NASA plans attack of Martian moon "Angry Birds" style

[Initech]

NASA Eyes 'Hedgehog' Invasion of Mars Moon Phobos

A daring, "Angry Birds"-like NASA mission could bombard a Martian moon with robotic "hedgehog" probes in the next few decades, scientists say.

The space hedgehogs are actually small, spiky, spherical rovers that form part of a novel mission idea called Phobos Surveyor. The rovers would take advantage of the low gravity on the Mars moon Phobos, its sister moon Deimos, or asteroids in the solar system. Engineers have designed the devices to work in concert with a nearby mother ship.

The hedgehogs would work well in the low gravity of the 16-mile-wide (27 kilometers) Phobos, a force 1,000 times weaker than the gravity on Mars itself, where NASA's Curiosity and Opportunity rovers currently explore, said researcher Marco Pavone of Stanford University. Gravity on Mars is about one-third that of the Earth.

http://news.yahoo.com/nasa-eyes-hedgehog-invasion-mars-moon-phobos-132000613.html

[Warren DeMontague]

1. It takes less energy to get something to phobos than it does to get it to the surface of the moon.

So this makes sense.

[MADem]

2. This is more cool than weird, i think--can't wait to see how it develops...! nt