Mission specialist Rick Linnehan works on the Canadian robot, named Dextre. Photograph: NASA TV/AP

A $200m (£100m) robot at the international space station was today paralysed and waiting for a software fix to reanimate it.

The Canadian robot, known as Dextre, is designed to help astronauts avoid difficult and dangerous spacewalks for repairs to the space station. But today it was immobile because of a problem getting power to its joints.

The machine, which is nearly 3.7m long and weighs 1.5 tonnes, needs heat to keep its limbs and electronics working in space. Engineers from the Canadian Space Agency suspect the problem is caused by timer software and are planning to beam up a fix to make the robot active.

Astronauts on the space shuttle Endeavour began a 16-day mission on Tuesday, which includes transporting Dextre to the international space station and getting it working. The robot was transported in nine pieces and the software problem emerged as the astronauts assembled it yesterday.

If the problem cannot be fixed, the same astronauts may have to endure another spacewalk to disassemble the robot, which could otherwise be damaged if it remains without power on the outside of the space station.

Mike Suffredini, NASA's space station programme manager, said he was confident the problem could be resolved fairly quickly.

Dan Glaister in Los Angeles
Thursday February 28, 2008
The Guardian

It is the sort of legal notice that has become distressingly familiar to thousands of Americans in the grip of the mortgage foreclosure crisis.

"You are in default under a deed of trust," it blandly declares. "Unless you take action to protect your property, it may be sold at a public sale."

But this no ordinary eviction. The property in question is Neverland, the opulent ranch and playground owned by pop star Michael Jackson. Unless the singer can come up with more than $24m (£12m) that he owes on the property it will go to the highest bidder at a public auction to be held on the steps of the courthouse in Santa Barbara on March 19.

The new owner is likely to get more than just one of the prime pieces of real estate set in some of the most beautiful scenery in the heart of California's wine country.

Behind the gates of the 2,800-acre [1,100-hectare] estate lie many of the playthings that Jackson installed to entertain children and himself. As the notice of sale makes clear, anything that is still there will be included in the sale. That includes "all ferris wheels, carousels, merry-go-round type devices ... and all amusement ride equipment and facilities of every kind or nature". It is thought that many personal items belonging to Jackson may still be inside the property.

Jackson himself hasn't lived at Neverland, which he bought in 1987 for a reported £11.3m, since June 2005, shortly after his acquittal on charges of child molestation.

In early 2006 the remaining staff at the property were let go and Jackson was fined for not paying their insurance. The animals in the Neverland zoo - which at times had hosted elephants, giraffes, snakes, orangutans, tigers and a crocodile - were removed at the same time.

Lawyers for Jackson are trying to refinance the property, but with the singer producing no new work and sales of his back catalogue falling it appears that he may have exhausted his credit.