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Space
Space
Science
Robert Lea

Mars cave-exploring robots take inspiration from Hansel and Gretel's breadcrumb trick

Hansel Gretel Mars Robots Ocean
In this artist's impression of the breadcrumb scenario, autonomous rovers can be seen exploring a lava tube after being deployed by a mother rover that remains at the entrance to maintain contact with an orbiter or a blimp.

Newly proposed Mars exploration rovers have a peculiar inspiration: The classic Grimm Brothers' fairy tale Hansel and Gretel. 

The flock of robots will follow "breadcrumbs" to find their way out of caves just as the eponymous siblings attempted to escape the forest in which they were abandoned by their parents in the famous fairytale. 

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