Spacebot concept. Showing the stages of the so called "Hedgehog" probes in action. (via Stanford)
A manned exploration to Mars is the next logical step in continuing to expand our knowledge and understanding of the cosmos and its relation to human life on Earth (also continued human dominance). Several obstacles lay in our path before such a mission can be accomplished, including the prohibitively expensive cost of fuel needed to overcome the gravitational pull of Mars. Exploring the Martian moon Phobos, as a precursor to Mars, can potentially provide us with some key information that can at least bring humans closer to the big red planet.
Such are the thoughts of Marco Pavone, an Assistant Professor in Stanford’s Department of Aeronautics and Astronauts. Pavone has developed a system of autonomous spacebots that are specifically designed to travel to Phobos, with a gravity 1000 times weaker than Mars, on a mission to learn more about the moon’s environment and origins. The system consists of a mothercraft, named The Surveyor, which would orbit Phobos near a low-gravity sweet spot between Mars’ Stickney Crater and its moon. The surveyor would then gather large-scale information about the moon and use this to deploy sea-urchin like drones, nicknamed “hedgehogs”, that would travel to the surface of the moon to collect more detailed information. This data would then be beamed back up to the Surveyor and sent to Earth for analysis, ultimately used to relay further instructions back to the Surveyor bot about new hedgehog deployment sites. The whole mission would take about three years for completion. Such a new and refreshing synergistic system opens up future alleyways for deep space exploration.
Since the surface of Phobos ranges from hard, rock-like formations to dust-like sand dunes, the hedgehogs must be equipped to handle a wide range of terrains. The bots will never actually touch the surface, but it will use three solar-powered rotating discs to move through the moon’s microgravity environment. The spiky hedgehogs will either hop, bound, or tumble depending on the discs’ rate of acceleration - a nod to Sonic the hedgehog, perhaps.
But of course, much more elaborate testing must be completed before the Phobos mission can take off. Pavone’s team is planning to mimic and test the bots in a microgravity environment by use of a crane this coming summer, and by use of a low-gravity aircraft undergoing parabolic flight by 2015.
Nevertheless, the implications of this mission can have a significant contribution to our understanding of the solar system. Knowing the origins of Phobos would provide us with more information on the formation of our solar system, and the knowledge of its terrain may provide us with a potential location for a human base before making our descent towards Mars. If all goes well, the Surveyor system will find great value in the study of other small celestial bodies, as well. Slowly but surely, we hop our way from rock to rock in search of cosmic truths.
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