An inflatable robot that can travel a thousand times faster than the rover released by NASA's Mars Pathfinder lander in 1997 could make it easier to explore the Red Planet. To travel much faster than the Pathfinder rover's top speed of 7 metres a day, the wheels have to be much larger than the rocks. But the problem was cost, because every extra gram of mass requires more fuel.

By making the three wheels of the rover inflatable you solve both these problems, says Jack Jones, who developed the new system at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena.

When collapsed, the rover measures one metre square by 20 centimetres thick, making it highly portable. When inflated it is the size of a four-wheel-drive car but weighs only 20 kilograms.

The rover easily climbs over boulders one-third the size of its wheels, says Jones. "The only thing that inhibits us is objects larger than 0�5 metres," he says. "And these make up less than one per cent of obstacles on Mars." Jones believes that the inflatable could be used as early as 2005.

From New Scientist magazine, 06 May 2000

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