DRAGONFLIES might not be high on the list of things you’d expect to see on Mars or Titan.
But the ExoFly, a robot designed to imitate a dragonfly’s hovering, jerky flight, could act as a guide for planetary rovers once they land. It would be sent out first to explore the terrain and then direct the rover to any sites of interest by the easiest route, says team member Tanja Zegers of the University of Utrecht, the Netherlands. The work will be presented at the European Planetary Science Congress in Munster, Germany, this week.
The ExoFly has a terrestrial predecessor,…
