Next-Gen Space Rovers Do Acrobatics, Look Like Medieval Weapons

No more cute little robots that look like refugees from an erector set. Here come the explorer robots of the future. And, does anybody else see the resemblance of these things to some pretty nasty SciFi movie killing machines, I believe they were called "screamers"?

SOURCE

The spiky space balls are nicknamed "hedgehogs," though they'll act more like acrobats, leaping and tumbling across the surface of moons and asteroids.

Hoppers are a favored design for future planetary explorers because they could cover much more terrain than a rover, and could easily cross canyons and other hazardous areas. With a hopper, you don't face problems like a stuck wheel, which doomed NASA’s Spirit Mars rover. MIT and Draper Labs have a prototype moon hopper vying for the Google Lunar X Prize: The Terrestrial Lunar and Reduced Gravity Simulator, or Talaris. That one uses ducted fans and compressed nitrogen to hover and hop around.

that would suck if it landed on an alien [for the alien]

reply to post by happykat39


I love this post. (S and F.)
I love the idea of hopping robotic explorers on other worlds !!

You say it reminds you of the "Screamers" movie, happykat39.
I agree with you.

By the way: "Screamers" is one of my all-time favourite movies.