Today's discoveries about our solar system are done by using robotic devices such as remote-sensing orbiters, probes, landers and rovers. But space missions usually rely on very few instruments. If one is lost, the mission is almost over -- and has failed. But now, a team of scientists from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), the University of Arizona (UA), and the U.S. Geological Survey is proposing a new concept for space missions. These future multi-tiered robotic space missions will associate orbiting spacecrafts, blimps and balloons with ground robots. All these instruments will communicate together and interact with each other. We will probably have to wait a decade or two before the launch of such space missions, but it makes good sense to rely on different robotic devices instead of a single one. Read more...
Sources: Caltech Press Release, October 17, 2005; University of Arizona News, October 17, 2005; and various web sites
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