In order to land on the Martian surface, NASA's Mars Rover Curiosity went through seven minutes of terror: it plummeted from the sky at 13,000 miles per hour, with only a supersonic parachute and a set of rocket motors to keep it from becoming a crater. However, a team at NASA has a nifty trick up its sleeves for the next time around: a rover made of hollow rods and elastic cable that can squish and bounce. Just like the Skwish, a popular child's toy developed in the early '80s, NASA's Super Ball Bot uses the principles of tensegrity to do its job. The contraption can absorb the impact of a hard landing, pop right back up, then roll across a surface end over end like an extremely awkward ball.
While NASA scientists are still proving...
via The Verge - All Posts http://www.theverge.com/2013/12/27/5246498/nasas-next-robot-rover-squishes-like-a-childs-toy
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