NASA's Newest Robot Is A Fun-Sized, Moon-Mining Tank
RASSOR NASARASSOR drops the scientific instruments of its cousins for 100 pounds of durability. Meet RASSOR, NASA's newest mini-space explorer. What you're looking at is a prototype. But one day, NASA plans to send something similar to moon. RASSOR--pronounced "razer" and short for Regolith Advanced Surface Systems Operations Robot--checks in at 2.5 feet tall and looks a little bulkier than past generations of rovers. That's by design, NASA says: The robot is built to work through the day, and to last for years doing it. The job at hand: collecting resources. RASSOR will be tasked with digging up lunar soil and dumping it back into another machine on the moon's surface. That second machine then separates water and ice from detritus to make breathable air or rocket fuel. Usually, a significant portion of a rocket's mass is fuel. So if NASA can make fuel on-site with help from RASSOR, it'll...