On the surface of Mars has many steep banks of dried rivers, where you can keep the remains lived on the planet of plants and animals. We can’t find signs of life on such dangerous territory, because the current Mars Rovers, such as “Curiosity”, can’t climb vertical surfaces. However, soon the situation may change radically, because the space Agency NASA has completed testing of climbing robots called LEMUR. He successfully climbed one of the mountains in the USA with spiked hands, and found the fossilized remains of ancient algae — so he even the search for life on Mars.
The tests took place on the so-called Valley of Death — the depression between two large mountains located in the state of California. This place is often used by space companies to test Rovers, because its rocky and dry landscape it is very similar to the Red planet. Recently, for example, in this valley tested the landing system of the Mars Rover “Mars-2020”.
New robots from NASA
The robot LEMUR is developed by space Agency for a long time — the first mention of a robotic climber appeared far in 2013. In those days he could climb vertical surfaces with their hands, which cling to the bumps on the rocks with hundreds of hooks. Thanks to them, during the last test, the robot was able to climb on real rock, and find the fossilized remains of algae that existed 500 million years ago.
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Surprised that the algae were found on the rock, not worth it. The fact that millions of years ago on the territory of the Mojave desert, where is a valley, was a huge sea. It is likely that a careful examination of the rocky surface with their scientific instruments, the robot could find even the remains of ancient animals.
The Rovers are learning to climb
Unfortunately, the search for ancient animals, he can not, because the LEMUR project is now considered closed. The device will not be sent to Mars, but on its basis has created other Rovers-climbers. One of them is a robotic worm Ice Worm, which is able to climb the icy rocks, relying on doing in these deep holes.
Robot Ice Worm
Also to find the remains of life in Martian rocks can be used robot RoboSimian, which is included in our list of the best rescue of human lives. It is similar to giant spider, which with its four legs can easily move through rocky areas — the engineers are quite unable to teach him to climb mountains.
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