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The BBC had this story yesterday about scientists who would like to use smart dust for extraplanetary exploration.
I think this is an absolutely brilliant idea, eliminating a lot of the issues that have plagued other planetary probes -- particularly the primary problem of getting something the size of a car all the way to the surface intact.
This is the web page for the Berkeley professor who is generally credited with "inventing" the idea of smart dust and continues to develop and refine the technology and research. Their goal is to produce smart dust "motes" that are only 1 millimeter in length.
The BBC article says scientists envision "swarms" of the tiny sensors drfting through the atmosphere of a planet, transmitting data back to a satellite or "mothership" in orbit. The smaller size that Pister is working to develop would be required to deal with the aerophysical issues of distributing the motes into the atmosphere, so it may be a while before any workable systems can be developed.
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