Comments on: Roaming robot may explore mysterious Moon caverns

By: Jim Mooney

Jim Mooney — Fri, 23 Nov 2012 22:02:36 +0000

“Protected Moon caves may house records of the history of the Moon ”

I wonder what language the records would be in.

By: Editor

Editor — Tue, 20 Nov 2012 06:51:29 +0000

Yes, my main advice to Red would be: “Don’t pet the snakes”

By: Ralph Dratman

Ralph Dratman — Mon, 19 Nov 2012 23:49:41 +0000

But do not anger the Moon people, who have been living in those caves for millions of years. Disturbing their peaceful existence would have terrible consequences for Earth.

By: Khannea Suntzu

Khannea Suntzu — Mon, 19 Nov 2012 18:22:46 +0000

Oh right like in Prometheus but more victorian :)

By: GatorALLin

GatorALLin — Mon, 19 Nov 2012 17:35:46 +0000

Love the basic idea to map the caves on distant planets or even our own moon…. but as a caver myself…this test in a mine with perfectly flat floors is a horrible testing ground for what you would expect in any real cave. I think you need a snake like robot or 6 or 8 leg walking system. Maybe the mine is just the first step in testing dark underground areas, so this was not meant to be a negative comment, but love to see a test in a real cave in their future work.

I understand you do need an atmosphere to fly any Lidar type mapping system, but maybe these guys should work together somehow. http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1108292587/99-lidar-project?ref=live

here was a mini robot used for mapping or viewing inside pipelines. the maker thought it might also help explore caves, but has the same problem of going over giant rocks that any cave would present. http://www.fbnsantos.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/robot_AGV_cave.jpg

By: Gorden Russell

Gorden Russell — Mon, 19 Nov 2012 15:23:54 +0000

This is really great. It will be even better when this robot can operate a 3-D printer and make a copy of itself…or at least set up a mining operation and a processing plant to turn ore into refined metal.