NASA promises $ 1 million for the best model of the robot to fly to Mars – TASS

NEW YORK, August 17. / Corr. TASS Aleksey Kachalin /. US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has announced a competition to create a virtual model of the robot, designed for future missions to Mars. Winner relies prize of $ 1 million, NASA said.

The basis offered to take the US space agency experts developed version of the Robonaut 5. Bidders have to teach their virtual model to cope with the implementation of a number of problems, recreated in the laboratory on Earth. In particular, we are talking about actions in case of emergency on the ship, which led to the disruption of communication with our planet.

As explained by NASA, the usual for us robots can not engage in open space due to low temperatures and extremely unfavorable conditions at the surface of the planets. Therefore, researchers recommend the use of the elasticity of the principle instead of hydraulics, which controls modern robots.

“Accurate and effective robotics, able to function in connection latency conditions, can be used in space flights and missions to Mars. The challenge is, to carry out dangerous and difficult tasks that will be crucial for the astronauts, “- said in this connection, Monsey Roman, program manager of NASA Centennial Challenges (” Challenges of the century “)

Registration for the contest started on Tuesday. . Qualifying will take place from mid-September to mid-November, the finalists is expected to announce in December. They will compete from January to early June 2017. A winner will be named at the end of June of the same year.

NASA expects to implement the first manned flight to the Red Planet is about the middle of the 2030′s with the help of a new manned spacecraft Orion and SLS heavy rakety- media. On Mars prior to shipment must be some automatic machines run, who will study the surface and atmosphere of planets and determine the place of the future of the ship landing with astronauts. NASA Director Charles Bolden said that the US is interested in working on this project with other countries, including Russia.