---
title: "This Wiggly Mars Rover Is the Silliest Thing We’ve Ever Seen"
description: "Engineers are building experimental rovers that can vibrate intensely to escape from dangerous, wheel-clogging sand traps on Mars."
date: "2020-05-14"
modified: "2020-05-14"
authors:
  - name: "Dan Robitzski"
    link: "https://futurism.com/authors/danrobitzski"
url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/wiggly-mars-rover"
categories:
  - "Astronomy"
  - "Mars"
  - "Space"
tags:
  - "mars"
  - "robot"
  - "rover"
  - "the digest"
---

# This Wiggly Mars Rover Is the Silliest Thing We’ve Ever Seen

![Engineers are building experimental rovers that can vibrate intensely to escape from dangerous, wheel-clogging sand traps on Mars.](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/wiggly-prototype-rovers-vibrate-intensely-escape-sand.jpg>)
*\<em\>Image: Georgia Tech\</em\>*

## Shake It Off

To a hapless Mars rover, getting stuck in a slippery sand trap can be a [death sentence](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/dead-mars-rover-didnt-say-battery-thing>). That's what happened to NASA's Spirit rover ten years ago: its wheels got trapped and the robot was immobilized until it eventually ran out of power.

To prevent that from happening future exploration robots, *[The New York Times ](<https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/13/science/nasa-rovers.html>)*[reports](<https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/13/science/nasa-rovers.html>) that engineers from the Georgia Institute of Technology are testing rovers that [vibrate intensely](<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YIU6a76PVvE>) to avoid becoming ensnared by alien landscapes.

## Jitterbug

In order to keep future rovers moving, the engineers are programming prototype robots to shake, gyrate, and army crawl across the top of sandy terrain — which they simulated by filling a glass tank with poppy seeds, [according to research](<https://robotics.sciencemag.org/content/5/42/eaba3499>) published in the *Science Robotics* on Wednesday.

https://youtu.be/YIU6a76PVvE?t=30

"This combination of wheels and paddling and lifting, if sequenced properly, is really powerful," Georgia Tech physicist Daniel Goldman told the *NYT*. "No longer just wheels at the end of sticks but they are actually active appendages, and I think that’s exciting."

## Want To Break Free

Not only can the bizarre dance prevent a sandy death, but the *NYT* reports that it could enable next-generation rovers to explore previously-inaccessible regions of Mars, like loose-terrained inclines.

"When you only have wheels," Goldman told the *NYT*, "that limits your ability to go anywhere."

**READ MORE:** [Watch These Rover Models Wiggle Out of Alien Sand Traps](<https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/13/science/nasa-rovers.html>) \[*The New York Times*\]

**More on rovers:** *[The White House Is Trying to Shut Down NASA's Last Mars Rover](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/white-house-proposes-shutting-down-last-mars-rover>)*

## Author
Dan Robitzki is a senior reporter for Futurism, where he likes to cover AI, tech ethics, and medicine. He spends his extra time fencing and streaming games from Los Angeles, California.

### Author social links  
[Twitter](<https://x.com/danrobitzski>)