Wings in air: Cockroaches lead future of mars exploration
Scientists are working on project Mars, future planetary Landers may fly like cockroaches, could be one giant leap for a bugkind. Thinking is such a waste of time, but a cockroach kinda planetary lander is hard to digest. Reason for the cockroach design is something to be thought about. They say that the landing skill of a cockroach (females can't fly) adds to the thought, a cockroach performs a perfect glide in case of an emergency, straight into a safe area is precisely what a planetary lander should do to avoid craters and rocks as it comes down on a planet's surface.
Landing is one of the weak points, 'Seidl says.'If anything goes wrong with the parachute, braking rockets or airbags, it becomes a flying brick."
Observation
First task will be to acquire really high-speed video of the way the bug's wing mechanism works so they can analyze just how it steers so well. Then they will study its visual control system to see how it locates a safe landing place with such speed.
ESA has already stumped up €23,000 for him to begin work.
Via: NewScientist
