#astrotechnology

(Space.com)  Incredible Technology: How Fleets of ‘Flat Landers’ Could Explore Other Planets

Future space missions may send dozens of rug-like robots fluttering down to the surface of alien worlds, taking much of the risk out of planetary exploration.

Researchers are developing flat, blanket-size landers that could be delivered en masse to worlds such as Mars or the Jupiter moon Europa. The approach represents a radical departure from the surface-exploration status quo, which generally launches single-shot, big-ticket landers or rovers that cost hundreds of millions of dollars to design and build. (…)

Recent advances in thin, flexible electronics would allow these solar-powered sheets to gather a great deal of data on the surface of an alien world. For example, each one could carry tiny cameras, spectrometers and environmental monitoring gear.