To date, humans haven't built something on another planet. All the spaceships and machines used in space have all been assembled here on Earth. If, however, we want to venture further into space than ever before, it could be really helpful for us to be able to build things in space.
In fact, it would be extra helpful for us to have a launch pad ready to land on when it comes to travelling to another planet.
Thankfully, we're a lot closer to being able to do that with PISCES, the Pacific International Space Center for Exploration Systems in Hawaii, having remotely controlled a robot that built an entire launch pad.
While the project ended back in October, the video of it was just released.
"Landing pads will be crucial in future space missions. Spacecrafts can cause high-velocity dust storms during take-off and landing, blasting planetary dust in all directions. These jet-propelled sandblasts could cause significant damage to neighboring structures and space equipment. To mitigate this problem, landing pads offer a flat, stable surface to prevent such damages," said PISCES in a statement.
The project was part of NASA's Additive Construction with Mobile Emplacement, or ACME project, which aims to be able to use materials found on alien planets to build things like landing pads. The idea is that if a robot is able to flatten a big area of land and then cover that land with interlocking tiles, then it's entirely possible that the robot could do it on Mars, too.
You can see the video for yourself below.
Via: Popular Science
