Space Innovations: Robot Explorers

There are many worlds in the solar system that are impossible for humans to see with their own eyes. Some of them are so far away that it would be decades before astronauts could ever reach them. Others are so dangerous that humans couldn't survive there for more than a few minutes. So how do scientists explore worlds like Venus, where it rains acid onto a furnacelike landscape, or lo, which is bathed in microwave-like radiation? They send in robots. From the first primitive machines that landed on the Moon to the more sophisticated, semi-intelligent rovers trundling over the surface of Mars, robots have been the vanguard of human exploration in our solar system.