Automaton Rover for Extreme Environments (AREE)

[Grey Havoc]

In other words, steampunk in the space age. ;D

ORIGINAL CAPTION: AREE is a clockwork rover inspired by mechanical computers. A JPL team is studying how this kind of rover could explore extreme environments, like the surface of Venus. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech​

https://phys.org/news/2017-08-clockwork-rover-venus.html

A very interesting project, not least in the way the rover would communicate with the orbiter:

Another problem will be communications. Without electronics, how would you transmit science data? Current plans are inspired by another age-old technology: Morse code.

An orbiting spacecraft could ping the rover using radar. The rover would have a radar target, which if shaped correctly, would act like "stealth technology in reverse," Sauder said. Stealth planes have special shapes that disperse radar signals; Sauder is exploring how to shape these targets to brightly reflect signals instead. Adding a rotating shutter in front of the radar target would allow the rover to turn the bright, reflected spot on and off, communicating much like signal lamps on Navy ships.

B)

 

[Flyaway]

Armed with tough computer chips, scientists are ready to return to the hell of Venus

Across the country, a team at JPL, led by mechatronics engineer Jonathan Sauder, had been exploring a clockwork rover, virtually free of electronics, that could explore the surface of Venus. When they caught wind of the developments at Glenn, they began to think about how their mechanical designs could supplement the high-temperature chips. "We're starting to get into a different realm," says Lori Glaze, who is based at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, and is leading one of the proposed billion-dollar New Frontiers missions to Venus (all of which rely on conventional silicon chips). "I definitely think that being able to rove or explore the surface of Venus is within the future horizon."

http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2017/11/armed-tough-computer-chips-scientists-are-ready-return-hell-venus