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Robotic Nanotech Swarms on Mars... in 2034

Roland Piquepaille writes "NASA is testing a shape-shifting robot called 'TETwalker' for tetrahedral walker, because it looks like a flexible pyramid. It has been tested in the lab and at the McMurdo station in Antarctica to test it under conditions more like those on Mars. Now, it is on the way to be -- really -- miniaturized by using micro- and nano-electro-mechanical systems. These robots will eventually join together to form 'autonomous nanotechnology swarms' (ANTS). When it's done, in about thirty years, these nanotech swarms will 'alter their shape to flow over rocky terrain or to create useful structures like communications antennae and solar sails.' So in 2034, nanotechnology will land on Mars. Read more for other details and references about the TETwalker and the ANTS project."

32 of 295 comments (clear)

  1. Heh. by ggvaidya · · Score: 2, Funny

    Just to get it out of everybody's system:

    I for one welcome our new ANT overlords!

    1. Re:Heh. by CrazyJim1 · · Score: 4, Funny

      "It's difficult to tell from this vantage point whether they will consume the captive earth men or merely enslave them. One thing is for certain: there is no stopping them; the ants will soon be here. And I for one welcome our new insect overlords. I'd like to remind them that as a trusted TV personality, I can be helpful in rounding up others to toil in their underground sugar caves."

    2. Re:Heh. by Rosonowski · · Score: 2, Funny

      Unless of course it was the sound of the joke going over my head. Who knows?

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  2. Sounds like a good movie idea. by Mortlath · · Score: 5, Funny
    I can see Hollywood making a movie out of this idea:

    "NASA's nano-robots get out of control and take over Mars. The robots replicate and build a massive robot army with the intent to come back to Earth and kill us all."

    What I wonder is why robots in movies usually feel the need to kill humankind?

    1. Re:Sounds like a good movie idea. by Kiryat+Malachi · · Score: 2, Funny

      If you'd been living with this pain in all the diodes down your left side for the last hundred million years, you'd want to kill a human too.

      --

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      Mod me down, you fucking twits. Go ahead. I dare you.
      (I read with sigs off.)
    2. Re:Sounds like a good movie idea. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      Resentment at being loaded with Windows?

  3. Oh noes #2! by dauthur · · Score: 4, Funny

    I don't know about these ant things... arm them with just a nanoliter of Cyanide, and you've got one Hell of a pack of fire ants.

  4. Illuminautis on Mars! by Popadopolis · · Score: 3, Funny

    It is part of the Illuminauti plan to set up their own shadow government on Mars before the humans arrive. Hail Dischordia! Hail Graud!

  5. Roland Piquepaille article by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Click and make him feel cool.

  6. No by bonch · · Score: 5, Funny

    They want to send nanotechnology swarms onto another planet in order to burrow into the core and create a vast nanotech brain. The planet will gain self-awareness in a matter of seven years and will decide humanity is its greatest threat, altering the course of its orbit to crash into Earth.

    All brought to you by NASA. Thanks, NASA!

  7. The news in 2034 by rhysweatherley · · Score: 5, Funny

    "NASA scientists were red-faced today when their nanotech swarms crashed and refused to move anywhere. One scientist was heard to mutter something about 'Damn 32-bit time_t'".

  8. Robotic robots from Mars! by AtariAmarok · · Score: 4, Funny
    "by a huge artificial AI comes back to Earth"

    It is those artificial AI intelligences that I fear the most, I tell ya.

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    Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
  9. Re:Whoa! by NanoGator · · Score: 4, Funny

    "We can barely handle environmental damage here. Now you want to send nanotechnology "swarms" onto another planet because... we'll learn a whole lot?!"

    You'd rather they unleash them here?

    --
    "Derp de derp."
  10. Re:WOW!!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny
    I guess I must agree (being the astrology buff that I am).
    Aquarius?
  11. Oh hell... by WoodSmoke · · Score: 4, Funny

    Great, someone went and invented replicators.... we are screwed, SG1 would probably be too busy to save us...

  12. Not a good idea. by uncoveror · · Score: 2, Funny

    The Zhti Ti Kofft will crush are puny nanobot army, and then punish is for attempting a large scale invasion. It may be the twilight of humanity! If we want the blue planet to remain ours, we need to respect that the red planet is theirs,

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    The Uncoveror: It's the real news.
  13. Re:WOW!!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny
    Unfortunately, no.
    Unfortunately, no? What's so special about Aquarii?
  14. Re:So lets see what happens ... by Karl+Tacheron · · Score: 5, Funny
    A 100 years later a huge fleet of warships from Mars controlled by a huge artificial AI comes back to Earth and obliterates it.
    Powered by a double redundancy drive?
  15. "Lewis and Clarke"? by AtariAmarok · · Score: 2, Funny
    "another planet to do 'Lewis and Clarke' stuff"

    Ah. C.S. Lewis and Arthur C. Clarke. Could always use another Perelandra novel, and Rama retreads never get old. It has been a while since their last collaboration, hasn't it?

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    Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
  16. Thanks by AtariAmarok · · Score: 2, Funny

    Thanks. Next time, we will make sure to refer to the nanobots as a "death cloud" or "apocalyptic horde".

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    Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
    1. Re:Thanks by Bifurcati · · Score: 3, Funny

      Sorry - those terms are already reserved for telemarketers and Jehovah's Witnesses, respectively. :)

  17. why do you keep posting this shit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny


    fuck Roland and his plaigarised website, he deserves to get taken down

  18. And when the nanobots breed out of control? by AtariAmarok · · Score: 3, Funny

    Q:"What about when the nanobots breed out of control?"
    A:"We send bigger robots to eat them up"
    Q:"And what about when the bigger robots get out of control?"
    A:"We send huge platoons of godzillas to incinerate them"
    Q:"What about when the godzillas breed and cover the planet?"
    A: "Galactus is one phone call away"
    Q: "What about....?"
    A: "Don't worry. We've laced the godzillas with rat poison. Galactus eats Mars and quickly dies. No danger to Earth."

    --
    Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
  19. Re:Nanotechnology and futurism. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    I hang out on the nanotechnology newsgroup

    You must be one of these "experts" I keep hearing about at this site!

  20. NASA sends nanotech to Mars by Centurix · · Score: 2, Funny

    Which finds 1,150,000 year old nanotech already there, gets eaten, turned into Martian nanotech electro-waste...

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    Task Mangler
    1. Re:NASA sends nanotech to Mars by 0racle · · Score: 2, Funny

      No no no I saw this happen once. See after living on Mars once this nanoswarm makes the atmosphere livable you'll begin to have people that can travel through time and space.

      --
      "I use a Mac because I'm just better than you are."
  21. Re:Nanotechnology and futurism. by noidentity · · Score: 2, Funny

    while there are a number of complexities standing between a handful of silicone today and a handful of nanobots

    I'll take a couple of handfuls of silicone, assuming it's in the proper ahem "envelope".

  22. What they eventually want to achieve by ta+bu+shi+da+yu · · Score: 2, Funny

    The Borg. Yow!

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    XML is like violence. If it doesn't solve the problem, use more.
  23. Re:Anything in 30 years by Guru2Newbie · · Score: 1, Funny
    Fund us and we promise you nonobots 30 years from now."

    Are no-no bots like nanobots, except they keep doing terribly bad things, so you yell at them: "No! No!" ?

  24. Let's see, builders, blockers, bashers, bombers... by beyond_the_blue · · Score: 3, Funny

    "...these nanotech swarms will 'alter their shape to flow over rocky terrain or to create useful structures like communications antennae and solar sails.'"

    Why am I suddely reminded of Lemmings?

    --
    "Sometimes you have fun, and sometimes the fun has you"
  25. Re:Wrong destination by zeux · · Score: 2, Funny

    Come on, you said it yourself: Mars rocks!

    So let's go to Mars.

  26. Re:So lets see what happens ... by SEWilco · · Score: 2, Funny
    A 100 years later a huge fleet of warships from Mars controlled by a huge artificial AI comes back to Earth and obliterates it.

    Powered by a double redundancy drive?

    It is really, really artificial. We just have to have a man on Mars so it is manmade-manmade.