Robot Snakes Being Sent To Explore Mars

Robot snakes could soon be headed to Mars to do some exploring.

Researchers at the SINTEF Research Institute in Norway and at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology want to launch an exploration robot that borrows the look and movements of the legless reptiles.

The plan to send robot snakes to Mars is still a bit off, however, as they determine how the snakes will fare in the Martian atmosphere.

“We started the study back in June and will finish sometime in December,” Aksel Transeth, a senior research scientist at SINTEF, told ABC News.

Transeth said a prototype could still be a few months off as researchers would need to perform more experiments to see if the robots are viable.

Researchers think the robot snakes could be perfect for Mars. Howie Choset, a robotics professor at Carnegie Mellon University, said the snake’s ability to crawl over and around obstacles make it perfect for an exploration tool.

Transeth agrees.

“Biological snakes can climb rocks and slide through small holes,” he said. “Imagine if you could have a snake trained to find people in fallen down buildings.”

Exploration of Mars has ramped up since the successful landing of the Curiosity Rover last summer. The 1-ton rover has been exploring the surface of Mars for months, beaming back video and photographs of the atmosphere and geological findings.

Researchers say the robot snakes would not exactly be like Curiosity Rover. Instead of a solo exploration bot, it would be a companion to a larger piece, going into places that the primary robot cannot.

When (and if) they do arrive, the robot snakes could enter a planet filled with exploratory bots. NASA plans to launch a second robot to the planet in 2020.