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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