By 
May 31st, 2026
Image credit: Marco Schmidt/University of Würzburg
A novel approach to scouting about over the sand dunes of Mars is the Valles Marineris Explorer – or VaMEx in probing Red Planet terms.
VaMEx is a project of the German Space Agency at the German Aerospace Center (DLR). The goal of the VaMEx initiative is to blueprint an autonomous, heterogeneous robot swarm for exploring Valles Marineris on Mars – heralded as the “Grand Canyon” on the Red Planet.
Driving, walking, and flying systems as foreseen by VaMEx teams is leveraging what each concept brings to the table in terms of jointly investigating a large area with varied environmental characteristics.
What’s unique about one approach to a Mars rover?
Go to my new Space.com story to find out – “Watch this bio-inspired Mars rover concept ‘swim’ through sand on curved wheels (video)” – at:
Posted in Space News
