'Super Ball Bot' Could Explore Saturn's Huge Moon Titan

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'Super Ball Bot' Could Explore Saturn's Huge Moon Titan

It was a baby's toy, of all things, that sparked a new spacecraft design concept to explore the murky surface of Saturn's largest moon. Adrian Agogino and Vytas Sunspiral, who both work in the Intelligent Systems Division at NASA Ames Research Center, were batting around a "tensegrity" in the office a few years ago.

Similar to a bicycle wheel, but with more corners to it, a tensegrity shape has a system of wires and cables that deform when you press on it, then spring back when the pressure is released. This makes it perfect for small children to bash the toys against their head, other people or the floor without causing damage.

The toy fell to the ground, sparking the question: Why not use that design to land on Saturn's moon Titan, which features lakes and seas of liquid methane and ethane? [Tour Titan's Hydrocarbon Seas (Video)]

Rovers like the ones we've sent to Mars would not fare well in the marshy environment on that moon, and a rover geared for Titan would be a design challenge because the moon's shorelines are poorly understood.

"Titan is a very interesting destination, and a very difficult destination, for the same reason," said Agogino. "It has lakeshores, mud, rain, and terrain that is uneven, and we don't know much about it. That makes it very dangerous for conventional rovers. A rover can get stuck, or can fall over a hill. We don't have good knowledge of the terrain from space."

The team's "Super Ball Bot" tensegrity shape recently received Phase 2 funding from the NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts program. With $500,000 in funds to use in the next two years, the researchers hope to nail down the right size and shape for their spacecraft to explore Titan and seek possible signs of habitability on its surface.



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