Snakes are a source of endless fascination: the scales. The eyes. The legless slither. On some level, they feel so foreign, it's like they're from another planet.
Soon, they may be sent to one.
The European Space Agency (ESA) is conducting a feasibility study on sending snake robots to space. Using the legless reptile as a physical model, the researchers at the SINTEF Research Institute in Norway and at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology are plotting a way to utilize robotic versions of the beast to explore the various nooks and crannies of Mars.
Howie Choset, a professor of robotics at Carnegie Mellon University, told ABC News that a snake robot will be able to extend to possibilities of remote exploration on the dusty red planet. "The snake robot could travel to cliffs and look underneath overhangs," Choset asserted. "It could find a crevasse, crawl down it and extract a sample, which itself could tell us how Mars evolved as a planet."
Mars's evolution is one of constant debate, and the subject of endless fascination in the science world right now. NASA mission scientists working with Curiosity, the land-based rover on Mars right now, reported earlier this week that the atmosphere of Mars contains no methane, according to BBC News. Those results are a blow to scientists who were hypothesizing that life on Mars may exist. On Earth, roughly 95 percent of the methane in our atmosphere is created by microbial organisms. Telescopes and satellites had previously indicated reason to hope for methane gas on Mars, but Curiosity's inability to pick any up suggests the more remote viewings were wrong.
With a snake robot, the possibilities for Mars's continued exploration multiply. Already, work on Mars is deepening; The ESA plans to send a rover, ExoMars, in 2016 and 2018, and NASA will send a second rover to continue their work on the planet in 2020.
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