NASA / Stanford developing new robot for Phobos

Stanford researchers develop acrobatic space rovers to explore moons and asteroids

Okay, we sent enough probes to Mars, lets check on Mars' moons.
First, Phobos. Problem: the gravity is about 0.0006 times Earth's gravity (0.0058 m/s² compared to 9.81 m/s²)!

It will be a major problem to "cling" to Phobos surface and not to bounce around futilely.

reply to post by ManFromEurope


Looks like they have a few kinks to work out.

"Whatever's touching the ground needs to get traction on hard stuff without getting stuck on soft stuff... That's something that will require more work and testing."

I like their idea for using the Inertial force of Spinning disks to allow movement Instead of wheels like traditional rovers use. If they can make this practical I would say it's a simple solution to cutting down on parts that could potentially break and fewer parts also means less cost.

Probes have landed on asteroids before, and taken samples, so it's possible. A moving probe is another matter. With these "hedgehog" balls, how will they ensure the correct positioning of the instruments for science and drilling?