose of Gamma radiation and hulks out.

Astronauts will assemble robot in space[Yahoo News]