Scientists Design 'Roly-Poly' Robot with Tiny Drones to Explore Mars Lava Tubes

Beneath the surface of Mars, ancient volcanic tunnels stretch for kilometers — vast enough to shelter cities, old enough to hold the memory of a living world. Scientists have conceived a spherical robot, small and resilient as a pill bug, that would carry a swarm of dandelion-sized drones into these hidden passages to search for signs of past life and map terrain no rover has ever touched. It is a design born of humility: the acknowledgment that no single machine can know a world, and that exploration, like understanding, requires a system of many small efforts working together.