An inflatable robot that can travel a thousand times faster than the rover
released by NASA’s Mars Pathfinder lander in 1997 could make it easier to
explore the Red Planet. To travel much faster than the Pathfinder rover’s top
speed of 7 metres a day, the wheels have to be much larger than the rocks. But
the problem was cost, because every extra gram of mass requires more fuel.
By making the three wheels of the rover inflatable you solve both these
problems, says Jack Jones, who developed the new system at NASA’s Jet Propulsion
Laboratory in Pasadena.
When collapsed,…
