MICROBOT EXPLORERS

A new generation of all-access planetary probes will delve further than ever before

From the moment the Soviet Union landed the Lunokhod 1 lunar rover on the Moon in November 1970, scientists and astronomers have been working tirelessly to create more efficient and effective methods for searching a planet’s surface. We have seen rovers, landers and probes, but a team from the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is working on microbots, the next generation of planetary investigators. These tiny, spherical robots – often no larger than a baseball – are able to hop, bounce and roll around the surface of a planet, get into crevices and navigate obstacles in ways that traditional rovers are unable to.