Snakes are unique creatures in that their bodies allow them to get into the cracks and crevices of the world that most other creatures cannot. Lacking rigid skeletons and extremities, snakes can contort their bodies in order to get into tiny holes, wrap around tree branches and slither over otherwise unmanageable rocks. These serpentine qualities are the inspiration for a new type of robotic, interplanetary probe, called a snakebot, being developed by engineers at NASA's Ames Research Center.
More About Snakebots,
Robots that can slither through the dense soil of alien planets could soon be sent out into space. The European Space Agency (ESA) wants its operations on other planets to have greater mobility and manoeuvrability,and is hence looking into whether snake-like robots could be the answer.
So far,Nasa has landed four rovers on Mars.These are solar-powered robots with six wheels and robotic arms that can take soil samples and operate cameras.Sojourner landed in 1997,Spirit and Opportunity in 2003,while the more advanced Curiosity was landed last summer.
Manoeuvrability has been a challenge, said Pal Liljeback and Aksel Transeth from the Foundation for Scientific and Industrial Research (SINTEF) in Norway.The Spirit rover was lost after it became stuck in the sand on Mars.The vehicles just cannot get to many of the places from which samples have to be taken. The researchers are,therefore,busy working on a feasibility study assigned to them by the ESA.
The ESA believes by combining a rover that can navigate over large distances with a snake robot that can crawl along the ground and get into inaccessible places,many more possibilities could be opened up. At the moment,soil samples from Mars are analysed on board the rover itself and the results are communicated back to Earth.But the ESA also wants to examine options that could allow samples to be returned to Earth.Snake robots could assist with collecting such samples,since they enable access to tight spots that the rovers cannot reach.
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