Posted by Ray in Mars, current, moon
A Robot To Descend into Craters
NASA is working on a new robotic explorer—Axel, a tethered rover designed to go into Martian craters and send back data previously unattainable.
Sure, we’ve sent amazing rovers to Mars — the tiny Sojourner, and the bigger Spirit and Opportunity. But these wonderful vehicles have limitations. In particular: we don’t send them down into craters because they might not come out.
Enter: Axel.
Axel would be tethered to a bigger vehicle (like Spirit) and be send down into a craters—where, with the aid of a tether, it could be pulled back out. Axel is designed to climb over rocks and go at steep angles. And, it is capable of keeping its tether from getting tangled. With two stereoscopic cameras, it can identify and fetch interesting lunar or planetary materials for further analysis.
