Microsoft, HPE put AI to work checking astronaut gloves

From the department of "we've got this supercomputer on the space station, what shall we do with it?" comes news of AI technology being used to check the gloves of spacewalkers. Wear and tear is a problem for astronauts venturing out of the orbiting lab, and while helmets filling with water may have garnered all the headlines …

[Dave 126]

Watch a video - a full length one - of a spacewalk. I did once, and the astronauts outside the the ISS moved methodically and slowly.

"Glove Check!" was heard from Mission Control periodically, at which point the astronaut would report on the condition of their gloves before proceeding any further.

I'm not commenting on the proposed response as outlined in this article*. I just can't be arsed reading any comments from people if they're not aware of the seriousness of the glove-wear problem.

* It does seem odd they're using ML to diagnose gloves instead of looking at materials to renew gloves automatically... an observation that suggests to me that *I've* missed something. Perhaps moisture-curing polyurethane polymers aren't nice in a recirculated atmosphere, I dunno. Or perhaps there is no material that is easily worked that also maintains the required mechanical properties in the extremes nof temperature of space. Point is, I don't know but I assume some folk do know.