A spring robot to explore asteroids indefinitely: a daring project for NASA
The exploitation of the solar system is starting to seriously think. Profitability is not yet achievable as the costs are estimated too high, but the asteroid belt, located between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter, is full of resources of all kinds. A competition sponsored by NASA with first and third cycles students saw a team from the University of Texas offer a very clever plan for exploration by a new type of robot.
The team was inspired by Von Neuman probesthis brilliant contemporary jack of Einstein-which he had strongly impressed. This concept is based on robots sent to space in order to “feed” the resources present on asteroids and thus create copies of themselves, in turn capable of conquering new asteroids. And so on…
Here, the idea is to design a robot with spring landing system, which would bounce from target to target after recharging resources. It should be remembered that the severity on the surface of an asteroid is excessively low and that such a robot would only weigh a few grams.
The energy necessary to escape from such a mini-world would therefore be very modest: we speak of a speed of barely 0.13 km/s on a large asteroid as a psyche, to be compared with the 11, 2 km/s terrestrials! Be careful, do not imagine, as in Star Warslarge pebbles of space close to each other, the average distance which separates them being several million kilometers.
This autonomous exploration project of extraterrestrial regions was baptized Aether (for Autonomous Exploration Through Extraterrestrial Regions), with a first mission in 2034. It provides a metal rocket engine Krustyusing nuclear fission.
Automatic spring and learning to colonize asteroids
This robot would use a technology that can be compared to electric or hybrid engines, which recover braking energy to recharge their battery. He would adopt a system of wheels to move on the target – this part seems a little hazardous, but let's admit -, and recharge in metal, in particular aluminum, to plant his legs in the surface (often furniture), Compress your spring and get into space towards a new asteroid to visit.
It would also use an automatic learning system aimed at increasing the efficiency of its extraction of resources, while evaluating in a more and more relevant way the areas where to land. This minor robot should also regularly update its automatic learning system by communicating with the earth in order to optimize its future jumps.
The first two imagined targets would be a psyche, this famous asteroid of 250 km replet of precious metals, and which will receive the visit of The eponymous probe of NASA in 2029as well as Thémis.
