If a dog is man’s best friend, can a robot dog named Zeus be best friends with a rocket to Mars? We’d like to believe so, and that’s what appears to be happening in South Texas.
LabPadre who documents SpaceX activity at its Boca Chica facility caught footage of what appears to be a Boston Dynamics-made robot dog running around the Starship test site.
Spot the robot dog can go where humans (and actual dogs) cannot, which is ideal for collecting data from Starship rocket prototype tests.
Boston Dynamics sells the all terrain visual inspection tool from $74,500 to well over $100,000 with add-ons including LiDar, panoramic color cameras, pan-tilt-zoom cameras, and more.
A tool like Spot can be used to inspect Starship test sites when tanks create gas leaks or other harsh environments not considered safe for people on the ground. It’s also kind of cute.
SpaceX appears to have named their robo canine Zeus based on this robo dog house:
Zeus was caught running around SpaceX’s launch site remotely checking in on systems at the pad.
SpaceX’s second robotic dog
SpaceX doesn’t just use Zeus alone to secure the Starship launch pad. Two of Boston Dynamic’s robotic dogs with the upgraded camera system have been seen running around the facilities. The second dog is aptly named Apollo.
The small pack of Spot robotic dogs have proven useful with their use in the aftermaths of the recent Starship flights.
More
- SpaceX Starship now a ‘top priority,’ Elon Musk says in message calling for accelerated development
- SpaceX terminates Starship development site plans for Port of LA for the second time in two years
- Early SpaceX prototype test ends in fiery explosion, unrelated to NASA astronaut mission
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