Item from the Associated Press -- "Space is about to get its first humanoid from planet Earth. Robonaut 2 - affectionately known as R2 - is hitching a one-way ride to the International Space Station this week aboard the final flight of space shuttle Discovery."
Well, it makes perfectly good sense. Send a robot into space. This humanoid robot, price tag, according to NASA, $2.5 million, is the first of, hoped to be, many that will / "could take over space station cleaning duties; spend hours outside in the extreme heat and cold, patiently holding tools for spacewalking astronauts; and handle emergencies like toxic leaks or fires. Robonaut's descendants could even scout out asteroids, Mars and other worlds in the decades ahead, paving the way for humans."
The R2 Robonaut is only a humanoid "from the waist up. It measures 3 feet 4 inches tall and weighs 330 pounds. Each arm is 2 feet 8 inches long. The legs are still in the works."
The introduction of humanoid robots into space travel is an important step into the future.