Bob Zimmerman discusses a brilliant concept by European engineers: "tumbleweed" rovers. These swarm vehicles would roll across Mars, blown by the wind, acting as weather stations.
The John Batchelor Show
John Batchelor
4.5 • 2.8K Ratings
🗓️ 26 September 2025
⏱️ 3 minutes
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| 0:26.3 | This is John Batchel, speaking with colleague Bob Zimmerman about a wonderful new idea from genius engineers, tumbleweed on Mars. Bob explains here, but tumbleweed is famous in the |
| 0:36.0 | west for roving over miles and ranges |
| 0:39.6 | and people tied notes to it. |
| 0:41.8 | It's all wonderful. |
| 0:43.2 | Well, the same idea would work on the Mars |
| 0:46.2 | because of the winds |
| 0:47.2 | and traveling around the planet. |
| 0:49.6 | Bob explains. |
| 0:51.8 | I agree with him. |
| 0:53.4 | It's a genius idea. |
| 0:55.4 | More of this tonight. |
| 0:56.8 | Oh, yes. |
| 0:57.3 | Well, now, the winds, we know that Mars has an astronaut's very thin, and we know |
| 1:02.6 | there's winds that blow in a variety of directions. |
| 1:05.1 | Well, European engineers in Denmark at a university have now developed and tested a very cute idea. |
| 1:13.5 | They call it tumbleweed. |
| 1:15.2 | This would be a rover that would not roll with wheels. |
| 1:20.3 | It would instead would land, |
| 1:22.1 | and it would roll across the surface blown by the winds of Mars, |
... |
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