It sounds like a Sony fanboy’s dream. Â Load up a rocket with Microsoft’s gaming hardware and blast it into orbit, never again to sully the surface of our planet with its presence. Â Indeed its eventual fate would be a GLaDOS-like incineration upon re-entry into the atmosphere.
In case you missed the story from earlier in the week, UK satellite builder Surrey Satellite Technology Limited (SSTL) have a development program called STRaND (Surrey Training, Research and Nanosatellite Development).
The aim of that program is “to provide rapid exposure to flight hardware for engineers, academics and students, at the same time having the freedom to try novel, bleeding edge technologies and research, with greater process flexibility compared to commercial SSTL missions.”
The first mission STRaND-1 will fly a small satellite that will use a Google Nexus One phone as the satellite’s computer and try various student-suggested experiments, including one called Scream in Space. Â That experiment is to test the the original Alien movie poster’s statement that “in space no-one can hear you scream”.
It’s the Kinect-packing STRaND-2 that’s of slightly more interest in these parts though.  Comprising a pair of nano-satellites, once in orbit they will use the Kinect sensors to repeatedly perform docking manoeuvres.
http://youtu.be/nCUl0Mk6Tys
The point being to prove that small cheap satellites can be built to do it and, like super high tech LEGO blocks, be used to assemble larger structures in orbit. Â I’m already imagining a new range of Star Wars LEGO where you can use Kinect-enabled orbiting blocks to build a space station the size of a small moon.
Once the nanosatellites’ mission is complete they will be placed into a decaying orbit, leading to their eventual fiery destruction, to save future space travellers from having to endure more dancing games the dangers of space debris.
Source: BBC
Paranoimia
But… surely docking needs to be accurate, and Kinect, well… isn’t.
halbpro
Kinect is pretty accurate in general, particularly when connected to a PC for other tasks (for example I’ve used it for mocap and it’s very effective). It’s just often not used well in games.
Watchful
Indeed. It’s accurate enough to allow quadrocopters to fly around indoor areas they haven’t encountered before:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aiNX-vpDhMo
hazelam
that’s no moon, that’s a space station. ^_^
andymclelland
Isn’t this how the machines start taking over?
colmshan1990
No, that’s when a country builds a military satellite communications system and name it Skynet…
Oh wait, the British did that?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/6434773.stm
ThoughtPolice
I’m just glad they found a use for Kinect, as after seeing the endless shovelware titles on offer, it’s clear it’s not very good at it’s primary intended purpose.
In most homes, i guess it’s stuck in a box gathering dust next to the Xbox HD-DVD addon.