Instead of robots-on-wheels rolling around on Mars, mechanized snakes may soon explore the red planet.
The European Space Agency has asked Norwegian researchers to study whether robot snakes could more effectively explore Martian terrain.
"Snake robots are terrific at being versatile and being able to navigate a variety of terrains," Kevin Lipkin, who works at The Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon University, told Mashable.
Lipkin said that snake robots can slither over sand, rocks, collapsed buildings, forests, mud, even through water, by moving just like their biological counterparts.
The Norwegian researchers are determining whether it's feasible to store a robot snake on a rover, send it to Mars, and have it detach and roam around. The snakes could crawl into, and take samples from, spaces the rover can't reach. They could also serve as the more conventional robot's arm.
That arm could take samples or push off of objects in the surrounding area, giving the robot more leverage to get out of tight spots.
For now, though, the idea is theoretical. The researchers still need to determine whether the technology that works so well on Earth will perform equally well on Mars. The difference in gravity, for example, could be a major factor.
For more, check out the video above.
Image (not an actual prototype): Flickr, assortedstuff