Hellboy’s "right hand of doom?" Popeye’s spinach-fueled forearms? Luke Skywalker’s flesh-covered robotic hand at the end of The Empire Strikes Back? Yeah, those arms (and hands) are cool. VERY cool. 

There are also some awesome Canadian arms. To name only a few: Rick Hansen’s ridiculously amazing and inspirational arms; VICE founders Suroosh Alvi and Shane Smith’s gonzo journalism-writing arms; Arcade Fire drummer Jeremy Gara’s syncopated, inverted-paradiddle playing arms.

But the coolest arm—which also happens to be Canadian—is the "Canadarm." No question.

31 years ago today—affixed to the U.S. Space Shuttle Columbia—this stellar product of Canadian aeronautic innovation reached into the stars for the first time. Over the course of 90 flights, the wicked-awesome-mega-appendage (as it’s probably never called around the Canadian Space Agency) was used to move and retrieve satellites, provide support for astronauts during space walks, and perform many other tasks I will never understand.

The Canadarm was officially retired back in July 2011, after its final mission with the Space Shuttle Endeavour. Right now it’s in Brampton, Ontario, undergoing refurbishing and sanitizing (it’s dirty work up in space, I assume), but soon enough it will be en-route back to the Canadian Space Agency in St. Hubert, Quebec. That’s right, friends—the greatest arm in the history of the universe is coming home. 

Hopefully they’ll put a super-sized Mai Tai or Appletini in its hand and let it just relax for a bit. You’ve earned it, Canadarm. High-five!!!!!

For more on the Canadarm, click here, or head to Google before tomorrow for the Google Doogle.