NASA tests walking robot on Mount Hood for space exploration with universities

MT. HOOD, Ore. (KATU) — Researchers from six universities, including Oregon State, have teamed up with NASA to test a walking robot on the terrain of Mount Hood.

They're trying to see how this robot would withstand the surface of the moon or even Mars.

NASA often uses rovers, but the hope with this four-legged robot is that it will be able to roam through the terrain of different planets in the future.

Another goal of this project is to create a partnership between human scientists and these four-legged robots.

Instead of using the robot as a tool, they are hoping to find an algorithm that lets the robot make some scientific decisions.

If not, the robot would try to decide what a human would do, to at least make one for a human to understand.

KATU spoke with a member of the project and the OSU team, Cristina Wilson, to ask why they chose Mount Hood.

“Mt. Hood is our lunar-like environment, so our moon has tons of craters and there is a lot of uncertainty right now about the structure of those craters, how much lunar ice is present. Mt. Hood has many variations of slopes and valleys that run down the mountain, it also has glacial ice.

Researchers plan to test it at White Sands National Park because of the sandy environment that mimics the Martian surface.

This summer, the teams will head back to Mt. Hood to test the robot once again.