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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."
...as has been pointed out by Robert Zubrin numerous times?
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...that we're currently experiencing a ROLAND PIQUEPAILLE swarm?
Cheers,
b&
All but God can prove this sentence true.
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> 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!
if you watched the video you`ll find its completely unrelated to mars, rather about surveying asteroids. :)
regardless its still an interesting video
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.)
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.