Approach of the robot armada!

Wolfgang Fink has a dream straight out of science fiction: Instead of sending a paltry robot or two to distant planets, scientists should send multiple expendable robots. Robots that can talk to one another and adapt to unexpected events. Robots that can think.

Creepy as that might sound to some, it’s really just the next step in space exploration, according to Fink, visiting associate in physics at the California Institute of Technology and a professor at the University of Arizona in Tucson.

“This armada of robots,” Fink said, “will be our eyes, ears, arms and legs in space, in the air, and on the ground, capable of responding to their environment without us, to explore and embrace the unknown."

In particular, he thinks such a plan would be perfect for studying Saturn’s moon Titan, with its mysterious geological features and complex weather systems. (Of course, this armada also could work on any other body scientists wish to study, such as Mars or Venus.) Fink and his team are working on robots that would do the work of a field geologist or astronaut, and they’d be able to work alone or as part of a team. Current proposals already exist for these robots to explore Titan, calling specifically for a lunar orbiter, an air balloon, and several rovers.

"We are basically heading toward making robots that command other robots," said Fink. "It's sort of like commanding a small army of robots operating in space, in the air, and on the ground simultaneously."

Now, this is all pretty clever, and the fact that actual scientists can legitimately suggest such robots is just more proof that we’re living in the future. But to refer to such a futuristic concept (particularly reminiscent of a finger-twiddling robot in Isaac Asimov’s story “Catch That Rabbit”) with the anachronistic term “armada” is truly genius. I mean, can you think of anything catchier than “The robot armada”?