This little NASA rover can conquer sand and steep hills
Researchers at NASA and the Georgia Institute of Technology have recently devised a way for rovers to scoot over loose soils without getting stuck and even climb up steep hills without stalling. (Shrivastava et al., Sci. Robot. 5, eaba3499 (2020)/)After six years of exploring the plains of Mars, NASA’s Spirit rover was brought to a halt in May 2009 when it got stuck in soft soil near the Gusev crater. Though scientists made many attempts to free the rover, it was unable to escape and researchers terminated the mission entirely in 2011. To avoid Spirit’s fate, researchers now know that future rovers will need to be able to move about in new ways to navigate rugged terrain like the Moon’s icy poles.Fortunately, researchers at NASA and the Georgia Institute of Technology have recently devised a way for rovers to scoot over loose soils without getting stuck and even climb up...