"Smart Dust" -Space Explorers of the Future
The future of space exploration will witness a revolutionary change vwith a new breed of planetary explorer being designed by engineers at the University of Glasgow which are as tiny as dust particles These tiny, "Smart Dust" shape-shifting devices can be carried on galactic wind like dust particles, and are smart enough to communicate, fly in formation and take scientific measurements (image shows a "nano submersible" used for expeditions into the hidden space of the human body and beyond to outer space.).
The concept of using smart dust swarms for planetary exploration has been talked about for some time, but this is the first time anyone has looked at how it could actually be achieved. Computer chips of the size and sophistication needed to make a smart dust particle now exist aoocoding to Dr John Barker of the University of Glasgow. Smart Dust would use wireless networking to communicate with each other and form swarms.
Dr. Barker, who will be describing the possible applications of Smart Dust at the RAS National Astronomy Meeting in Preston, said, "In our simulations we've shown that a swarm of 50 smart dust particles can organize themselves into a star formation, even in turbulent wind. The ability to fly in formation means that the smart dust could form a phased array. It would then be possible to process information between the distributed computer chips and collectively beam a signal back to an orbiting spacecraft."
The engineers are of the opinion that these Smart Dust could be used in the future exploration of and Venus, but it would be more appropriate for Venus, as the latter's atmosphere is much denser and could carry smart sensors up to a few centimeters in size.
"By 2020, we should have chips that have components which are just a few nanometers across, which means our smart particles would behave more like macro-molecules diffusing through an atmosphere rather than dust grains," Dr. Barker said.
Comments