'Super ball bots' to explore other planets

NASA has developed a new type of landing apparatus that could make exploring other worlds much easier.

One of the most cost prohibitive elements of placing a rover on another planet is the landing procedure. Traditionally, landing requires a complex set of stages involving retrorockets, parachutes, airbags and other mechanisms to get the spacecraft safely on to the ground.

To tackle this problem, researchers at NASA have developed a completely new style of landing system, one comprised of a flexible robotic exoskeleton capable of changing its shape and absorbing any impact with the ground.

NASA believes that its Super Ball Bot could survive being dropped from a height of up to 60 miles and then once on the ground could roll around on the surface by changing the length of its cables. It would even be possible to deploy several of them at a time, widening the possibilities of exploration for a single mission.

The space agency believes Saturn's moon Titan could be an ideal target for the new system as it sports a dense nitrogen atmosphere that could help to cushion the spacecraft's fall. Titan's uneven terrain would also make the proposed rolling mechanism superior to traditional wheeled vehicles in exploring the moon's surface.

Source:www.unexplained-mysteries.com...

Second source: www.nasa.gov...



Well, how about that? I posted this, because I thought it was interesting and a great next step in space exploration. Titan, here we come!

And people say there is no longer any thinking outside the box. Wrong!

Yet another example of something coming into reality after being depicted in movies prior.

Knowing lady luck, after a few thousands years whipping through space to its destination planet, it would land right smack in the crack of two boulders and jam in there tighter than a Nelson wedgie.

(Cool idea though! Reminds me a bit of the Cubeli)

This is a brilliant idea and could save researchers hundreds of millions of dollars.

There is a fairly high 'mortality' rate for rovers and probes, some of them don't survive the descent, and that's years of research and millions of dollars down the drain. If the survivability of the rover/probe is increased, then costs could be cut drastically and the hundreds of hours of R & D won't go to waste if there is a failure to land.

But then again we are getting closer to the Von Neumann probe, so these rollcages may not be necessary in the long run.

Thecakeisalie
This is a brilliant idea and could save researchers hundreds of millions of dollars.

There is a fairly high 'mortality' rate for rovers and probes, some of them don't survive the descent, and that's years of research and millions of dollars down the drain. If the survivability of the rover/probe is increased, then costs could be cut drastically and the hundreds of hours of R & D won't go to waste if there is a failure to land.

But then again we are getting closer to the Von Neumann probe, so these rollcages may not be necessary in the long run.

I haven't even thought of that, I was just looking at the scientific aspect of it. You are absolutely right!

reply to post by Thecakeisalie


Nice avatar! They're talking about this lander as if it will go along with the rover, or is the rover. Why not design this package to land and then to open so a rover can drive out from it? Or even carry a rover inside it, let it loose, and let both the ball and the rover act as rovers? There are lots of possibilities here.

reply to post by Aleister


Thank you (My new avatar for winter.)
I could really see them exploring our planets, and having a much higher success rate in receiving data, and collecting samples/information, etc. with these super bots.

reply to post by Rainbowresidue


An avatar I wish I could meet at some winter fair. I was thinking about these bots. They would have to be designed to crawl out of massive holes. Think of the moon, if they landed wrong they'd be in a crater, or up against a crater wall, and would have no way of getting out that I can see. Pinpoint mapping would have to be done on a place like Titan so the bots fell on an open area free of craters. And how would precision instruments be built into this system, as then it fell it would knock everything for a loop as it bounced merrily along the surface.

I hope this thing is perfected, and glad to read of it here first. Happy and warm winter to ya!

they could send children into space with enough food to last the journey to the other planet, by the time they get their they will be adults, then they can explore the planet and then return in time for their pension.