Cave Explorer Drone Could Search for Life on Mars

NASA and the SETI Institute are working on a drone that could explore, map and analyze caves under the Martian surface to find evidence of life on the planet. The flying drone recently created a 3D map of a cave in Iceland using LIDAR technology. The cave, created by flowing lava, is similar to caves on the lunar and Martian surfaces. Developers believe the technology could realistically be adapted to explore those caves. The research was presented at the recent Lunar and Planetary Science Conference.
Small free-flying spacecraft might be the ideal robotic platform for the exploration of lava tubes on Earth, the Moon, and Mars for the simple reason that they would not need to come in direct contact with any of the rough and potentially unstable surfaces found inside caves and lava tubes, said Andrew Horchler, Director of Future Missions and Technology at Astrobotic, the robotics company that partnered with the SETI Institute for this project.