Tommy Bartlett's Robot World was on the world's center stage last week, as the Russian space station Mir was repaired in orbit above. Robot World, a mainstay of the Wisconsin Dells experience, displays one of the original three Mir modules in its Science Museum. The module was used as a critical prop for CNN newscasts last week, helping to explain the repair operation. Robot World, long considered a noisy haven for obsolete vacuum cleaner-like robots, is now a haven for clunky vacuum cleaner-like space vehicles.

The 40-foot long, 20-ton Mir module was sold to Robot World last year by cash-starved Russians, for between $500k and one million dollars. [08/26/1997]

February 10, 2012