🚀 go-pugleaf

I'm a little surprised that during the discussion of Mars rovers, etc,
nobody has debated the notion of microrovers or microspacecraft.
There were some interesting articles about this in the October 1989
issue of Aerospace America (featuring "Genghis Microrover" on the
cover).  Briefly, the basic concept is to stamp out thousands (even
millions) of cheap tiny probes or "gnat robots" which could then be
used with great abandon, relying on their smaller scale and greater
numbers to bypass the currently prohibitive requirements for
reliability or sophistication.  The articles list lots of neat little
ideas and applications for these things.

The authors were Ross M. Jones and James D. Burke of JPL
(microspacecraft) plus Rodney A. Brooks and Anita M. Flynn of the MIT
A.I. Lab (microrovers).  What makes this a little more interesting
than the usual theoretical brainstorming is the illustrations of
actual MIT mobile robot testbeds, the smallest weighing 50g.  It would
be nice if someone familiar with these areas of research could post
additional details...

--Ken
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