Robot hedgehogs on the moons of Mars may sound like the title of a B-grade sci-fi movie, but that is what Stanford University is working on. Marco Pavone, an assistant professor in the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, and his team are developing spherical robots called “hedgehogs” that are about half a meter (1.6 ft) wide and covered in spikes to better cope with rolling and hopping across the surface of the Martian moon Phobos with its very low gravity.
Phobos is small as moons go with a diameter of approximately 22.2 kilometers (13.8 mi). Since its discovery and that of its sister moon Deimos in 1877, very little has been learned about the nature of Phobos. It may be a captured asteroid or a chunk of Mars knocked off by an ancient impact. If it’s the latter, then Phobos could tell us a lot about Mars without the expense and danger of a landing on the planet.
via gizmag
