NASA chief, Sam O’Keefe, has ordered his research teams to come up with a robotic replacement for his job, to come into effect before 2007. The announcement comes shortly after his announcement to develop robotic service droids to repair the Hubble Telescope. Whilst humans would be far more able to repair the telescope they are prohibited from doing so under Sam O’Keefe’s new safety guidelines.

“Sam’s initial decision about robots servicing Hubble came shortly after watching Star Wars episode 1” NASA Researcher Chuck Hankman explained, “We got to the scene where the Queen’s ship is being attacked by the Trade Federation and they despatch all those R2D2s to repair the damage. At that point Sam leapt to his feet shouting ‘Of course! That’s how we can save Hubble!!’”

Despite how cool it would be, it is unlikely the service bots will look like R2D2, or perform repairs to the same standards.

The decision attracted a lot of criticism. Many believe it is too late to develop a successful design in time for the 2007 deadline that is Hubble’s life expectancy. Others believe the costs in developing the technology is far too high when humans have successfully repaired the telescope in the past with the most remarkable results.

Sam O’Keefe has explained that all Shuttle Trips must be able to fly within reach of the International Space Station in case a shuttle is unable to return to earth safely.

If a shuttle is judged unsafe to land NASA will send another shuttle up to collect the crew from the International Space Station. If that one is unable to return NASA will send a third shuttle. If that one breaks down NASA runs out of shuttles.

Following the recent criticism of his suggestion, along with the criticism for not permitting humans to go in the first place, Sam O’Keefe has decided it is now too dangerous for humans to run NASA and has ordered his research team to develop a robotic controller that can take over and allow him to retire early to play golf.

The result of Sam O’Keefe’s suggestion that robots should repair the Hubble Space Telescope resulted in 27 astronauts signing a petition and sending it to the President George Bush claiming that robots “would only be able to accomplish a portion of the tasks and would have a lower probability of success.” Apparently no one has stepped forwards to say the same thing about robots replacing Sam O’Keefe.