Engineers at Swamp Works, part of NASA and the U.S. military’s Office of Naval Research, have designed and built space-worthy drones called Extreme Access Flyers. They could gather data in places that traditional rover just can’t reach and someday scout Mars, moons or asteroids in our solar system.
It’s hard to debate the Mars Curiosity rover’s legendary status, but there are some things it can’t do. Like our own planet, Mars features rough, jagged terrain with crater walls angled at 30 degrees or more. Curiosity can’t explore these double-black-diamond locations. So researchers are designing drones that could simply fly over these obstacles. Swamp Works’ drone looks a lot like the quadcopters we routinely see, but researchers made serious modifications to make the craft space-worthy. In the ultra-thin atmosphere of Mars, or the airless vacuums of asteroids, rotors are useless. Instead, space drones rely on cold-gas jets for lift and steering capabilities and a planet-exploring drone also needs to have autonomous flight controls.
Swamp Works engineers believes their latest prototype, a 5-foot-wide, cold-gas-propelled drone, closely resembles what you might someday see flying in space. They are loading their prototypes with navigation software that helps the drones recognize and react to physical features in their environment…….
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Photo Credit: NASA/Swamp Works