NASA scientists have proposed a revolutionary method for exploring Mars. They're going to Mars with a four-legged robot dog. The ultimate goal of humanity is to discover extraterrestrial life beyond Earth, and space biology has long been dedicated to this goal. Mars has always been mankind's first choice for finding life outside of the Earth, from ancient times to the present.


Because Mars' environment is the most similar to that of Earth, it is the astronomy and space research project in which humankind has invested the most money. In the last 60 years, human understanding of Mars and space technology has evolved greatly, and there is a "launch window every two years" possibility.

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Humans have been working on a plan to explore Mars since the successful landing on the moon in the 1960s, but the possibilities of it being realised are only half. The biggest winner is NASA. Between 1964 and 2018, 21 Mars missions were conducted, 15 of which were successful, with the former Soviet Union having the worst performance. Seventeen Mars missions were launched between 1960 and 1988, with only one mission succeeding.



Researchers predict that an improved version of Boston Dynamics' dog-like robot will be used to replace the Mars rover, according to a recent storey by Live Science. The company claims that their robot dogs are better suited for long-distance travel and harsh terrain, and that they can even help NASA choose the optimum location for a future Mars settlement.



Boston Dynamics is a United States-based robotics and engineering company. The company's most well-known products are four-legged robots produced for the US military with backing from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA): Commercially available software (COTS) such as Boston Robot Dog and DI-Guy have been used to create realistic human simulations.



According to the Live Science website, scientists are already implementing this method. They've outfitted the robot dog with the most cutting-edge technology to assist it in navigating and describing its surroundings. Au-Spot, a prototype robot dog, is capable of traversing terrain that a wheeled rover cannot and is much faster. It can even walk around obstacles and rapidly recover from falls.



According to Live Science, NASA scientists presented this idea at the American Geophysical Union's annual meeting on Monday, saying that the robot can self-repair after many falls using algorithms. Part of Au-purpose Spot's mission, according to the "Life Science" paper, will be to research and document Martian caverns and tunnels in order to find excellent locations for future human colonies. In California, Au-Spot is now replicating the Martian landscape and testing it in corridors and tunnels.

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* [Reference](https://www.space.com/ai-mars-robot-dogs-agu)