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Mini robots able to roll, fly, float and swim, then turn into
only one machine? Together, they form Shapeshifter,
a concept in development for a transformation vehicle to explore traitors,
distant worlds.
In a dusty robotics yard at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory
in Pasadena, California, Shapeshifter team tests a 3D printed printer
prototype of this unusual explorer. A machine that looks like a drone
wrapped in an elongated hamster wheel that rolls in the yard and then separates
half. Once separated, the two halves rise on small propellers, allowing
become flying drones for aerial exploration. These 3D printed parts are only
the beginning; the team imagines a series of 12 robots that can transform
in a swimming probe or a team of cave explorers.
NASA 360 is looking at NASA's innovative advanced concept (NIAC), called Shapeshifter. Researched by a team of NASA JPL engineers, the Shapeshifter concept is an amphibious flying robot that could one day be used to explore the treacherous terrains of distant worlds.
The flying amphibious robot is part of the first phase
research program NASA
Innovative advanced concepts (NIAC), which offers several funding phases
visionary concepts, helping to transform ideas that sound like science fiction into
scientific fact. JPL senior researcher Ali Agha sees Shapeshifter as a
mission to Titan, the moon of Saturn, the only other known world of the solar system
to have a liquid in the form of methane lakes, rivers and seas on its surface.
Cassini from NASA
The mission flew over Titan a hundred times and traced its surface for the future
missions. What Cassini discovered is a world amazingly similar to Earth, but
major differences: Titan's cold rivers, lakes and rain are made of liquid
methane and ethane (both gases on Earth). The misty atmosphere of the moon could also
hide caves – or even frozen volcanoes that spit out ammonia or water instead of
magma.
"We
to have very
limited information on the composition of the surface. Rocky terrain,
methane lakes, cryovolcanoes – we have potentially all of these, but we do not
know for sure, "said Agha." So we thought about how to create a
Versatile system able to cross different types of terrain
but also compact enough to launch on a rocket ".
Agha and her co-investigators Shapeshifter, which include
researchers from Stanford and Cornell Universities, proposed the concept of
a robot to assemble composed of smaller robots called "cobots". the
The cobots, each housing a small helix, could move independently of a
another to fly along cliffs of scientific interest. They could also go
speleology, forming a garland to maintain contact with the surface. Or they
could turn into a sphere to roll on flat surfaces and save energy.
For now, Shapeshifter is semi-autonomous, but its future
the design will depend on the cobots able to assemble automatically without the need for commands
From the earth.
Agha
ultimate vision includes a lander like that of the European Space Agency Huygens
Probe, who touched Titan after being deployed via
parachute by the Cassini spacecraft from NASA. This "craft", like Agha
call it, would serve as a source of energy for cobots and would carry the
scientific instruments to perform a thorough analysis of the samples. But rather than
remaining on the spot, as the landing gear usually do, this one would be portable.
The flight is easier on Titan, where the atmosphere is dense and the gravity low.
Agha calculates that 10 cobots could easily lift a landing gear the size of Huygens
(about 9 feet or 3 meters wide) and transport it gently to different places.
"That's often the case
that some of the most difficult places to reach are the most scientific
interesting because maybe they are the youngest, or they are in an area that was
not well characterized from the orbit, "
said Jason Hofgartner, JPL Scientific Lead for Shapeshifter.
"The remarkable versatility of Shapeshifter allows access
to all these scientifically convincing places ".
The Shapeshifter team will submit its concept to the NIAC phase
II selection process in 2020. But even if selected, it could be many more years
until Shapeshifter visited a moon like Titan. The next mission to Titan will be Dragonfly,
NASA's first rotorcraft lander, scheduled for launch in 2026. Until
fans of Titans will continue to follow NASA's Cassini team
he releases new discoveries on the strange moon.
To learn more about Shapeshifter, visit:
https://go.nasa.gov/Shapeshifter
To learn more about Titan, visit:
https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/moons/saturn-moons/titan/overview/
Media contact
Arielle Samuelson
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California
818-354-0307
[email protected]
2019-192
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