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Kirobo and Commander Wakata Have First Conversation Aboard ISS

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Kirobo and Commander Wakata

You may remember a few months back when we wrote about the cuddly-wuddly little robot guy known as Kirobo, who was launched on a cargo vessel up to the ISS to communicate with Commander Koichi Wakata of Japan. Some of us were so excited that we even wrote songs about his exciting journey. Well, the first conversation between man and machine occurred on December 6th, and Toyota has all the details from the historic conversation between Kirobo and Commander Wakata.

Toyota posted a transcript of the moment Kirobo and Commander Wakata shared with the ages. The conversation went as follows (translated from Japanese):

Wakata: How did you get out here into space, Kirobo?

Kirobo: On the Kounotori* from Tanegashima Space Center.

Wakata: Right. So you came here on the Kounotori?

Kirobo: Not the bird, of course! A rocket.

Wakata: It’s incredible that you came here all by yourself.

Kirobo: Well, I’m a robot!

The objective of the Kirobo project is to create peaceful coexistence between human beings and robots. Which is fortunate, after all; if popular movies are any indication, we all know how things go when machine turns against man (that’s right, we’re talking about Maximum Overdrive, of course).

For further information on the conversations between Kirobo and Commander Wakata over the course of the next year, stay tuned to The News Wheel!