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Thursday, June 29

Dr. Aaron Parness, Extreme Environment Robotics Group, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Please note this speaker was rescheduled to June 29

The ability to rove the surface of Mars has revolutionized JPL missions. With more advanced mobility, new targets like cliff faces, cave ceilings, and the surfaces of asteroids and comets could be explored. Dr. Parness presents the work of JPL's Robotic Rapid Prototyping Lab, including grippers for NASA's Asteroid Redirect Mission, which plans to extract a 15-ton boulder from the surface of an asteroid-altering its orbit and perhaps preventing Earth impact. You'll also hear about gecko-inspired adhesives being tested on the International Space Station, miniaturized robots that can drive across surfaces in zero gravity, and rock-climbing robots crossing giant lava tubes in New Mexico.