Gecko-Inspired Dry Adhesive Set For Space

AndreV writes "Biomimetic adhesives aren't new, but a PhD graduate in British Columbia has developed a new method of creating microscopic, mushroom-like plastic structures in order to produce a dry adhesive that mimics the stickiness of gecko feet—and is prepping his glue-free innovation for outer space. A research group at his university, in collaboration with the European Space Agency, is engineering a spider-like, sticky-footed climbing robot destined to explore Mars, and it is also developing reusable attaching systems for astronauts to use where magnetic and suction systems generally fail. In the future, he says, single-use versions could be used in any number of medical applications as well as for replacements for everyday sticky needs, such as Post-It notes and Scotch tape."

sweet

[SinShiva]

+1 for spider robot technology

Useful Lifespan?

[Anonymous Coward]

A "sticky-footed climbing robot destined to explore Mars" makes it sound like this thing may see use on the ground. I'm curious how they plan to deal with dust and debris collecting on the pads.

They say "dirt particles can easily fall off the edge of the fibres", but I don't understand how a solution like this can be selective about what it sticks to.

Re:magnetic

[GSPride]

It's obvious that suction wouldn't work in space, but why would magnetic stickers fail?

You're trying to stick to plastic?

For the environment

[olddotter]

For those that need a monetary reason to save the environment, this is a poster child. We can learn a huge amount of useful things from studying nature. If that nature is allowed to die out, then we will miss out on the hidden knowledge.

Re:magnetic

[SnarfQuest]

Someone needs to collect all the scientific knowledge expressed in slashdot posts, and write a text book. Why hide this useful archive of scientific truths in obscure blog posts when we can use it to illuminate the minds of the children?

Also need a Gecko tongue

[flyingfsck]

The next innovation required would be Gecko tongue to clean the dirty feet, else it won't go far.

Re:magnetic

[Red Flayer]

Sigh. I showed her divide by zero error on a calculator.

You explained to her she shouldn't do something because a machine can't do it either?

I'd use the good-old-pie-fractions example. Take a pie. Divide it into two parts, explain that's dividing by two.
Cut it again, so it's four parts. Explain you divided it by four.
Cut twice more and ask how many pieces there are (that's how many you divided by).
Now, give her the knife, and ask her to divide it into zero parts. Explain that's why she can't divide by zero... no matter how many times you cut, no matter how you approach it, you cannot end up with zero parts.

Then, eat the pie and play fractions games with each piece.

Re:magnetic

[mrsurb]

The problem with "zero divided by zero equals zero" is that it is equally true that "zero divided by zero equals twelve". How many zeros does it take to equal zero? Zero, one, two, pi, anything. It's undefined. And here ends my first slashdot post where I am literally arguing over nothing.

Dust

[TheLink]

Do the current synthetic "gecko feet" self-clean like the real geckos?

Mars is probably quite a dusty place.

Re:magnetic

[clone53421]

If there are 6 apples, and everyone gets two, how many people can share the apples? Three people. What if they can only have one apple? Then six people can share the apples.

What if nobody can have any of the apples? Then nobody can share the apples, but the apples don't get eaten. That's why you can't divide by zero: the apples never get used up. In fact, you could have a hundred people, or a thousand, or as many as you want, and every one of them won't get an apple... and there will still be six apples.