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NASA Could Explore Titan With Squishable 'Super Ball Bot'
An anonymous reader writes "IEEE Spectrum reports on a rover design being developed at NASA Ames Research Center: Super Ball Bot. The premise is that the rover's brain and scientific equipment would be suspended in the center of a structure made of rigid rods and elastic cables. The rods and cables would be deformable, allowing the rover to roll over complex terrain without damage. This design would be ideal for exploring a place like Saturn's moon Titan. Its atmosphere is thick enough that a probe could drop the rover from 100km above the surface, and it would survive the fall without a parachute. 'In a scenario studied by the team (PDF), the robot could be collapsed to a very compact configuration for launch. Once it reaches the moon, it would pop open and drop to the surface, flexing and absorbing the force of impact. By shortening and lengthening the cables that connect its rigid components, the ball bot could then roll about the surface. These same cables could be used to pull back parts of the robot, so that science instruments at the center could be exposed and used.'"
They shoot the super ball at the target and it bounces back with the data.
Anybody remember Sodaconstructor?
You do not have a moral or legal right to do absolutely anything you want.
...followed by rolling, followed by rolling of the third type.
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Prisencolinensinainciusol. Ol Rait!
NASA is extremely good at burning through gigabucks doing design studies, 99.9% of which are never built. This is just another one of those designs. I'll be impressed when I see it strapped to a rocket and sent up.
"A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
"It works in Kerbal Space Program."
=Smidge=
Caution: Super Ball Bot may suddenly accelerate to dangerous speeds. Super Ball Bot contains a liquid core, which, if exposed due to rupture, should not be touched, inhaled, or looked at. Discontinue use of Super Ball Bot if any of the following occurs: itching, vertigo, dizziness, tingling in extremities, loss of balance or coordination, slurred speech, temporary blindness, profuse sweating, or heart palpitations. If Super Ball Bot begins to smoke, get away immediately. Seek shelter and cover head. Do not taunt Super Ball Bot.
Not sure how to power a UAV. At that distance solar power is very limited.
Do not taunt Happy Fun Ball
DO NOT TAUNT the Super Ball Bot
"These same cables could be used to pull back parts of the robot, so that science instruments at the center could be exposed and used."
Ok, for the first time ever a goat.sx reference would actually be appropriate.
Just burn natural gas, it's every where on Titan. Oh wait...
Life in Titan's oceans??? ummm.. those oceans aren't water!
A few reasons spring to mind:
* Especially with a "messy" mobility system like this, reaction times matter. Granted, when directly overhead 100km only adds about a millisecond of minimum additional round-trip lightspeed lag, but most of the time your satellite will be considerably further away.
* your satellite is in orbit - meaning around 1/2 to 3/4 of the time the planet is between you and your brain, more if you're in a valley. Better hope you're not in a perilous situation when the cord gets cut, and you'll only have a few hours at a time of "brain link" at a time. You could extend that by orbitting higher, but that means longer "braindead" periods as well, and greater lag.
* bandwidth - you're navigating via computer vision system, and a live video stream is about as bandwidth-intensive as you can get. And more surface-to-orbit bandwidth comes with very definite power costs.
* and finally - What's the benefit? The brain is a solid-state system, and thus pretty much impervious to anything that doesn't damage the mechanical components. Moreover, offloading the the brain to an orbiter doesn't eliminate the need for a brain in the rover - it'll be a much simpler brain if all it's doing is passing data back and forth, but if it has enough horsepower to handle the real-time video compression you'd almost certainly want, it's probably got more than enough horsepower to actually run the rover directly.
--- Most topics have many sides worth arguing, allow me to take one opposite you.
>Do we have a rocket that can go that far these days?
Certainly. The discovery of the "gravitational slingshot" Interplanetary Transport Network decades ago means we can get pretty much anywhere in the solar system with no more energy than it takes to escape the Earth, it just takes a while.
--- Most topics have many sides worth arguing, allow me to take one opposite you.
Ummm, no shit. But there is no rule that says all life has to be exactly like us, and thats why those methane oceans are interesting because they could harbor life that uses different building blocks.