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Space Science

Inchworming Probe for Planetary Exploration 44

Posted by michael from the worms-drill-in-the-worms-drill-out dept.
An anonymous reader writes: "Honeybee Robotics, a firm in New York's Little Italy, has designed a probe that can inchworm deep into the Martian crust or Europan ice shell without a cable to the surface for power or data. Totally autonomous. It's based on a system the company designed to weld steampipes below Manhattan. It's also just really cool."
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Inchworming Probe for Planetary Exploration More

Inchworming Probe for Planetary Exploration

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  • All About the Money (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Erasei ( 315737 ) on Thursday September 13, 2001 @07:55AM (#2291493) Homepage
    I don't think we will see many such missions (if any) until there is corporate money to be made. If there was some mineral or something of great value that can't be had on earth, then I think you would see space exploration really take off. Until then, it's just going to be done as NASA (and few select others) get the money to do research. If the corporate world would get behind something like this, then we really +would+ see cool things start to happen.

  • mmm hot bit? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by ash2 ( 471129 ) on Thursday September 13, 2001 @08:08AM (#2291526)
    This sort of technology could be used to take 'pure' samples of things like the ice caps to check for life buried deep below.

    As in the past the deep ice cores were contaminated with lubricant which lead to several fake ET lifeforms.

  • More info (Score:5, Informative)

    by elfkicker ( 162256 ) on Thursday September 13, 2001 @08:08AM (#2291527)
    More info from the company's website here [hbrobotics.com]. Includes images and related projects.
  • This may be offtopic, but this type of technology could even be used for the type of searching in NYC disaster. Survivors could be pinpointed and rescue teams sent straight to pockets of victims.
    • As long as it doesn't dig right through them. That seems reasonable. Of course, I'm just talking shit.

      I had a pretty silly thought since some folks were using cell phones, couldn't they triangulate ACKs from digital phones by sending them messages are calls or whatever and find the concentrations of where people are? You could also call some numbers and get the ringing for a audible cue when the diggers are close.

      Don't know if actually possible, but it's worth a thought.

      • Re:Could be useful here (Score:3, Interesting)

        by ergo98 ( 9391 )

        For sure they should be able to. In fact there was a lot of moaning and bitching that the wireless providers hadn't yet implemented their system triangulation yet (of course the government is largely pushing for it for anti-crime reasons, but they pretend it's for 911), though of course that's absurd as a) GPS portions obviously would not work under the rubble. GPS barely works under heavy tree coverage. In fact I'm curious how GPS could play a part for that. b) If triangulation can be done at the cell phone towers then it can therefore be done onsite.


        It is amazing how incredibly important cell phones (and the much more expensive plane phone versions) have been during this whole event. They were a crucial pipeline of information, and in the events over Pennsylvania they are how the victims learned that the terrorist had already plowed one or both planes into the WTC.

        • If I understand how GPS works, it wouldn't be useful at all in this case. GPS satellites essientially broadcast a strong signal to the ground, and this signal is measured by receivers, which then calculate their position. There is no communication in the other direction. In other words, GPS is very good at telling you where you are, but not capable of telling others where you are.

          So even if GPS signals could penetrate the rubble, there would be no way to use that to locate people.
          • yuo are correct in yuor presumption of how GPS works, plus, even if there was communication in the other direction, the non military GPS satellites are only accurate to +/-100 ft, which in the rubble, wouldnt do much good. On the subject of GPS, the government has been wanting to implement monitors in most GPS receivers such as navigation systems tp track yuor speed and other distance / time related information. People have been protesting this, because that would mean that whenever yuo went 80 miles an hour to pass someone, the navigation system would register and notify authorities of a speed violation. People dont want their privacy intruded upon, so GPS systems are (at least in the near future, while our constitution still holds) not going to have transmitters. Although it would seem that they would be useful in these specific cases, there are quite a few MORE people who dont want to get speeding tickets whenever they pass.

          • Re:Could be useful here (Score:2, Informative)

            by ergo98 ( 9391 )

            Agreed that GPS is of limited accuracy in this case, however the idea behind GPS in phones (which they are going to be doing in the near future as scary as that sounds) is that it relays your position over the cell control channels (i.e. if someone can make a phone call then it could be their position), so if someone was lost in the forest but could make a phone call they would know exactly where they were give or take 20 ft or so.

  • I fear what unintended uses they might find for such a robot...

  • It would be amazing to see what it can find... we could possibly see new forms of life that we never knew existed. Just imagine what they can make in the future! O_O

  • unmanned drilling won't be easy (Score:4, Informative)

    by Villain ( 19081 ) on Thursday September 13, 2001 @08:19AM (#2291559)
    This article at spacedaily.com [spacedaily.com] discusses options for cost effective remote unmanned drilling.

  • Various objections (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Alien54 ( 180860 ) on Thursday September 13, 2001 @08:46AM (#2291631) Journal
    I recall various comments where people object to probes visiting any planet where there may be any possible form of life, on the basis that we may cause contamination.

    This I consider this to be rather foolhardy, to throw away the chance for access to another world because we are afraid that we might do something.

    - - -
    Radio Free Nation [radiofreenation.com]
    an alternate news site using Slash Code
    "If You have a Story, We have a Soap Box"
    - - -

    • Imagine how you'd feel if aliens sent a "research probe" to Earth that landed on your house and drilled a big hole through it!

    • I believe there is a law describing this. Is it the Uncertainty Law?

      We haven't a clue what is on this planet/moon, but until we visit, we won't know.

      Once we do visit, we have the possibility of dragging along some [foo] and breaking the results. But we do have some results.

      (Planck's Law? Where the more observations are made of a particle the better its motion can be describing, but the act of observing by bouncing a photon off it will influence the particle's motion.)

  • I wonder if they taste good dipped in chocolate!

  • I'm sure this kind of a project will find corporate support. Even if we can't establish a human coloney on mars, we might consider having it as a mining coloney. And this probe will be the first step at that.

    But with the recent evidence of life on mars, such things will be really difficult to pull off. Imagine if we end up destroying life on mars, we'll end up destroying something which we've been searching for so long.

  • I believe this particular innovation has seen previous use in the field of the collection and collation of marigold metrics - now, after many years of research and development, we will finally get to see how far it and its arithmetic will probably go...

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