A prototype built to test Extreme Access Flyer systems in different environments. (Credits: NASA/Swamp Works)
By Steven Siceloff
NASA’s Kennedy Space Center
Swamp Works engineers at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida are inventing a flying robotic vehicle that can gather samples on other worlds in places inaccessible to rovers. The vehicles – similar to quad-copters but designed for the thin atmosphere of Mars and the airless voids of asteroids and the moon – would use a lander as a base to replenish batteries and propellants between flights.