Ahead of its mid-2030s target to land humans on Mars , NASA loaned three of its four ' Valkyrie ' robots , which could play a part in colonising the planet , to MIT , a joint venture between Northeastern and UMass - Lowell , and Edinburgh University in Scotland , to develop the robots ' skills and improve their software . Initially designed by NASA seven years ago for a competition in disaster recovery robots , the idea is to turn the 6 ft tall , 300 lb robots into space suits , capable of withstanding hostile environments . " A number of technological advancements, from faster computers to better machine-learning algorithms, will soon make it possible for a robot such as Valkyrie to perform such tasks, Platt said. Currently costing $ 1 m apiece , the robots need to be able to function autonomously given the complexity of the tasks they are going to be tasked with and the time delay in communications between Earth and Mars .
Ahead of its mid-2030s target to land humans on Mars , NASA loaned three of its four ' Valkyrie ' robots , which could play a part in colonising the planet , to MIT , a joint venture between Northeastern and UMass - Lowell , and Edinburgh University in Scotland , to develop the robots ' skills and improve their software . Initially designed by NASA seven years ago for a competition in disaster recovery robots , the idea is to turn the 6 ft tall , 300 lb robots into space suits , capable of withstanding hostile environments . Currently costing $ 1 m apiece , the robots need to be able to function autonomously given the complexity of the tasks they are going to be tasked with and the time delay in communications between Earth and Mars .