NASA to create 'Shapeshifter' robots to explore Saturn's moon- Titan

After declaring ir plan to settle on moon, colonize Mars, NASA has w turned its sight to ringed planet - Saturn. NASA shared on Thursday that a team in its Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasena, California is testing a 3-D-printed proto of 'Shapeshifter' robot. 'Shapeshifter' is a machine which can roll, fly, float, and swim states NASA. ncy aims to use this transformational vehicle to explore Saturn and its moons.

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What is 'Shapeshifter'?

According to NASA, 3D printed model proto looks like drone encased in an elongated hamster wheel rolls across yard, n splits in half. On separating, two halves of contraption rise on small propellers, effectively becoming flying drones for aerial exploration, says NASA. team developing 'Shapeshifter' reportedly aims at producing 12 robots that could transform into a swimming probe or a team of cave explorers. 'Shapeshifter' is a part of NASA's research program called NASA Invative vanced Concepts (NIAC).

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What will 'Shapeshifter' do?

JPL Principal Investigator Ali Agha reportedly aims at sending 'Shapeshifter' as a mission to Saturn's moon Titan. Previously, NASA's Cassini mission flew by Titan over one hundred times, mapping its surface for future missions. As shared by Cassini, Titan is only or world in solar system kwn to have liquid in form of methane lakes, rivers and seas on its surface. Agha aims to send 'Shapeshifter' to study composition of various surfaces on Titan - Rocky terrain, methane lakes, cryovolcaes.

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What is future scope of 'Shapeshifter'?

NASA states that Agha's future plan includes a lander like European ncy's Huygens Probe, which touched down on Titan after being deployed via parachute by NASA's Cassini craft. Agha and his team have reportedly teamed up with researchers from Stanford and Cornell universities and come up with a self-assembling robot me of smaller robots called "cobots" - would be able to move independently of one ar to fly, roll, swim and float on any terrain. Agha plans to send se cobots onboard his 'morcraft' to perform in-depth sample analysis on surface. Agha calculates that 10 cobots could easily lift a lander size of Huygens and gently carry it to different locations.  

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