[Magestic music]
[vehicles drive by on gravel]
[LEMUR-3 RAISING A ROBOT]
>> [NARRATOR] Titus Canyon
An area lying in the north of Death Valley National Park.
Hundreds of millions of years ago this dark landscape
lay beneath warm tropical seas.
Today it is the site for a field test
conducted by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
>> [Male] Three, two, one.
[electric motors]
>> [NARRATOR] LEMUR-3 is a climbing rover.
A mechanised explorer designed to work in extreme terrain.
[muffled conversations]
[electric motors]
>> [NARRATOR] LEMUR‘s challenge is to find evidence of the life
that once inhabited this area's long lost warm waters
and muddy terrain.
A waypoint is set high on the canyon.
LEMUR will climb to this point
analyzing the rock face along the way.
LEMUR uses LiDAR to choose a path,
bouncing lasers pulses off the rock to determine its shape.
It holds itself in place with micro-spine grippers
made up of hundreds of tiny hooks
that can fasten onto any rough surface.
The more LEMUR climbs, the better choices it makes.
>> [Male] Going to release grippers.
[wind]
A variety of instruments on board
are used to analyze the rock.
An Infrared Spectrometer on its belly
detects the presence of organic compounds.
X-rays help identify chemical elements.
It can detect the tiniest fluorescence
of fossilized organisms in the ultraviolet.
For this mission a safety cable anchors LEMUR to the rock.
It helps emulate the lower gravity
LEMUR will be operating in away from Earth.
Away from Earth, it would roam free and unencumbered.
>> [Male] Body shifting in three, two, one...
[electric motors]
[crunch]
>> [Male] [Unintelligible]
[electric motors]
>> [NARRATOR] LEMUR reaches its destination.
The machine is retrieved.
The data analyzed.
The results are fascinating.
Stromatolites, fossilised balls of algae,
dating back to the Palaeozoic era,
are among LEMUR's discoveries.
Traces of organisms that once swam in warm seas.
Organisms that have been dead for 500 million years.
LEMUR represents a new generation
of mechanised explorer
that could one day roam landscapes far beyond Earth.
The data it accumulates with each climb
is passed to its descendants.
If LEMUR can find life in rock
that is half a billion years old,
think how useful that skill might be
at its ultimate destination.
Not a rocky canyon wall here on Earth, but out there.
Among the stars.
[Magestic music]
[EXPLORE SPACE TECH / NASA]