Researchers are teaching robots to walk on Mars from the sand of New Mexico

Researchers are closer to equipping a dog-like robot to conduct science on the surface of Mars after five days of experiments this month at White Sands National Park in New Mexico. The national park is serving as a Mars analog environment and the scientists are conducting field test scenarios to inform future Mars operations with astronauts, dog-like robots known as quadruped robots, rovers and scientists at Mission Control on Earth. The work builds on similar experiments by the team with the same robot on the slopes of Mount Hood in Oregon, which simulated the landscape on the Moon. "Our group is very committed to putting quadrupeds on the Moon and on Mars," said Cristina Wilson, a robotics researcher in the College of Engineering at Oregon State University. "It's the next frontier and takes advantage of the unique capabilities of legged robots."