NASA May Use Windbots to Explore Jupiter

Posted on July 25, 2015

NASA is considering the use of windbots to explore planets like Jupiter. A $100,000 study, funded by NASA's Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) program, will investigate the feasibility of using windbots to explore gas giants. An artist's rendering shows a windbot flying through the skies of Jupiter.

The windbot is shown as a polyhedron with sections that can spin to absorb wind energy and create lift. Other configurations will also be explored in the study. NASA says a windbot could have rotors on several sides of its body. These rotors would spin independently of each other to change direction or create lift. The windbot could use solar and wind energy to stay afloat. NASA says it could also potentially use a planet's magnetic field as an energy source.

Adrian Stoica, the principal investigator for the windbots study at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JLP), talks about the ability of a dandelion seed to stay aloft in a statement. Stoica says, "A dandelion seed is great at staying airborne. It rotates as it falls, creating lift, which allows it to stay afloat for long time, carried by the wind. We'll be exploring this effect on windbot designs."

The research team will first investigate the idea of having a windbot flying among the clouds of Jupiter. They are examining things such as how large a windbot would need to be and how it could stay alive by feeding off wind turbulence and still be capable of sending data back to Earth.

SPACE