Backstory: Don't swat that fly. It's a spacecraft!

So she teamed up with Dr. Dubowsky at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who was already working on unique ways to explore planets. The collaboration resulted in tennis-ball-sized robots powered with tiny fuel cells. The one-legged sensors would hop and roll into hard-to-reach places, exchanging information among themselves and with a lander. They would also be deployed in large numbers so the mission would continue even if some microbots malfunctioned or rolled off a cliff.

Several years ago, the duo submitted a Mars proposal to NASA dubbed "Mother Goose." A glider-lander bearing a rover and a gaggle of spherical robots would scan the planet for a landing site. It would release a rover that would roam the surface, leaving chicks to explore places along the way. A bit too risky, sniffed NASA managers at the time. But Boston says the technology has come a long way since then.

Dubowsky has also devised small boxlike robots with wheels at the ends of six arms. In addition to providing locomotion, the arms can be used like cosmic gymnasts to hoist other robots and become self-building structures.

Other exotic machines are being conceptualized to explore planets from the air. These range from galactic blimps to Anthony Colozza's "Entomopter." Designed to fly like an insect rather than a typical aircraft, it would be used on planets with thin atmospheres, such as Mars. A fleet of Entomopters could serve as scouts for rovers or humans.

Dr. Colozza used discoveries of how aerodynamically challenged insects get airborne to conceptualize miniflying machines. "We looked for big showstoppers, and there weren't any," he says. "It went from being a physics problem to an engineering problem. It's probably a decade away if there's enough interest and money to support it."

Colozza didn't stop at mechanical moths, though. He also devised a solar-powered craft for use in thicker atmospheres made from a new generation of flexible plastics. They change shape under the influence of electricity, exhibiting the digital equivalent of a central nervous system. The flying wing would have no moving parts, but would gently flap its way through an atmosphere. Solar cells, radio antennas, and other elements would be etched on the surface. The wing can travel rolled up in a spacecraft, then unroll when released.

To work effectively, all these electronic pieces must still be tied together with communications systems and software that allow them to make decisions independent of their handlers on Earth. Some of that is already going on, too.

NASA's first Earth Observing satellite, for instance, is designed to watch active volcanoes, spot wildfires, and monitor the polar ice caps. As it recognizes terrestrial changes, it makes some of its own decisions about follow-up monitoring, says Steve Chien, who heads the artificial intelligence group at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.

Future versions of this intelligent software could be built into a new generation of robots and orbiters. It might give robotic explorers the ability to hold their own daily planning "meetings." If one of Dubowsky's six-legged robots is involved, though, it will have to be a stand-up meeting: Its legs are too short for a sit-down session.

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