14 DAY TRIAL // Apart from its Comet Hitchhiker, which would bounce around our Solar System exploring comets and asteroids, US space agency NASA is thinking about putting together yet another probe designed to tour such small bodies.
They call this robot, for now just a concept, the Hedgehog. Unlike the rovers the space agency has until now sent to Mars, the Hedgehog would be able to hop, tumble and flip on the surface of its target.
This means that, unlike traditional rovers, it would have no trouble navigating the rugged terrains on comets and asteroids, or deal with low-gravity conditions. Au contraire, it would be perfectly equipped to navigate such environments.
Shaped like a cube with feet-like protrusions sticking out of it, the Hedgehog would remain operational no matter its position or location. Run-of-the-mill rovers, on the other hand, need to keep their ground to function properly.
“Hedgehog is a different kind of robot that would hop and tumble on the surface instead of rolling on wheels. It is shaped like a cube and can operate no matter which side it lands on,” explains scientist Issa Nesnas with NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
“The spikes could also house instruments such as thermal probes to take the temperature of the surface as the robot tumbles,” the researcher goes on to explain.
Together with specialists at the Stanford University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, NASA has until now built and tested two Hedgehog prototypes, both of which performed well when set loose in a low-gravity environment.
Now, the scientists working on this project are looking to make the concept robot more autonomous. They want to give it a mind of its own and see if it can navigate tricky terrains on its own, as it will surely have to should it ever make it on a comet or an asteroid.
