Scientists Want to Send Autonomous 'Robot Swarms' to Mine the Moon

With the launch of lunar orbital stations and the first Moon landing in years expected to take place this decade, scientists are increasingly setting their sights on technology that would allow future missions to mine the Moon for resources.

A team of researchers from the University of Arizona recently received a $500,000 grant from NASA to develop space-mining methods. The result is the development of a swarm of autonomous robots that could search and mine for rare earth metals on the Moon,The team behind the robots developed an electrochemical process that drills through rock five times faster than any other method.

Mining under the Moon's surface could greatly reduce the reliance on transporting materials from Earth for future lunar stations. Materials that could be mined on the Moon include rare earth metals, titanium, gold and platinum, and helium-3. Rare earth metals could help to build medical equipment and smartphones, while helium-3 could fuel nuclear power plants in the distant future.

, likens the swarm of robots to a herd of animals or workers on a farm. "In a sense, we're like farmers. We're breeding talent out of these creatures, or a whole family of creatures, to do certain tasks," he said."By going through this process, we help perfect these artificial creatures whose job it is to do the mining tasks.

"The idea is to have the robots build, set things up and do all the dirty, boring, dangerous stuff, so the astronauts can do the more interesting stuff," Thanga said.The University of Arizona team isn't the only one aiming to send mining robots to the Moon. In June, California-based Masten Systems announced it was

Source: Education Headlines (educationheadlines.net)

they could, but i'll be long dead

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