Mars

Whether they use wheels, treads, or even legs, robots often have trouble extricating themselves from situations they may encounter on a space mission. Their design can also prevent them from easily navigating around certain obstacles. The chances of hitting a roadblock only increase when human control is removed, as in the case of autonomous robots. Hopping robots inspired by the clumsy jumping of grasshoppers could prove to be the answer to giving robots unprecedented mobility for exploring other planets, gathering battlefield intelligence, and assisting police during standoffs or surveillance operations. Read More

Last week, as the world celebrated the first lunar landing, Apollo 11 astronauts Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins both called for NASA to make Mars its next goal. But the chemical propulsion system that took them to the moon would take six months, at least, to get a man to Mars and cost hundreds of billions of dollars. However, a new ion plasma rocket being developed by another former astronaut, Franklin Chang-Diaz, could potentially reach Mars in just 39 days using a fraction of the fuel. Read More

Despite falling silent late last year after five months on the arctic plains of the Red Planet, scientists around the globe continue to analyze data gathered by the Phoenix lander and uncover more clues in the search for evidence of life elsewhere. This latest news comes from researchers at the University of Arkansas who have shown that salts discovered at the Phoenix landing site have the potential to be found as liquid water - an essential ingredient for life - under the temperature and pressure conditions present on Mars. Read More