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."

Comments

Whoa!

[Anonymous Coward]

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

Re:Whoa!

[mwood]

Not all of /. Like just about any other subset of society it has settled out into technophile and technophobe camps. And I think that both sides are a sad development. Treating engineering and technology as religion rather than, well, engineering and technology is not helpful.

Why send "ANTS" when we can send people...

[tquinlan]

...as has been pointed out by Robert Zubrin numerous times?

Seriously

[pegasustonans]

How can anyone speculate about technology thirty years in the future? At this point, it's all science fiction. Now, that's not to say that I don't hope it all pans out, but come on.

Plausibility

[trevdak]

This sounds a tad ridiculous.... like the article was written by someone who realy expects nanotechnology to erupt into common usage instantaneously. I am aware of the strength of nanotubes and look forward to a space elevator as much as the next guy, but there are some scenarios the writer gives that are extremely unlikely, such as the nanobots landing on mars by just forming an aerodynamic shield, or slithering like a snake. both of those actions would cause immense amounts of stress on the nanobots, and leaves too much room for error. The shuttle has how many million parts? Would we really create something with thousands of times more moving parts and expect it to be fail-safe? I like to dream about a lot of stuff. I want to see people on Mars before I die. But just sending a lump of nanobots into Mars' atmosphere? Not likely

Re:Plausibility

[whitis]

This sounds a tad ridiculous.... like the article was written by someone who realy expects nanotechnology to erupt into common usage instantaneously. I am aware of the strength of nanotubes and look forward to a space elevator as much as the next guy, but there are some scenarios the writer gives that are extremely unlikely, such as the nanobots landing on mars by just forming an aerodynamic shield, or slithering like a snake. both of those actions would cause immense amounts of stress on the nanobots, and leaves too much room for error. The shuttle has how many million parts? Would we really create something with thousands of times more moving parts and expect it to be fail-safe? I like to dream about a lot of stuff. I want to see people on Mars before I die. But just sending a lump of nanobots into Mars' atmosphere? Not likely

You didn't really read the articles, did you? They specifically described the nanobots climbing inside a heat sheild capsule for entry but reemerging and forming a parasail for landing. They specifically mentioned that the systems are self repairing. The tetrahedrons have the ability to connect and disconnect from adjacent tetrahedrons which allows the "organism" to form more complex shapes. So, if one fails, the "organism" can simply spit it out and walk a new one into its place or have its neighbors take up the slack. You are right that stresses will be considerable but bear in mind that you gain the advantages of the liliputian effect, nanotubes, etc. When I lift a ten pound weight with my arm, the stresses are quite high compared to a single cell but the weight is distributed over thousands of muscle cells. Single layer structures may be weak but multilayer laminated structures are much stronger. You can make rigid structures out of materials that appear quite flimsy. A piece of wood is composed of cells that individually are weak. A sheet of paper is week in compression (except across its thickness) but if you take 500 sheets of paper and glue them together, you have something that withstands compression and bending in any direction. Also, look at a space truss roof (such as at the national air and space museum). And we are talking about a structure that can reorganize itself to withstand particular stresses or reduce them.

In fact, the fault tolerance of ANTS was cited as an advantage over systems such as the space shuttle. Unlike systems like the shuttle where you try to build three of every system for redundancy (and it often expands more than threefold - it takes six valves to replace one valve), the parts in ANTS are largely interchangable. So, if you have 25% extra cells, you can lose one fifth of the cells in the organism - anywhere - and it can still function. Lose more than a fifth, and it may still be able to recast itself as a more petite version of the same system.

And since in many cases you don't need all the components of a system simultaneously, the system can reconfigure itself into those components needed at a given time. I can image the same swarm functioning as a space blimp to get most of the way out of orbit, as a parabolic antenna or solar sail enroute, as a glider or parachute on re-entry, and as a giant tread while moving around the surface. There are also some novel possibilities I can imagine (may or may not work) that get around certain other problems by radically changing the approach. Space shuttle tiles have to deal with horendous temperatures because the energy from reentry is absorbed quickly and converted to heat. But what if the swarm converted itself into a sparse mesh that gradually absorbed the energy over the course of 10 loops around the planet? Yes, the orbit would decay as the energy was lost but by turning into a glider of sorts it could keep itself aloft by aerodynamic rather than centrifical forces. Perhaps one could even eliminate the need for a separate reentry capsule with heat shield. Or, heat shields could be made up of large rigid components that can be joined together

Why do I get the feeling...

[TrumpetPower!]

...that we're currently experiencing a ROLAND PIQUEPAILLE swarm?

Cheers,

b&

Roland

[Lord_Dweomer]

Wish there was a way to mark Roland articles so we could omit them and deny him his precious ad revenue.

Re:Reproduction?

[RecycledElectrons]

> We could have different "species" of
> nanobots - ones to fix nitrogen,
> another to break down CO2 into O2,
> etc etc.

We've already got those species - they are called bacteria.

Andy Out!

de-Rolanded version

[Anonymous Coward]

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...

But in 2005, this is only the beginning of tests for this shape-shifting robot pyramid at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center.

Like new and protective parents, engineers watched as the TETWalker robot successfully traveled across the floor at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. Robots of this type will eventually be miniaturized and joined together to form "autonomous nanotechnology swarms" (ANTS) that alter their shape to flow over rocky terrain or to create useful structures like communications antennae and solar sails.

Here are more details about the TETwalker.

The robot is called "TETwalker" for tetrahedral walker, because it resembles a tetrahedron (a pyramid with 3 sides and a base). In the prototype, electric motors are located at the corners of the pyramid called nodes.

The nodes are connected to struts which form the sides of the pyramid. The struts telescope like the legs of a camera tripod, and the motors expand and retract the struts. This allows the pyramid to move: changing the length of its sides alters the pyramid's center of gravity, causing it to topple over. The nodes also pivot, giving the robot great flexibility.

Here is a TETwalker prototype walking on the floor of a NASA Goddard Space Flight Center lab (Credit: NASA). And here is a link to a larger version (1.3 MB). You'll find other images in this longer version of NASA's news release. Here is a TETwalker prototype being tested at the McMurdo station in Antarctica (Credit: NASA and the National Science Foundation). And here is a link to a larger version (245 KB).

But where is nanotechnology involved in this project?

The team anticipates TETwalkers can be made much smaller by replacing their motors with Micro- and Nano-Electro-Mechanical Systems. Replacement of the struts with metal tape or carbon nanotubes will not only reduce the size of the robots, it will also greatly increase the number that can be packed into a rocket because tape and nanotube struts are fully retractable, allowing the pyramid to shrink to the point where all its nodes touch.

These miniature TETwalkers, when joined together in "swarms," will have great advantages over current systems. The swarm has abundant flexibility so it can change its shape to accomplish highly diverse goals. For example, while traveling through a planet's atmosphere, the swarm might flatten itself to form an aerodynamic shield.

Upon landing, it can shift its shape to form a snake-like swarm and slither away over difficult terrain. If it finds something interesting, it can grow an antenna and transmit data to Earth. Highly-collapsible material can also be strung between nodes for temperature control or to create a deployable solar sail.

Of course, there are many technological challeng

Re:Movie Link

[Phil246]

if you watched the video you`ll find its completely unrelated to mars, rather about surveying asteroids.
regardless its still an interesting video :)

Anything in 30 years

[EmbeddedJanitor]

Public statment: "Fund us and we promise you nonobots 30 years from now."

Thinks:"By then I've retired and in the mean time had nice benefits and pay."

Anybody can promise anything for 30 years out. I still have not seen all the crap that was promised for the year 2000.

Re:Reproduction?

[pomegranatesix]

That's true. Evolution is one wily mother. Kinda blurs the line between what's alive and what's machine. I can't even fathom how it'd even reproduce: would it just construct copies of itself? Or would it pass down traits in the form of genes? Would there be mutations, and if so, would there be any sort of selection force? Especially if there aren't predators or really any factors that would influence the viability of any particular mutation over another. After all - these aren't organic. They don't have metabolisms or much beyond a certain energy requirement. (I don't even know what I'm talking about, except this really interests me as a first year biochemistry major.)

Honestly.

[surfcow]

NASA's budget has been a political football since it was started. Currently, it's cut to very little. They are talking about closing parts of the ISS. For budgetary reasons.

Does anyone reading this actually think that in 30 short years NASA will be put above politics, get proper funding, discover intelligent management, escape from hyde-bound buerocracy, develop functional nanotechnology capable of teraforming a planet and doing it right?

Remember, 30 years AGO, we were all expecting to have bases on the moon by now. Unearth some of those plans and weep.

But don't ask anyone to be excited about this one. This is nothing but ink on paper, drawn with the rosiest of contact lenses.

I'll make a technology prediction about 30 years from now: if our species still exists, there will still be politics and politicians who are willing to exploit the fears of the Great Unwashed and skuttle real technological development and advancement in the name of short-term political gain.

I took up my prozac with exlax this morning. Now I can't get off the toilet, but I feel good about it.