00:00When exploring Mars remotely, how is something like this supposed to investigate something like
00:08this? The short answer is it can't, which is why robotic engineers are now working on a crawling
00:14spider-like device, which could someday explore the nooks and crannies of other worlds. They're
00:19calling it ReachBot, and it could someday revolutionize space exploration. Here's
00:23Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Stanford, Mark Kutkoski, to explain.
00:27The thought was, well, what if you could have a robot, a small robot about the size of a suitcase,
00:32let's say, that has extremely long limbs, that it can reach out and grab the sides of the cave
00:38with grippers and then manipulate itself by alternately attaching, retracting, and extending
00:44those limbs. Enter ReachBot, an automaton its developers say was inspired by Daddy Longlegs.
00:50They say it was built with a small chassis and very long limbs, which they call booms,
00:54which allow it to get into small spaces and grab onto just about anything. So why do we need to
00:59get into these small spaces on other planets in the first place?
01:02So the end goal, at least for planetary exploration, is to go places where no robot has been able to go
01:07before. How do you get yourself down into a lava tube or a cave? These are, by the way,
01:12very interesting spaces to explore. They're relatively sheltered. If there are any signs
01:19of previous life, that's a good place to look for them.
01:22Kutkoski adds that these robots could also be used
01:25to find new spots for humans to set up a base off-world.
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