NASA has a plan to put robot bees on Mars

FoxNews.com/Science ^ | Apr 9, 2018 | Rafi Letzter Staff Writer | LiveScience

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NASA has two teams of researchers working to design a robotic bee that can fly on Mars.

The space agency announced the project on March 30. It's in its early stages, but the idea is to replace modern rovers — which are slow, bulky and very expensive — with swarms of sensor-studded, fast-moving micro-bots that can cover much more ground at a relatively low cost.

Literally called Marsbees, the little bots are "flapping wing flyers of a bumblebee size with cicada-sized wings," NASA officials wrote.

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Sheila Jackson Lee wants to know if the bees will live in the hive that astronaut Neil Armstrong placed there in '69.

Sheila Jackson Lee (Democrat!)
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives
From Texas's 18th district

On a visit to the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory in 2005, Jackson Lee made embarrassing news by asking if the Mars Pathfinder had taken an image of the flag planted there in 1969 by Neil Armstrong.[2]

Prior to the 110th Congress, Jackson Lee served on the House Science Committee and on the Subcommittee that oversees space policy and NASA.

http://web.archive.org/web/20100409095818/http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheila_Jackson_Lee

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[Puppage]

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From the article...

“One reason this idea is at all feasible: Mars’ low gravity. The planet has just one-third of Earth’s gravitational pull, offering the Marsbees an advantage despite the thin atmosphere.

The Guardian reported that these “bees” will not only map the Martian terrain but also collect samples of the planet’s thin air, in hopes of finding methane gas — a possible sign of life. NASA’s Curiosity rover has detected low levels of the gas previously, Science reported, though whether it was biologically produced is unknown.”

[blueunicorn6]

Bees on Mars?

No picnics there.

[Ezekiel]

[bagster]

They are taking over the universe.

We were warned.

They are overweight and armed.

[jeffc]

Wouldn’t regular drones we already have be less expensive?

[Blue Jays]

"...bees on Mars..."

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The esteemed astronaut/botanist Dr. Matthew P. Damon has shown us we can raise crops of food on Mars, so it only makes sense we get bees up there, ASAP.

[cba123]

Don’t bees require an actual atmosphere to fly?

Their wings need to actually have something to use. If there is no atmosphere, there is nothing for the wings to “hit” when they flap, so they won’t work.

Is there an atmosphere on Mars? I thought there was not.

[blueunicorn6]

Let’s send robot Wombats to Mars.

I don’t even remember what a Wombat is, but robot Wombat is almost poetry.

Sounds like a good name for an album.....

Robot Wombats From Mars!

[Little Ray]

Mars has a very thin atmosphere ~.6% of Earth’s sea level atmosphere.
Mars also has a bit over 1/3 G, so those wings would have to be pretty big for the size of the flying machine.

[bagster]

What if we populated Mars with Wookies and Canklesauruses?

Would that work?

[reg45]

There is an atmosphere, but it only has a fraction of the density of Earth’s atmosphere at sea level.

[aquila48]

[WayneS]

...collect samples of the planet’s thin air, in hopes of finding methane gas — a possible sign of life.

It farts, therefore it is...

[upchuck]

Related - different source - posted on 4/5/18:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/3645138/posts

[blueunicorn6]

According to some Martians I know, if we try to foist those two Grifters off on Mars, they will hit us with a planet-destroying ray.

Twice!

[carmen2017]

Don’t let Musk make them.

[upchuck]

Wombats.