NASA is developing an innovative project called Marsbee, inspired by nature, to aid in the exploration of the Red Planet.
According to Tech, experts are working on a robotic swarm of bees designed to gather data and relay it back to a rover base.
NASA's unexpected success with the Ingenuity helicopter, which completed 72 missions on Mars over more than 1,000 Martian days, marked a significant milestone in planetary flight. Ingenuity's achievement demonstrated the potential for flight on other planets with vastly different conditions from Earth.
Challenges of Flying on Mars
Flying on Mars presents substantial challenges. "The Red Planet has significantly lower gravity – about one-third of Earth's – and an extremely thin atmosphere with pressure just 1% of that on our planet," NASA explained in a press release when Ingenuity completed its first flight. These conditions make traditional flight technologies difficult to implement.
NASA's solution to these challenges may lie in the Marsbee project, inspired by nature. The swarm, consisting of robots the size of bumblebees but with wings similar to those of cicadas, is designed to collect data and transmit it to the rover base. "The migration of flying animals, such as Monarch butterflies and albatrosses, showcases astonishing long-distance flights that can inspire new technologies," explained the team from the University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH), as cited by IFL Science.
Advantages Over Other Robots
Marsbees, equipped with sensors and communication devices, will be designed for maximum energy efficiency.
Professor Chang-kwon Kang from UAH explained:
"Our preliminary results suggest that a bumblebee with cicada wings can generate enough lift to hover in the Martian atmosphere."
Additionally, the flexible wing structures and innovative energy harvesting mechanisms will significantly reduce the energy requirements of these devices.
Marsbees offer additional advantages over other robots – their small mass and size make interplanetary transport easier. Furthermore, the swarm provides greater reliability, as the failure of one robot will not impact the operation of the others.
