NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory is creating various robots to explore places that humans cannot reach

2024-01-02

According to foreign media reports, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) is the main center for NASA's robot exploration, which means scientists plan to send robots into space instead of humans. NASA is developing plans to overcome enormous challenges and send humans to Mars. At the same time, NASA has been sending rovers, landers, and orbiters to the surface of the Red Planet, and developing technology to send more advanced robots to other destinations in the solar system, such as the moon, asteroids, and Jupiter's icy moon Europa.

Many places have various obstacles, such as steep cliffs, steep canyons, and slippery ice covering the underground ocean. NASA researchers believe that it is necessary to design and build robots that can safely navigate and survive in these challenging places, and use them as "agile" double explorers.

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) researchers have developed complex software for all their Mars rovers, allowing scientists to remotely control them from Earth. However, they also developed software to enable the rover to travel as independently as possible on the surface of Mars, place instruments on the surface, and use their cameras and other instruments to observe and perceive the surrounding environment.

Go out for exploration

In order to explore future solar system destinations, NASA researchers are attempting various designs using quadrupeds and wheels.

For example, a 64 finger rover called "Lemur" (a quadruped multifunctional robot) was developed, which uses hundreds of small fish hooks on each "finger" to grab rock walls. This testing project has led to the emergence of a new generation of robots that can walk, climb, crawl, and even use grippers to attach to surfaces like geckos.

In addition, JPL is reinventing various wheeled vehicles. The Axel Rover has two wheels and a link following it, while the nearest DuAxel connects the two Axel Rovers together. They roll forward as a "duo" until they encounter a steep slope. At this point, the two Axels will separate and be connected by only one rope, while one will roll downhill and return to its partner. Other two wheeled vehicles include a small, foldable, shoe box sized robot A-PUFFER, which could one day search for lunar regions that astronauts cannot access; And the submersible rover BRUIE, which can ultimately explore the underground oceans of the solar system's ice and snow satellites.

These multiple configurations provide more options for exploring Earth's moon, Mars, and possibly Europa. For exploration above the surface, prototype airships are being tested to fly over the atmospheres of Titan, the satellite of Venus and Saturn. The future helicopter design is under development to follow up with the Mars helicopter carried by the 2020 Mars Persevere spacecraft.

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