Dandelion-Inspired Micro-Rovers: Novel Concept of Extraterrestrial Systems for Mars Exploration

Currently, rovers have been on the surface of Mars for more than two decades, beginning with the first wheeled land rover called the Sojourner from NASA's Pathfinder mission in 1997. In its over 14-year successful journey operating on the red planet, NASA's Mars Opportunity Rover has held the record for the farthest distance driven on another planetary body (over 45 km). Rough terrain, obstacles, and environmental conditions make it challenging for these land rovers to explore the Martian surface and cover large amounts of terrain. There is an interest in exploring new methodologies and concepts with energy harvesting techniques that can withstand the harsh Martian climate and have the ability to survey and explore areas that might restrict land rovers. In this work, a new concept is explored involving a team of spherical robots, each housing small Dandelion seed bio-inspired Micro-Flying Rovers to be driven by the Martian winds. Each rover structure is equipped with various sensors needed for climate monitoring, surface mapping, communication, scientific experimentation, exploration, and localization on Mars. A spherical robot is used to house and disperse the dandelion inspired rovers into the Martian atmosphere in various locations. The success of this project would enable "unexplorable" areas on Mars to now be explored, and at a much faster rate.