Legged robot could accelerate resource prospecting on the Moon and the search for life on Mars

Dr Gabriela Ligeza is a former PhD student from the University of Basel and now a postdoctoral researcher at the European Space Agency (ESA). With her colleagues, she recently tested a new strategy for semi-autonomous exploration of planets with a legged robot equipped with state-of-the-art measurement tools. The new system was designed to rapidly investigate multiple targets and collect mineralogical data. The results, published in Frontiers in Space Technologies, showed that semi-autonomous robots can quickly investigate several targets, identify promising rocks, and return scientifically valuable data for astrobiology and in-situ resource utilization (‘living off the land’). In this guest editorial, Ligeza explains their findings for a wider audience. Planetary surface missions currently operate cautiously. On Mars, communication delays between Earth and rovers (typically between four and 22 minutes), as well as data transfer constraints due to uplink and downlink limitations, force scientists to ... [4260 chars]