I wonder if the robot will look anything like a penguin? :)
[link|http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/news/0,4586,2797428,00.html?chkpt=zdnn_nbs_hl|
NASA robot to use Linux, Pentium III]

By Matthew Broersma
ZDNet (UK)
July 24, 2001 11:03 AM PT

NASA's Ames Research Center is building a "personal satellite assistant", powered by a Pentium III with the Linux operating system, to help out astronauts on space shuttle and International Space Station (ISS) missions.
The robot is a six-inch sphere inspired by the sparring droid that Luke Skywalker fights in the movie "Star Wars", but NASA engineers say its functionality is closer to the "tricorder" tool used in Star Trek: it senses the pressure and temperature of the ambient atmosphere, and detects concentrations of gases like carbon dioxide and oxygen.