Caves on Mars Archives

July 29, 2024July 29, 2024 by Laurence Tognetti

Moon and Mars cave exploration could be easier with ReachBot

Image of the ReachBot prototype with its extended boom and grabber within a lava tube of the Lavic Lake volcanic field in the Mojave Desert. (Credit: Stanford University Biomimetics and Dextrous Manipulation Lab)

How will future robotic explorers navigate the difficult subterranean environments of caves and lava tubes on the Moon and Mars? This is what a recent study published in Science Robotics hopes to address as a team of researchers from Stanford University investigated the use of a novel robotic explorer called ReachBot, which could potentially use its unique mechanical design to explore deep caves and lava tubes on the Moon and Mars in the future.

January 16, 2024January 16, 2024 by Nancy Atkinson

Machine Learning Could Find all the Martian Caves We Could Ever Want

Examples of potential cave entrances (PCEs) on Mars and their assigned category from the Mars Global Candidate cave Catalogue (MGC3). Credit: NASA/JPL/MSSS/The Murray Lab.

The surface of Mars is hostile and unforgiving. But put a few meters of regolith between you and the Martian sky, and the place becomes a little more habitable. Cave entrances from collapsed lava tubes could be some of the most interesting places to explore on Mars, since not only would they provide shelter for future human explorers, but they could also be a great place to find biosignatures of microbial life on Mars.

But cave entrances are difficult to spot, especially from orbit, as they blend in with the dusty background. A new machine learning algorithm has been developed to quickly scan images of the Martian surface, searching for potential cave entrances.

September 29, 2021September 29, 2021 by Andy Tomaswick

Dozens of Robots Competed to Race Through Underground Caves

America’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is well known for its challenges. It held a series of autonomous driving competitions back in the early 2000s that directly led to today’s self-driving cars. Now that Grand Challenge has evolved into a new one – the Subterranean (SubT) challenge, which took place last week. This new one also happens to be directly applicable to technologies that would be useful in space exploration.

February 27, 2020February 28, 2020 by Nancy Atkinson

Look down into a pit on Mars. The caved-in roof of a lava tube could be a good place to explore on the Red Planet

NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter took this image of a pit on Mars. Credit: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona

Want to look inside a deep, dark pit on Mars? Scientists and engineers using the HiRISE Camera on board NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter have done just that.

From its orbit about 260 km (160 miles) above the surface, HiRISE can spot something as small as a dinner table, about a meter in size. But can it look inside a cave-like feature on the Red Planet and actually resolve any details inside this pit?