Lawrence LeBlond for redOrbit.com
Stanford University researchers, working with NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and MIT, have designed a new robotic platform that could be used to explore the moons of Mars. The platform consists of a mother spacecraft and anywhere from one to several spiky, spherical rovers that can be deployed on the surface of a moon, such as Phobos, where they can hop, roll and tumble their way across rugged terrain.
Each rover, dubbed a “hedgehog,” measures about 2 feet wide and would be designed to relay information about the moon’s atmosphere, soil, and origins. The rovers would also be fully autonomous, surveying the land without the need for human control. Making them autonomous could solve a few issues, said the research team. One issue would be a wheeled craft. While Mars’ high gravity makes it easy for a craft such as Curiosity to navigate the terrain, Phobos has a much weaker gravity and wheels would not hold traction as easily.
The robotic rovers, of which two have already been crafted and a third in development, would deploy from a “Surveyor” craft after a detailed probe of the terrain had been completed. Each rover would be deployed separately, a few days apart, to give scientists better coverage of the moon, and to determine the best possible landing zones.
The research team said the rovers could not only probe the Martian moon Phobos, but could also investigate asteroids and comets, all without the need for human control.
“It’s the next level of autonomy in space,” said Marco Pavone, assistant professor at Stanford’s Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, and lead developer on the hedgehog rover system.
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