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Novel ways to move on other celestial bodies always draw the attention of the space exploration community. Here at UT, we\u2019ve reported on everything from robots that suspend themselves from the walls of Martian caves to robots that hop using jets of locally mined gas. But we haven\u2019t yet reported on the idea of a balloon that \u201cwalks.\u201d But that is the idea behind the BALloon Locomotion for Extreme Terrain, or BALLET, a project from Hari Nayar, a Principal Roboticist at NASA\u2019s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and his colleagues.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n How exactly does a balloon \u201cwalk,\u201d you might ask? By picking up and moving one of its six feet. BALLET\u2019s architecture involves a positively buoyant balloon supporting six \u201cfeet\u201d attached to adjustable cables. The \u201cfeet\u201d are small science packages capable of taking small surface samples or analyzing the chemical composition of the part of the surface it touches.<\/p>\n Each foot is attached to three cables, individually controlled by pulleys. When a foot is done doing its science work at a given location, BALLET retracts the cables for the foot, lifting it off the surface. It then extends the cables using different lengths for the cables to place the foot in a new location.<\/p>\n \n