For the past two and a half years, a group of students at eth Zurich have been developing a robot with three thin legs that was designed to be able to jump like an insect in microgravity. That's right: this curious little machine was built for space, specifically for the exploration of small celestial bodies like asteroids and moons. eth-news/news/2024/04/using-a-hopping-robot-for-asteroid-exploration.html” rel=”nofollow noopener” target=”_blank” data-ylk=”slk:SpaceHopper;cpos:1;pos:1;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas” class=”link “>space jumperAs the robot is called, it could provide us with more information to advance our understanding of the origin of life, the origin of water on our planet, and asteroids as potential providers of valuable resources.
It has no preferred orientation, so it can go in any direction, and it has nine motors that give it the ability to jump long distances in low-gravity environments. The robot can even right itself after landing, ensuring the safety of any scientific payload it may carry. Since SpaceHopper was created for use on asteroids and moons, which have very low gravity compared to Earth, it must first be tested in conditions similar to those environments. To see if it actually works as intended, students and the European Space Agency recently took the robot on a parabolic flight that creates a zero-gravity environment when the plane freely falls. Apparently, they had no idea whether SpaceHopper would be able to move as they intended in zero-gravity scenarios, and seeing it actually work was “a huge weight off their shoulders.”
You can watch SpaceHopper shake on the test flight below:
