Solar System exploration could be substantially enhanced if it were possible to deploy a large number of small, inexpensive, independent, autonomous platforms, each with its own dedicated microsensors, power unit, and communication system into the environment of planetary bodies. The Sojourner rover's success on the surface of Mars has proven beyond doubt that a single mobile platform on a planetary surface, equipped with sensors, can provide a wealth of new science data. The concept of multiple explorers is expected to greatly enhance the science return.

JPL's vision is that small, mechanical platforms which mimic the mobility of biological systems, can be built at low cost, instrumented and used as platforms for carrying scientific instruments. We call these systems "Biomorphic Explorers". These will be used for exploration of sites difficult to reach by traditional platforms. Biomorphic explorers would complement the abilities of the larger and relatively expensive exploration platforms (e.g. landers, rovers, and aerobots). They may possess varied mobility modes: surface-roving, burrowing, hopping, hovering, or flying, to accomplish surface, subsurface, and atmospheric exploration. Preprogrammed for a specific function, they could serve as "no-uplink, one-way communicating" beacons, spread over the exploration site, autonomously looking for/at the object of interest. Co-ordinated/co-operative exploration scenarios are conceivable, for example, in a hierarchical organization, these bio-morphic explorers would report to the next level of exploration mode (say, a large conventional rover) in the vicinity. This would allow a wide-spread and affordable exploration with a substantial amount of scouting for information about new, currently non-accessible areas at lower cost and risk, combining a fast running rover to cover long distances and deploying numerous biomorphic explorers for in-situ sensing and local sample analysis/acquisition.

NASA held a workshop on Biomorphic Explorers organized by Sartia Thakoor.

1ST NASA/JPL WORKSHOP ON BIOMORPHIC EXPLORERS FOR FUTURE MISSIONS August 19-20, 1998 at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory sponsored by NASA/JPL
Solar System Exploration Program, SESPD
New Millennium Program, NMP
Space Mission Technology Development Program, TAP Center for Integrated Space Microsystems, CISM

Advisory board:
Martin Buehler, JPL
David Collins, JPL
Toshio Fujita, JPL
Robert Full, UC Berkeley
Hiroaki Kitano, Sony Computer Science Laboratory, Japan Lynn Lowry, JPL
Guy Man, JPL
Kenneth Nealson, JPL
Dave Rutledge, CALTECH
Christopher Salvo, JPL
Mark Tilden, Los Alamos National Laboratory Kenji Uchino, Penn State
Ellison C. Urban, DARPA

See the Web page for the workshop and program: http://nmp.jpl.nasa.gov/bees/