MICROTECHNOLOGY FOR PLANETARY EXPLORATION AND EDUCATION

Recent work has shown that it is possible to build small robots (typic ally almost-equal-to 10 kg) that are capable of safely navigating thro ugh rough, slightly hazardous terrain. Companion developments in micro -sensors and micro-instrumentation have recently been proposed and, in some cases, demonstrated at the level of proof-of-concept. Micro-robo ts, therefore, when given an agile mobility system, a power supply, an d a complement of micro-instruments are capable of performing useful s cientific analysis. Since the rovers are small, they can have a greate r strength to weight ratio, and can therefore accept a higher landing shock. Many small rovers conducting exploration in parallel yield thre e key advantages: first, coverage of a large area, if the rovers are l anded at different locations; second, reliability through redundancy, thus offering the capability to explore sites that are scientifically interesting, but potentially of high hazard; third, opportunities for a large group of investigators to participate in the early exploratory surveys, if command of separate groups of micro-rovers is distributed among independent investigators. It is particularly intriguing to off er a fraction of the micro-rover fleet for a limited amount of time to teams of students, guided by their instructors. Such a program would: (1) explore a new mission architecture which reflects the powerful ad vantages of distributed processes and (2) welcome a new resourceful se gment of the population into space science and exploration.