The silent and vast dunes of White Sands National Park stretch endlessly, but these days their stillness is broken by the trot of a dog-like robot bound for Mars.
One of the largest gypsum dune fields on Earth, White Sands is dazzling as it is otherworldly. Its pale, rippling slopes resemble frozen waves, making it a natural stand-in for alien terrains.
That likeness is exactly why the researchers chose this stretch of New Mexico desert to run their latest field experiments.
The trials are part of a NASA-funded effort tied to the agency’s Moon to Mars program, which aims to develop technologies for extended lunar stays and eventual crewed missions to Mars.
Known as the LASSIE Project, short for Legged Autonomous Surface Science in Analog Environments, the initiative brings together engineers, cognitive scientists, geoscientists, and planetary researchers from Oregon State, USC, Texas A&M, Georgia Tech, the University of Pennsylvania, Temple University, and NASA’s Johnson Space Center.
Teaching a robot to feel
For five days this month, the dunes became a test bed where engineers and scientists from Oregon State University pushed a quadruped robot through heat, sand, and shifting surfaces, assessing if it could think, adapt, and make its own decisions, just as it might one day need to on Mars.
“In the same way that the human foot standing on ground can sense the stability of the surface as things shift, legged robots are capable of potentially feeling the exact same thing,” Cristina Wilson, a robotics researcher in the College of Engineering at Oregon State University, said.
“So each step the robot takes provides us information that will help its future performance in places like the Moon or Mars.”
Autonomy on alien ground
Each step the robot took on the powdery surface added to the scientists’ growing dataset. Its feet recorded subtle shifts in texture and resistance, much like a human sensing the ground beneath them.
For the first time, refined algorithms allowed the machine to walk without direct commands, pausing, choosing routes, and adapting to the surface on its own.
According to researchers, that independence is crucial.
On Mars, where communication with Earth lags by minutes, astronauts and robots won’t always have the luxury of waiting for instructions.
A quadruped capable of autonomous decisions could work alongside a human crew, doubling the pace of discovery by scouting terrain, carrying instruments, or even identifying promising sites for study.
The team conducted the test amid various challenges. Triple-digit temperatures meant the team had to rise with the sun, wrapping up their work before late morning when the heat threatened not just the researchers but also the robots’ power supply.
Even in the punishing heat, the team saw a milestone.
The algorithm upgrades in recent years have enabled the robot to operate autonomously and decide its own actions.
White Sands isn’t the only place that the researchers have used as a training ground for the dog-like robot.
They’ve also tested the robot on Mount Hood in Oregon, where icy volcanic slopes mimic the rugged landscapes of the Moon’s poles.
Each environment teaches the quadruped something new. The gypsum dunes replicate crusty Martian sediment, while frozen ridges offer lessons in ice-regolith interactions.
“Our group is very committed to putting quadrupeds on the Moon and on Mars,” said Cristina. “It’s the next frontier and takes advantage of the unique capabilities of legged robots.”
“There is certainly a lot more research to do, but these are important steps in realizing the goal of sending quadrupeds to the Moon and Mars,” she added.
The research is funded by the NASA Planetary Science and Technology through Analog Research (PSTAR) program, and the Mars Exploration Program.