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Roaming Robot May Explore Mysterious Moon Caverns
ananyo writes "William 'Red' Whittaker often spends his Sundays lowering a robot into a recently blown up coal mine pit near his cattle ranch in Pennsylvania. By 2015, he hopes that his robot, or something like it, will be rappelling down a much deeper hole, on the Moon. The hole was discovered three years ago when Japanese researchers published images from the satellite SELENE1, but spacecraft orbiting the Moon have been unable to see into its shadowy recesses. A robot might be able to 'go where the Sun doesn't shine', and send back the first-ever look beneath the Moon's skin, Whittaker told attendees at a meeting of the NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) program in Hampton, Virginia, last week. And Whittaker is worth taking seriously-his robots have descended into an Alaskan volcano and helped to clean up the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant."
I wanted to see a picture of the moon hole. Here's one on Mars, I'd like to see a robot investigate that!
Free Martian Whores!
Whittaker is worth taking seriously ...
Red Whittaker is worth taking seriously for other reasons as well: He lead the Carnegie Mellon team that won the 2007 DARPA Grand Challange.
When it comes to robots, I don't think there is anyone that should be taken more seriously.
Wait, are they planning to explore the Moon or Uranus?
Might as well take the alliteration in the title all the way.
Since we all already know what's down there there's no point in even bothering to send the robot.
He gets sent on an explorative mission, and here I am stuck trying to find a job! What gives? But sending him where the sun don't shine. That's cold, man, that's cold!