Tiny NASA robot will attempt to solve volcano mystery

NASA is staying on Earth for its next exploration: The Jet Propulsion Laboratory is testing a robot dubbed VolcanoBot1 in Hawaii, where it will map inactive fissures on the Kilauea volcano.

"We don't know exactly how volcanoes erupt," JPL postdoctoral fellow Carolyn Parcheta said in a statement. "We have models but they are all very, very simplified." The goal of the two-wheeled robot — which stands just under seven inches and is one foot long — is to create a 3D map of a fissure so scientists can better understand how magma travels to the surface. Eventually, Popular Science reports, NASA hopes the technology will be there to send a VolcanoBot out into space.

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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.