NASA's Climbing Robots Can Move Through the Slipperiest Environments Digital Trends

When it comes to exploring far off planets, robots need to be able to tackle all sorts of challenges, so NASA has been working on a series of climbing robots to take on different tasks in inhospitable environments. First up is LEMUR (Limbed Excursion Mechanical Utility Robot) which can climb rock walls using hundreds of fishhooks in its fingers. It uses A.I. to navigate around obstacles that it cannot climb, and is one of NASA's first generation of climbing robots. It was developed to perform repair tasks aboard the International Space Station, and below you can see it in a field test in Death Valley, California. Then there's the somewhat terrifying-looking Ice Worm, which was adapted from one of LEMUR's limbs.