If a colony is to be settled on Mars, it will have to create a number of resources to survive on the red planet. Being self sufficient will involve being able to use local resources. That’s what the RASSOR is about.

The Regolith Advanced Surface Systems Operations Robot is a robot designed to mine resources from the surface of the planet, moon, asteroid, etc. that it is landed on. Developed by NASA at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, it scoops up regolith, or the loose rocky material on the surface.

The regolith is then loaded into the device that pulls the water and ice out of the loose material. The chemicals present are then turned into fuel or air for the astronauts present. The main problem the robot faces is being able to operate in low gravity conditions.

It needs to be light enough to travel in outer space on a rocket and it needs to be heavy enough to dig into the surface of the celestial body it lands on. The science project used digging bucket drums on each end of the body of the robot to give it enough traction on the surface. Just how well it will work on Mars is yet to be tested.