Insect Robots For Mars Exploration

destructor writes "Thanks to these guys, I found this little robotic article. Aided by NASA's Institute for Advanced Concepts, flying insect robots are looking at a life on our "little red planet", Mars in order to procure some atmospheric information and samples. Since conventional aircraft are unable to precisely navigate the Mars surface due to very thin air qualities, the robots actually have the ability to "move only their wings rapidly - while the body flies slowly", to ease sample collections." Space.com is carrying a piece on this.

Comments

hmm

[QuestKing]

flying robots first post?

Encoded Government Communique

[Anonymous Coward]

http://abcnews.go.com/sections/scitech/DailyNews/a rt_tools011204.html

Philadelphia Museum of Art curator Mark Tucker says at least one later artist, Thomas Eakins, used more sophisticated technology -- the magic lantern -- to trace photographs on his canvas.

Invented in the late 19th century, the magic lantern projected hand-colored glass slides onto a larger screen (these slides could be adopted from photographs).

To project images, the device used light created when oxygen and hydrogen were squirted on a piece of limestone. As the gases were lit, the limestone turned incandescent and produced a powerful light.

Although some art scholars have recoiled at the suggestion that Eakins traced his work, Tucker argues it only adds to the artist's reputation.

"I think he was a clever man," he said. "It just means he knew how to make great use of technology."

Ewwwww

[Anonymous Coward]

Imagine cleaning that fucker off of your winshield......

seems like a good weapon

[Pinball Wizard]

I was thinking small flying robots with a camera attached would be a great way to hunt down people like Osama. Assumming these could be built cheaply enough you could send out hundreds of these to invade caves, scout out undergroud bunkers, etc. Design them so that it doesn't matter if someone manages to take out a few of them as long as some of the bots complete their mission.

Its kind of frustrating with all the modern tech we have not to be able to track down a hiding enemy. Something like this could accomplish our mission a lot quicker and probably save a lot of lives.

That's an awesome site!

[Anonymous Coward]

Looks like a cross between Slashdot and Kuro5hin, only with style!

Nice going, Megarad!

Re:Interesting quote

[Anonymous Coward]

this is not a quote from the article

why am i not able to get a job?

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm a straight A student in my last year of university, heading for a first class honours (UK), I've had 1.5 years NT development experience (various techs) including project leadership, sale of my work to Big 5 accountancy firms, training and on-site consultancy work home and abroad, and about 2 years part time administration/Perl/web experience on Unix boxen through a company I set up with a friend.

I've submitted my CV to dozens of places over the past couple of weeks, for specific jobs and for agents to do searching, and not one response or interview.. I've sold myself at almost half price, going rate, everything..

What the HELL is going on with the market?
Do I have a sign on my head that says "NOT A BILLSHEEP -- DO NOT EMPLOY"? Or have companies just given up hiring people before they graduate?

-- From a 21-year-old who has been programming since he was 8, and is about to stop programming forever.

Re:why am i not able to get a job?

[Anonymous Coward]

Just blame the terrorists like the Americans do. The economy's falling apart? Terrorists. Low consumer confidence? Terrorists. No one's flying? Terrorists. No one's using the trains? Terrorists. Unemployment is up? Terrorists. No one wanted to buy your old toothbrush off of eBay? Yep, terrorists.

See? It's so much easier than looking for the real cause of the problem! It's all the terrorists' fault!

Re:I really think this is the way to go...

[meadowsp]

success of the robotic drones in Afghanistan

So how many Osama's have these drones helped capture then?