Written by 
Mike Barratt meets Robonaut 2-B (image credit NASA)
With little happening today until the MMT (Mission Management Team) meeting this afternoon I thought it was a good time to focus on the Space Shuttle STS-133 Discovery payloads. Of course we all gaze at the stars and wish to be Astronauts but the main reason we have people in space is to manage the research projects. These projects form the payloads of the Space Shuttle.
The STS-133 mission is important for a number of reasons. The first humanoid robot: Robonaut 2 affectionally known as R2 will be flying up to the ISS. There will be a Lego Shuttle model flying on Discovery. There are 9 research experiments being transported including some very interesting projects, not least of which is a microbiological medical experiment. If you have been following ISS news recently you will have realised that there was a problem with the stations’s cooling system. Packed into the payload bay of discovery are some components, including a radiator, for the heating/cooling systems of the Space Station. Finally thee will be a new room added to the ISS.
