As if they were the protagonists of a popular children’s story, a kind of rover could avoid getting lost in a Martian maze.
The children’s literature It may only seem like the perfect way to keep the little ones in the house entertained, but, nevertheless, it hides a fascinating way to enter our subconscious and stay dormant until the moment we need it. You do not know if this has been exactly what has happened on this occasion, but rarely can we tell you that a story has inspired the most revolutionary technology, which could be taken to another planet. Perhaps, the next NASA missions to Mars will make use of some very curious rovers and will be the prelude to the exploration of the Solar System. Crumb by crumb
Hansel and Gretel inspire a generation of future robot cave explorers on Mars
When it comes to exploring the terrain, it seems that some researchers at the University of Arizona have managed to find the clave for manage no problem in martian terrain. You will not need mobile phones or GPS navigators, you will only have to use a curious kind of robotsthat they might be able to explore caves and lava tubes without getting lost We talk about these types of structures, since building shelters would be a much more expensive and complicated option and because these landforms would allow us to be safe from cosmic radiation.
Image of the rover prototype that would be deployed on the Martian soil. The University of Arizona
The idea behind the rover What we show you on these lines is simple: equip these robots with miniaturized versions of the same, that they would be deposited on the ground as the rover travels through caves and lava tubes. These smaller robots would be the oil and gas what Hansel y Gretel They were leaving in the forest to know the way back home. In fact, researchers have called this concept DDCN, an acronym that in Spanish means ‘Dynamically Deployed Communication Network in the form of Crumb’.
The work, which has been published in the journal Advances in Space Researchshows how the tiny robots would include sensors that would allow to recognize the terrain, know the exact environmental conditions and allow a fluid communication. Of course, since are intended to be used in missions in hostile environmentsit seems that we would be facing robots that can be left to their fate. Wolfgang Finkprofessor at the University of Arizona, affirms what:
They are designed to be slaughtered. Rather than waste resources retrieving them from caves, it makes more sense to have them go as far as they can and abandon them when they’ve accomplished their mission, run out of energy, or succumb to the hostile environment.
