For the first time a robot housed in space fixed its self without any aid from astronauts. Canadarm2 robotic arm, the two faulty cameras on the Canadian built robot was replaced by a series of mini operations performed by the use of its own mechanical hand called Dextre.
The Canadarm2 had two problems that needed to be fixed. The first, a camera was removed in 2012 by astronauts. The second, a camera connected at the elbow joint was starting to act up. Being that this camera is crucial in the work done by Canadarm2 and the first camera has been out of commission since 2012, the Canadian Space Agency team decided upon using the robotic arm to fix both problems.
The procedure began with detaching the camera acting up at the elbow joint and reattaching it where the camera was removed in 2012. Then Dextre took a new camera from the Kibo airlock and connected it to its own elbow in place of the old one that was acting up. The cumbersome cameras, around 47 pounds, are about the size of an outdated CRT-style monitor.
The complicated process includes defined dexterity from Dextre in order to unscrew bolts and bring them back to the Kibo airlock without dropping any. A job of this magnitude was difficult since Dextre had not been set up to repeat tasks.
Dextre might be the first to repair itself but surely it is not the last.
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