futureofscience: NASA’s potential squid rover is straight out of sci-fi“NASA plans to sp
futureofscience: NASA’s potential squid rover is straight out of sci-fi“NASA plans to spend $100,000 to study the use of a soft, tentacled rover that could someday explore Jupiter’s moon Europa and other worlds believed to harbor lakes and oceans.The funding is part of NASA’s Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) program, which “aims to turn science fiction into science fact through the development of pioneering technologies.” In the case of the soft rover, that aim is certainly true. Here’s how the proposal – one of 15 selected for initial funding last week – describes the aquatic robot: “This rover resembles a squid, with tentacle-like structures that serve both as electrodynamic tethers to harvest power from locally changing magnetic fields and as a means of bio-inspired propulsion… Optionally, the skin of the robot will be a stretchable, electroluminescent display for illuminating the local marine environment, to enable underwater imaging.“” -- source link