--- title: The Best Way to Explore Lunar Craters Is a Giant Robot Ball description: Texas A&M researchers led by PhD student Rishi Jangale have developed RoboBall III, a 1.8-meter, 150-kilogram inflatable ball-shaped robot designed to explore... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/the-best-way-to-explore-lunar-craters-is-a-giant-robot-ball-8ouqmskel twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: The Best Way to Explore Lunar Craters Is a Giant Robot Ball | daily.dev og:description: Texas A&M researchers led by PhD student Rishi Jangale have developed RoboBall III, a 1.8-meter, 150-kilogram inflatable ball-shaped robot designed to explore... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/the-best-way-to-explore-lunar-craters-is-a-giant-robot-ball-8ouqmskel og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/8ouQMsKeL.png og:image:alt: The Best Way to Explore Lunar Craters Is a Giant Robot Ball og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # The Best Way to Explore Lunar Craters Is a Giant Robot Ball **[IEEE Spectrum](https://daily.dev/sources/ieeespectrum)** · 7 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary Texas A&M researchers led by PhD student Rishi Jangale have developed RoboBall III, a 1.8-meter, 150-kilogram inflatable ball-shaped robot designed to explore inaccessible lunar terrain like Shackleton Crater. Conceived by former NASA engineer Robert Ambrose in 2003, the robot drives by shifting an internal pendulum to move its center of mass, letting it roll over rough terrain and control descent on steep slopes without tipping over. It has just two actuators, both shielded inside the shell from dust and temperature extremes. Recent quarry tests in Texas demonstrated descending slopes, navigating soft terrain, and launching sample payloads back out of craters via small rockets. The current prototype cost about $250,000 but still needs space-grade materials and electronics before it could be mission-ready for an eventual lunar deployment. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### How does the RoboBall lunar exploration robot move without wheels or legs? RoboBall drives by shifting a pendulum inside its inflatable shell, moving its center of mass to make the ball roll. If the pendulum points forward, the shell rolls forward; leaning the pendulum left or right steers the ball in that direction, and angling it uphill controls downhill speed on slopes. The robot uses just two actuators, both enclosed inside the shell to shield them from dust and extreme temperatures. _See how emerging robot mobility designs like this get covered as they develop on daily.dev._ ### Why would a ball-shaped robot be used instead of a wheeled rover for exploring lunar craters like Shackleton? A ball-shaped robot cannot tip over, which matters because NASA won't risk sending astronauts or fragile rovers into steep, perpetually dark craters like the 21km-wide Shackleton Crater at the moon's south pole. The inflatable shell also insulates internal components from sharp rocks, dust, and temperature swings ranging from over 93°C in sunlight to minus 240°C in shaded crater pockets. _Space robotics engineers weighing mobility tradeoffs can follow research like this on daily.dev._ ### How much does the RoboBall III lunar exploration robot cost and what still needs to be developed before a real mission? The current RoboBall III prototype cost roughly $250,000 to build but is not yet ready for the moon. Its gold-treated aluminum parts suit space missions, but other materials need space-grade electronics and its shell material, tough enough for steel shards and minus 184°C, has not been tested in actual lunar extremes. The team also needs to add autonomous slope-adaptation capability. _Track how experimental space hardware moves from prototype to mission-ready on daily.dev._ ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [From sea to space, this robot is on a roll](https://daily.dev/posts/from-sea-to-space-this-robot-is-on-a-roll-n9i2ffqoh) · Robohub · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Videos: A Lunar Mars Rover, Floating Robots, and More](https://daily.dev/posts/videos-a-lunar-mars-rover-floating-robots-and-more-0mlfolqae) · IEEE Spectrum · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [NASA’s new rover prototype drove 16 miles in a week, 10 times faster than anything it has on Mars](https://daily.dev/posts/nasa-s-new-rover-prototype-drove-16-miles-in-a-week-10-times-faster-than-anything-it-has-on-mars-mcsho6byg) · The Next Web · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Africa’s moon telescope project will listen for alien technology](https://daily.dev/posts/africa-s-moon-telescope-project-will-listen-for-alien-technology-yczuotgbz) · TechCentral · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#robotics](https://daily.dev/tags/robotics), [#nasa](https://daily.dev/tags/nasa) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/the-best-way-to-explore-lunar-craters-is-a-giant-robot-ball-8ouqmskel) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"The Best Way to Explore Lunar Craters Is a Giant Robot Ball","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/the-best-way-to-explore-lunar-craters-is-a-giant-robot-ball-8ouqmskel","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/the-best-way-to-explore-lunar-craters-is-a-giant-robot-ball-8ouqmskel"},"datePublished":"2026-09-03T12:02:46.356Z","dateModified":"2026-09-03T12:03:13.278Z","description":"Texas A&M researchers led by PhD student Rishi Jangale have developed RoboBall III, a 1.8-meter, 150-kilogram inflatable ball-shaped robot designed to explore...","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/431b22794217d11ea053434b452fa644?_a=AQAEuop","thumbnailUrl":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/431b22794217d11ea053434b452fa644?_a=AQAEuop","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"IEEE Spectrum","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"IEEE Spectrum","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/t_logo,f_auto/v1/logos/b123f5e8420e492ab36f6adb30c1793a","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/ieeespectrum"},"commentCount":0,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/the-best-way-to-explore-lunar-craters-is-a-giant-robot-ball-8ouqmskel","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":0},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":0}],"keywords":"robotics,nasa","timeRequired":"PT7M"} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"IEEE Spectrum","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/ieeespectrum"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"The Best Way to Explore Lunar Craters Is a Giant Robot Ball"}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"FAQPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/the-best-way-to-explore-lunar-craters-is-a-giant-robot-ball-8ouqmskel#faq","mainEntity":[{"@type":"Question","name":"How does the RoboBall lunar exploration robot move without wheels or legs?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"RoboBall drives by shifting a pendulum inside its inflatable shell, moving its center of mass to make the ball roll. If the pendulum points forward, the shell rolls forward; leaning the pendulum left or right steers the ball in that direction, and angling it uphill controls downhill speed on slopes. The robot uses just two actuators, both enclosed inside the shell to shield them from dust and extreme temperatures. See how emerging robot mobility designs like this get covered as they develop on daily.dev."}},{"@type":"Question","name":"Why would a ball-shaped robot be used instead of a wheeled rover for exploring lunar craters like Shackleton?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"A ball-shaped robot cannot tip over, which matters because NASA won't risk sending astronauts or fragile rovers into steep, perpetually dark craters like the 21km-wide Shackleton Crater at the moon's south pole. The inflatable shell also insulates internal components from sharp rocks, dust, and temperature swings ranging from over 93°C in sunlight to minus 240°C in shaded crater pockets. 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