"ROBO-ONE in the Space" promises low-orbit robot battles

Besides the promised army of nanobots that will fulfill our every want and need, there hasn't been too much about the "future" to get really jazzed up about -- until, that is, we found out about a little event happening on October 10, 2010 called "ROBO-ONE in the Space" (actual title, not a machine translation). From the same enthusiastic folks who bring us the fascinating terrestrial robot battles and posedowns in Tokyo every year, ROBO-ONE in the Space is an ambitious project that was announced at this year's competition, in which the organizers plan to launch a 125,000-cubic centimeter "piggyback satellite" into polar orbit in conjunction with a larger payload-- all for the purpose of robot grudge matches in zero gravity. Read more