The universe is not stagnant, it expands every minute, every second at an accelerating pace. It came into being through a colossal explosion - The Big Bang . It gives birth to subatomic particles, stars, dust, gas clouds, etc. These bodies then carry on with their cycles. When massive stars run out of energy, they collapse into dense bodies like neutron stars or black holes through a supernova explosion. Source - nasa.gov A black hole is a region in spacetime where gravity is so strong that even light cannot escape it! Black holes consist of an event horizon, the surface layer of the black hole , and a singularity, the region where the spacetime curvature becomes infinite. The theory o f general relativity suggests that mass is stretched when thrown into a black hole. In 1974, English Physicist Stephen Hawking discovered Hawking Radiation. What is Hawking Radiation, to be exact? Hawking Radiation states that black holes are slowly losing their mass. The hot, dense bodi
Advanced futuristic shape-shifting Cobots for Mars Exploration
On October 4, 1957, history was made in space exploration by launching the first human-made Earth satellite Sputnik I. This was the first successful space exploration mission done by any kind of robot or space technology.
Human spaceflight also made its history on 12 April 1961, when Yuri Gagarin became the first human to orbit the Earth opening a new chapter of human venture in space eXploration.
Time passed and new technological robots helped a lot in exploring space to the most possible level. Few of them reached the gaseous hot planets such as Venus and resisting the incredibly hot temperature and few went to explore our Earth's only natural satellite Moon as lunar robotic missions.
But the planet which fulfilled the worth of exploration was Mars.
MARS 2020 Perseverance Rover Source-: NASA JPL
The main reason for exploring Mars was due to the expectancy of microbial life there. On July 4, 1997, Sojourner was the first rover landing on Mars and returning several data. The last signal received from the rover was on the morning of October 7, 1997. The Sojourner mission ended four months later on March 10, 1998, after squandering all further options. Though it was the starting. The next robotic mission to the surface of Mars, followed by Sojourner was Opportunity Rover which landed at Mars on January 25, 2004. After three weeks, its twin Spirit Rover landed but in other sites of the planet. Opportunity's mission ended with a good outcome due to the duststorms which coated the solar plates of the rover with huge dust particles. These dust storms are very often on the Martian surface. On 6 August 2012, at Gale Crater on Mars, Curiosity Rover landed. It was a car-sized rover bigger than the rest others. The rover is still operational, and as of May 22, 2021. Curiosity has been active on Mars for 3125 sols (3211 total days; 8 years, 289 days) since its landing and has made a record of sustaining the longest period on Mars as a Robot. Finally, Perseverance Rover is the rover that is quite similar to Curiosity and landed at Martian Crater on 18 February 2021. This rover was launched with a mission to find ancient life on Mars in the Jezero Crater having rich content of minerals and is assumed to have a great river delta flowing previously millions of years ago on Mars. It is still operational on Mars.
A prototype of the transforming robot Shapeshifter is tested in the robotics yard at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
Source-: NASA/JPL-Caltech
These robotic missions helped humans pursuing their goals to learn more about space and other celestial bodies.
Currently, in NASA, the most advanced robotic space exploration technology is Shape-Shifting Robots also called Transforming Cobots. These cobots are so much feasible on harsh surfaces and they can adapt various forms to explore deeply any place. This robotic technology can morph to any mobility domains such as flying on an atmosphere, rolling on a smooth surface, navigating subsurface voids (ex. caves), floating on a lake surface, and propelling under an ocean.
An illustration of an early concept of Shapeshifter imagines the robots on Saturn's moon Titan.
Source-: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Marilynn Flynn
Most of the harsh surface situations faced during the robotic exploration can be overcome by these potential Cobots. This is developed recently by the JPL Caltech of NASA. These Cobots are going to be used for the Europa mission to the Saturn moon which is assumed to launch in 2026. These cobots will land on the surface of Titan and explore the caves and water bodies with feasible morphing technology. These shapeshifter robots, cobots, can transform into certain prototypes to explore the Martian caves deeply and this can result in the habitable nature of those caves which can be used for futuristic settlement purposes on Mars.
These Cobots are under testing in harsh environments present on Earth itself. Most of the situations are successfully resisted by those cobots.
Shapeshifters assembling/disassembling in different shapes to explore Kraken Mare Source-: JPL/NASA
So it has become the most feasible robotic technology for space exploration in near future.
These cobots are too much cost-efficient and less energy-consuming bodies. Each cobot has an extremely simple design structure having few propellers and actuators. They can morph easily into the ball-like structures and can roll on the ground, a flight array that can fly & hover above-surface and move in subsurface voids and a torpedo-like structure to swim under-liquid efficiently, among other mobility modes.
These cobots can transfer large and heavy stuff with minimal power usage and can travel faster, creating communication networks to communicate to surface from deep hard-to-access areas.
An illustration of the small robots that form Shapeshifter. Dubbed "cobots," they each have a propeller for flying and can combine to form a sphere, rolling on the ground to save energy. Source-: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Human-robotic missions are a need of the hour and human require to develop such technologies which can encourage the space exploration and someday we homo sapiens can become an interplanetary species, or we may have searched some alien life in other planets or celestial bodies. These all robotic advancements in the space exploration field can make it possible very soon.
FUN FACT : Opportunity rover was planned to work on Mars for only 90 days, but it kept working for 15 years and the last message sent by Oppy was "my batteries are low and it is getting dark".
Do you think Robotics can help us in colonizing space as planned by major aerospace Organisations? Let us know in the comments below!
Robotics will lay the groundwork for sure. Thanks for this neat article Shoubhik.
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