NASA's Shapeshifter Robot can morph, fly, swim and roll
Researched by engineers at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the Shapeshifter is a flying, amphibious robot, that could be used to explore terrains of distant worlds.
Shapeshifter is made of smaller robots that can morph into rolling spheres, flying drones, swimming submersibles, and more.
The engineers envision Shapeshifter as a mission to explore Saturn's moon Titan.
NASA's Cassini spacecraft flew by Titan over one hundred times, mapping its surface for future missions. Cassini discovered a world surprisingly similar to Earth, but with key differences: Titan's cold rivers, lakes and rain are made of liquid methane and ethane. Titan could also conceal caves - or even icy volcanoes.
Shapeshifter is a system of robots that is versatile and capable of traversing different types of terrain but also compact enough to launch on a rocket.
Each robot has a small propeller, would be able to move independent of one another to fly along cliffsides of scientific interest or transform into a sphere to roll on flat surfaces and conserve energy.
The concept will be submitted in 2020 for the Phase II's selection process, with the team's hopes of one day exploring Titan.
The next NASA mission to Titan will be Dragonfly, which is scheduled to launch in 2026.
Shapeshifter is part of a NASA early-stage research program. Even if selected, it could be many more years until Shapeshifter visits a moon like Titan.
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NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.ph...
NASA Shapeshifter • Shapeshifter | A Morphing Robot to Explore...
NASA's Cassini Spacecraft • NASA's Cassini Spacecraft: A Journey's End
NASA Dragonfly • Dragonfly: NASA's New Mission to Explore S...
NASA Cassini mission https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/missions...
NASA Cassini mission photos and videos https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/resource...
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