These days there is a lot of talk about interplanetary travel. Technological advancements are occurring so rapidly that seemingly impossible feats can now be accomplished with the right kinds of technology. When it comes to space travel, different public and private enterprises are racing to the red planet. NASA is planning to send astronauts to Mars sometime within the next twenty years. Obviously, a trip to Mars takes a while, and many things can go wrong. This is why NASA and other corporations and agencies are taking their time to make sure that they have every aspect of the first mission to Mars under control. Of course, this means that NASA has prepared their team of robotic bumblebees for the first manned mission to Mars.

 

NASA has developed robotic bees that are as large as bumblebees in order to have them explore every corner of the red planet. On Mars the atmosphere is one hundred times thinner than it is on earth. Supposing that insects from earth could survive on Mars, they would still not be able to fly properly due to the excessively thin air. As you can imagine, developing a robotic insect that could maintain flight on Mars was no easy feat.

 

The robotic bees were developed by American and Japanese scientists. The robotic bees are able to flap their wings just enough so as to hover over certain objects, like a bee hovering over a flower. This will allow the robotic bees to map-out different regions containing different terrains. The bees can gather all sorts of data from the martian environment. The bees can search for other signs of life, such as methane emissions. In fact, the robotic bees are even able to take samples from the martian environment so that they can be delivered to scientists for research. These robotic bees were modeled after the real thing and they will be a major improvement over modern rovers.

 

Do you think that the scientists will also bring real insects to Mars in order to observe their response to weightlessness and challenging environments?

 

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